What Does Oracle Think of Social Business?

I referred last week to the project I started where I asked several vendors for their impressions on Social Business.  This is the first delivery of that project, and we are kicking it off with Oracle.  Below is the unedited response I received from them.

1) Where is the Social world going to be in 12 months? 24 months?

Social media monitoring will be mainstream

While consumers have increasingly made conversing on social media a norm, a majority of companies are still waiting to see what they should do.  This will change in the next 12 months.  Companies will recognize that social media is a powerful channel that they need to support.  More and more companies will monitor, engage, and measure their participation in social media.

Companies will look for return on their social media investments

In the next 24 months, companies will look for direct correlation between investments in social media and results.  Companies will seek beyond knowing who is talking about their brands and what they are saying.  They will seek to gain more complete view of their customers.  As more search engines integrate with social media, referral based sales will increase.  Companies acting on intelligence on social data combined with transactional data will gain competitive advantage.

People will voice privacy concerns

As more people recognize that companies are monitoring their conversations, they will voice their concerns about privacy.  Organizations will need to consider privacy concerns in developing their social strategy to ensure that their brand image is preserved.

2)  How can businesses not be left behind?

Companies must accept social media as a major new channel

Organizations will need to have presence on social media.  Organizations will need to develop and execute on a comprehensive social strategy that includes proper plans for people, process and technology.

Organizations must recognize the power of social media.  With social media, consumers are empowered to share their opinions, experiences, and issues any time of the day.  Conversations can be magnified by social media.  A negative act or lack of proper response by a company can be viewed again and again.

Companies must embrace social media as a channel and integrate it to their processes to ensure delivery of consistent customer experience.

3)      What is going to happen in three years and beyond in the world of social?

Mobile will be a big force

More people will participate in social networks via their mobile devices than from their desktops.

Social network data portability will become a reality

People will be able to port their social network data and control where they make their content available.

Privacy concerns will need to be addressed

Privacy concerns will likely manifest in new legislations and policies that companies need to adhere to when monitoring and utilizing their customers’ social data.

Marketing focus will shift to personalized, location -based, and influencer marketing

Companies will be able to leverage intelligence gained from social media data analysis to execute influencer-based marketing campaigns more effectively and to provide more personalized experiences.  As a part of personalized campaign strategy, marketers will leverage location-based content to increase response rates.

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What do you think? Anything to add?  I will not moderate comments, but anyone who comments simply to criticize any of the participants, compare to other products, or try some other way to harass any of the participants will have their comment deleted, no qualms.

Be civilized and engage in the conversation, please.