Social Media Is Not Just For Marketers

PR agency Waggener Edstrom has released a white paper that proposes for the social media function to be moved out of the marketing silo and the data made available to all parts of a business, including finance.

The paper, called Social media monitoring and analytics for CFOs, suggests that companies should set up central intelligence units that give not only marketers access to social media data, but HR, finance, admin, sales and IT too.

“It may not be possible to eradicate business silos as a means to allow data to be shared across departments such as marketing and finance. But maybe a central intelligence unit can help build bridges that enable the flow of data across the business,” says Stephen Tracy, regional insight and analytics lead at Waggener Edstrom, in the report.

The paper also suggests that the perceived value of social media management among marketers has declined, and that in many cases, “social listening has not delivered on its promise of delivering insights and ROI.”

For this reason, the paper – which was produced in collaboration with Singapore CFO Institute – suggests that corporates should set up a dedicated social media practice, giving all parts of the company access to social information.

CFOs can benefit from social data by using it as an extra layer of insight on company performance or identifying potential risks in consumer sentiment that could negatively affect the brand, the report argues.

The white paper was drawn up after a roundtable debate involving a number of CFOs in Singapore in November last year.

“The value of social media management is not limited to the marketing function,” the report reads, “as the data and insights generated by social listening can benefit almost any function within an organisation.”

“Whether social media management is used to increase sales, improve customer service experiences, or to provide an extra layer of insight to business performance reporting, the users of such platforms can come from any part of the organisation.”

The report can be read in full here.