Hootsuite: stop posting on social media, start listening

In a recent announcement made by Hootsuite, the company reports the release of its Social Transformation Report. 

The report - developed in partnership with Altimeter Group - conducts an in depth analysis on how having a powerful social media presence can result in organisational transformation. The findings stressed that the age of social media being used only for marketing should be over.

“To realise its full value, social needs to be connected into the lifeblood and workflow of the entire organisation, not just the social media marketing department—and be completely focused on the customer and the customer’s experience. Every single employee should be involved in forming and executing on the company’s social media strategy,” commented Tom Keiser, CEO Hootsuite.

The two companies applied their research skills and understanding of social media to answer three questions in the report:

• What benefits do organisations recieve when they expand their use of social media beyond marketing and communications?
• How does the use of social media impact relationships with customers, employees, partners, shareholders, and the community?
• As organisations broaden their use, how does social media help organisations to meet their transformation goals?

“Along the way, we’ve lost sight of one of social media’s most potent attributes: the ability to engage, have a conversation, and develop a relationship,” added Charlene Li, Senior Fellow and Founder of Altimeter and co-author of the Social Transformation Report. 

“Our research found that focusing on social media’s relationship power led to greater brand health and deepened employee engagement across all channels—not just social media.” 

The analysis report identified that in order to maximise the power of social media, organisations must listen to audiences, build strong relationships and integrate social into all aspects of the business.

“This study confirms what we’ve focused on all along as a partner to our customers in their social media maturity journey. For social platforms to work for organisations, they need to do more than simply post to the social platforms but also leverage social listening, use data to make better social decisions, integrate with their existing tech stacks, and seek the training and education to achieve their overarching business goals,” concluded Keiser.

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