1.
EVOLUTION
NOT
REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL

2.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
Social media generates an enormous amount of data, relentlessly and in real-time. Every day, social media users
send 500 million tweets, add 4.5 billion Likes on Facebook, and share 55 million new photos on Instagram. Still more
data flows through Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social networks, forums, and online media channels.
All this activity generates a huge pool of consumer intelligence for brands. But the days of Social Media Marketing
producing easy wins for brands are long gone. As the age of big data marketing continues to push boundaries,
successfully hitting KPIs requires getting better at delivering the RIGHT message to the RIGHT audience at the
RIGHT time. Our goals and objectives are evolving from targeting mass audiences and improving overall campaign
performance to targeting individuals and driving specific channel effectiveness, at scale.
Fueling this trend is an ongoing public conversation about your enterprise and its competitors. And this
conversation is being driven by your customers, who have more influence and reach than ever before. Everything
about today’s consumer has changed:
• They have access to tons of information
• They have a voice with more reach than ever before
• They demand content that is relevant and high-quality
• They expect brands to understand their interests without disturbing their privacy
Age of the customer
Empowered buyers
demand a new level of
customer obsession
Age of information
Connected PCs and
supply chains mean
those who control
information flow
dominate.
Age of manufacturing
mass manufacturing
makes industrial
powerhouses
successful.
Age of distribution
Global connections and
transportation systems
make distribution key.
1900-1960 1960-1990 1990-2010 2010-?
Ford, RCA, GE
Boeing, P&G,
Sony
Walmart, Toyota,
UPS, CSX
Amazon.com, Google,
Intuit, MBNA
Contenders
include Facebook,
IBM, Best Buy,
and Apple.
SOURCES OF DOMINANCE
SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES
SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc

3.
INTRODUCTION
All day, every day, your customers are revealing information about their motivations, loyalties, preferences, likes and
dislikes. This flow of data, while daunting in scope, offers brands an unprecedented opportunity to improve sales,
customer service, marketing campaigns, and product development simultaneously. But that requires adopting tools
to listen to social media conversations and systematically apply learnings to business decisions.
To succeed in today’s world of big data, companies must align social strategies with business imperatives. The key
challenge for enterprises is not just to capture social data, but to transform it into actionable insights at strategic,
business, and process levels. Therefore, it must be aggregated, filtered, and mined for relevance and made visible in
regular decision-making contexts for people throughout the organization. The ultimate goal is Social Intelligence --
the state in which social media data is shared openly across departments and fully integrated into business
processes and strategies.
To help organizations understand the different stages of Social Intelligence, we have defined the social intelligence
maturity curve as a series of steps required to build a social organization at scale.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
The Challenges
The Approach
Social Marketing is Changing as Brands Adapt to Consumers
Social Marketing Programs Transform Your Organization
Social Intelligence Connects Your Organization and Improves Business Results
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EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL

4.
THE CHALLENGES
MARKETERS TODAY FACE SEVERAL KEY CHALLENGES WHEN BUILDING THEIR SOCIAL STRATEGIES:
• While most marketers recognize social marketing as a key to success, they still begin social marketing
programs without a clear vision of what they hope to achieve.
• Most marketers do not understand how to measure the success of social activities in terms of
tangible business value. Without clear KPIs in place, the value of social marketing can be unclear and thus
difficult to justify, build, and scale.
• Navigating a path forward requires understanding not only what you're trying to achieve -- and how
you're going to track progress -- but the people, processes and technology that must be in place to
make progress towards those goals.
THE APPROACH
• ALIGN social marketing objectives with specific and quantifiable business goals.
• ASSESS your level of maturity and define the level to which you need to grow to achieve your objectives.
What are your main obstacles to progress?
• DETERMINE which people, processes and technology resources will be necessary to support your
desired level of social marketing maturity. You may move through stages, or skip stages depending on
the size - or challenge - associated with bridging the gap between your current and desired state.
• SECURE the necessary resources - headcount, documented workflows, budget - to make your
programs successful.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
Alight SM objectives with
specific business goals
Determine which people,
processes and technology
resources will be necessary to
support your desired level of
social marketing maturity
ALIGN ASSESS DETERMINE SECURE
Asses your level of maturity
and define the level to
which you need to grow to
achieve your objectives
Secure the necessary
resources - headcount,
documented workflows,
budget - to make your
programs successful

5.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
DEPARTMENT GOALS:
SALES AND MARKETING
• Brand awareness
• Increase sales
• Customer retention
HR
• Reduce recruiting costs
• Increase talent pool
CUSTOMER SERVICE
• Reduce number of phone calls
• Decrease negative sentiment
RESEARCH
• Gain customer feedback to improve program
• Crowdsource a new product offering
SOCIAL MARKETING IS CHANGING AS BRANDS
ADAPT TO CONSUMERS
Social marketing as a discipline is maturing. Customers are more active on social sites and they exchange more
information with organizations and each other than ever before. In response, most companies have built social
marketing programs to capture and respond to critical data. But they still have room to evolve in how they leverage
social networks and the tools and technologies for listening to, engaging with, and understanding the voices of their
consumers.
Without improved strategies, processes and resources, marketing organizations will miss out on opportunities that
come from understanding market momentum. How can marketers continue to build their organizations to support
a more thoughtful approach to social marketing management? This research offers an assessment of where your
program is today, and guidance on how to advance from your current state.

6.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
BUILD A SOCIAL MARKETING PROGRAM
THAT TRANSFORMS YOUR ORGANIZATION
LISTEN
LISTEN
ANALYZE
COLLABORATE
ENGAGE
CONNECT
SCALE
In the listening stage, organizations monitor social media to gain a better understanding of their customers,
competitors, and the influential people and forces that shape their market and industry.
LOW MATURITY: Direct watching of social platforms or using free/cheap monitoring tools (e.g. TweetDeck) to see
how customers are acting/reacting to your brand or key terms. Depending on available resources, these tools
typically serve a single department.
HIGH MATURITY: Using a higher-quality automated listening platform to monitor several social media sources at
once, serving several departments, and finding KPIs for each department's needs. This approach depends less on
human resources and allows listening to be cross-departmental.
PEOPLE (DEPARTMENT) PROCESS KPI
PR & Corporate
Communications
Listen for negative mentions
about your brand before they
escalate
Set alerts for negative brand
mentions to be aware of any
crisis the minute it arises
Measure your brand mentions
- How much is your brand
discussed on social media?
Marketing Monitor brand mentions

7.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
ANALYZE
LOW MATURITY: Basic tools offer the ability to measure Twitter data (tweets and retweets), influencers, media
type, voice and source info, topics, and location info.
HIGH MATURITY: Higher-end tools include sentiment analysis, content ranking, social insights, and deeper influenc-er
analysis. These advanced capabilities help marketers find immediate insights into key topics and trends, and sift
through data to find high-value content and influencers. Deeper analytics combined with reporting capabilities
enable high-maturity marketers to run more comprehensive reports focusing on different subsets/combinations of
data as needed.
PR & Corporate
Communications
Analyze communities,
influencers, and share of
voice
Measure brand mentions in
key demographics -
how frequently do core
communities/interest groups
/supporters discuss your
brand?
Structure marketing themes to
reinforce brand strengths and
combat brand weaknesses
Analyze sentiment by key topic
and among top influencers
Marketing
Customer Service/Support Track customer complaints
and/or product/service
malfunctions
Correlate mentions of
product/service malfunctions
with most common customer
service inquiries
Measure your leads acquired
to number of hires - What is
the reduction in employee
acquisition costs and quantity
of qualified candidates?
Research – Track the number
of surveys completed and
ideas shared for improvement
Track positive brand mentions
to hone in on potential hiring
leads
HR
PEOPLE (DEPARTMENT) PROCESS KPI

8.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
COLLABORATE
LOW MATURITY: Basic content routing and workflow management to deliver different media types or tagged
content to different departments.
HIGH MATURITY: More sophisticated tools offer the ability to set up teams and departments and auto-route
(or drag-and-drop) content to specific individuals/teams/departments.
PR & Corporate
Communications
Route content from new
communities & influencers,
and auto-send regular reports
on brand health
Set alerts for increases and
decreases in brand mentions
from key communities/
influencers, and monitor
overall brand health
Measure brand health based
on sentiment and verbatim
volume in key brand
initiatives/markets
Send data from key domestic
and international markets to
maintain view of brand/global
initiatives
Marketing
Customer Service/Support Route negative verbatim from
high-ranking sources and key
influencers for crisis control
Measure quantity of negative
verbatim per topic on
daily/weekly/monthly basis
Compare daily/weekly leads to
number of hires
Deliver brand-relevant content
and influencers to assist in
recruiting
HR
PEOPLE (DEPARTMENT) PROCESS KPI

9.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
ENGAGE: ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS IN REAL-TIME
LOW MATURITY: Simple engagement tools allow marketers to respond to tweets, Direct Messages, and sometimes
Facebook posts. Low maturity engagement is typically used to perform triage during social media crises, but lacks
the complexity to help marketers build two-way dialogues with key individuals and audiences.
HIGH MATURITY: High-end toolsets offer engagement capabilities across a wider range of supported networks, and
may even include scheduling functionality to help marketers strategize, distribute, and pre-load their messaging.
High-maturity engagement enables marketers and PR departments to quickly respond to crisis situations, as well as
build relationships with influencers and other key entities in the social space.
In the Engaging stage, departmental teams start to follow up social media listening with action. They continue to
analyze brand sentiment, but now work proactively to address customer inquiries or complaints. They conduct
two-way communications on social channels, building relationships with customers, sales prospects and brand
ambassadors. Once an organization matures to the engagement phase, they will routinely integrate social media
into customer service, sales and influencer marketing.
PEOPLE (DEPARTMENT) PROCESS KPI
PR & Corporate
Communications
Communicate regularly
with key influencers in core
communities, and reach out
to influencers in new
communities
Achieve daily/weekly response
rates to verbatim based on
community and influencer
priorities
Distribute daily, weekly and
monthly content of different
types in new markets; measure
increases in positive/negative
brand-related verbatim in
new markets based on
dissemination of collateral
in those markets
Generate collateral to address
key markets/initiatives and
combat negative perception
Marketing
Customer Service/Support Respond to negative verbatim
from key influencers and
specific/recurring service
requests
Develop standardized
responses to recurring
requests; achieve daily/weekly
response rates to negative
verbatim; automate initial
responses via social channels

10.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
CONNECT AND SCALE: EMPOWER DECISION MAKING WITH SOCIAL
INTELLIGENCE ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION
LOW MATURITY: Integrate departmental CRMs, social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and potentially external
toolsets such as Google Analytics.
HIGH MATURITY: Flexible, open platforms integrate easily with a variety of external toolsets, including CRMs, PM
software, social accounts, and any other packages the organization (or particular departments) may already be
using. High-end platforms can accommodate both inbound and outbound integrations, easing the pains of platform
adoption and enabling the tool to fit into the organization's (and each department's) existing software ecosystem.
PEOPLE (DEPARTMENT) PROCESS KPI
PR & Corporate
Communications
Integrate PR management
software to coordinate press
releases and internal comms
Distribute press releases
/internal comms via external
software integrated with
platform
Manage and respond to
service requests via
platform-integrated CRM
Integrate CRM to track
customer service requests,
response status, solution
progress, etc.
Support
Marketing Integrate marketing services
software to generate collateral
based on social data
Generate and distribute
marketing collateral through
platform-integrated marketing
software
HR Integrate HR management
software to track leads, hires,
acquisition costs
Manage leads, hires, and
acquisition costs with
platform-integrated HR
solution

11.
EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
THE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODEL
SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE CONNECTS YOUR ORGANIZATION AND
IMPROVES BUSINESS RESULTS
At this stage, social marketing works as part of a well-oiled, multichannel machine. Social marketing activities help
drive interaction across all other channels; posts in social feeds push users to commerce stores, emails drive
participation in social programs, and social shares create web activity that generates new leads. As such, planning
for the customer journey across channels becomes critical. Social marketing activities at this level connect the entire
organization; insights from social programs travel to product teams, service issues escalate to the service
organization, and promotions drive sales activity.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
KPI
We are living in the age of the empowered customer
Building a strong brand in the age of the customer requires leveraging social data
Social Data drives monitoring, listening, and in turn, Social Intelligence
Social Intelligence requires dedicated resources in each department
Social marketing activities based on Social Intelligence connect the entire organization
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ABOUT SYNTHESIO
Synthesio, named THE leader in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Listening Platforms, Q1 2014 report, is a
Global Social Intelligence Platform. Used by some of the world’s top brands, and the agencies that support
them, Synthesio is the framework for building social intelligence that provides real business results. Whether
an organization’s social team is built within Marketing or crosses multiple departments, business units or
geographies, Synthesio helps teams listen, analyze, and engage with consumer conversations across social
and mainstream media within one platform. Founded in 2006, Synthesio has offices in New York, Paris,
London, and Singapore. www.synthesio.com.