Today we’re featuring an interview with Meg Bear, Group Vice President at Oracle Social Cloud, covering holistic social marketing, the “POEM” equation, and the announcement of Skai and Oracle Social’s integration. You can catch Skai with Oracle Social at SXSW at the Discovery Lounge at the Waller Creek Boathouse on Saturday, March 8th.
So much data can be collected through social media activities. What are some ways marketers can turn data and analytics into action to achieve their business goals?
MB: There are countless ways to glean insights into action from social data. It all starts with a powerful listening and monitoring tool. Social data gives you an understanding of your customer in ways other data can’t by revealing interest, intent, sentiment, passions and much more. By themselves, these social insights are incredibly valuable, but aggregated with other big data, like traditional CRM and data management platforms, they give a really clear and holistic view of the customer, so you can better target the right message to the right person at the right time and place. From a paid perspective, real-time analytics behind owned content allows you to know what content is resonating that you should amplify with paid efforts to maximize your content.
How will the partnership between Skai and Oracle Social help marketers move beyond measuring social engagement metrics (ie, likes, shares, retweets) and toward social media marketing ROI?
First, it provides a stronger collaboration between the owned and paid ends of the house, since coordination between the two has been traditionally siloed. This approach creates a seamless connection, so marketers can act in real-time on content that needs amplification via paid and understand how the content is performing across paid, owned and earned. Second, it delivers expertise by combining the premier social relationship management platform in Oracle SRM with leading ad technology platform, Skai. Let the experts keep innovating and doing what they do best and the customer wins.
What benefits do teams immediately receive through this holistic view of social marketing?
As the social landscape continues to shift, paid is becoming increasingly more important to the POEM (Paid, Owned, and Earned Media) equation. Knowing what content to amplify and having that seamless collaboration with media managers to activate in real-time allows content managers to maximize their owned content for that invaluable “earned” media. Again, you can’t silo these critical social functions—owned and paid—with today’s always-on, empowered consumers. Additionally, we talk about “POEM,” but there is also “discovered” media that is incredibly powerful when acted upon. With powerful listening and monitoring capabilities, customers can actually discover insights that they might have never known. That discovered media can help build out an even better understating of your business and customers.
How can social content managers utilize insights from paid activity?
They can understand what content is more engaging and resonating with specific demographic insights. Content managers can then take those insights and make their future content more relevant and targeted to those specific audiences. Analytics – especially viewed across POEM—helps content managers create and curate content that will more effectively deliver results.
What advice would you give to social marketers looking to break down silos and integrate paid and owned social media?
In three words—technology, collaboration and data. And that’s what this partnership is all about. In today’s social environment—where owned and paid need to be in lock step and not stove piped—having the right technology and collaboration is essential. Siloed functions won’t work in today’s real-time world. Oracle’s open API-based paid solution allows customers access to the most innovative solutions, like Skai, that breaks down siloed social functions for seamless collaboration.
What differentiates the Oracle Social Relationship Marketing (SRM) platform to marketers?
Our SRM platform is the industry’s first unified, integrated and global social solution. Our Social Marketing and Social Engagement & Monitoring products were unified in March of 2013, allowing marketers a single sign-on, truly all-in-one social platform. SRM is also integrated across key CX applications like marketing, service, commerce and sales to extend social’s benefits to critical customer-facing applications for a better, more holistic understanding of the customer experience. And global because we place a high priority on delivering superior global resources and capabilities. We currently publish a UI in 31 languages, provide advanced native listening in 11 languages and growing, as well as offer expanding global and regional data sources including country-specific social networks. Oracle SRM can meet an organization’s social needs today and grow with the organization to extend social across the enterprise.