Becoming socially enabled emerge a key priority for business executives

CALIFORNIA, US: A recent study by Oracle highlights the critical role social technologies and practices now play in business. The study reveals that transitioning to a socially enabled enterprise, also known as a social business, is a key priority for business executives.

Oracle partnered with Social Media Today and Leader Networks to survey more than 900 marketing and technology executives from organizations around the world. The survey looked at the challenges and opportunities that organizations face when integrating social technologies and practices.

Becoming socially enabled is a big priority - Nearly all executives (97 per cent) surveyed believe it will be important for successful organizations to transition to being socially enabled enterprises. In fact, 72 per cent reported that leveraging social media will be very important for their organizations to be successful in the future.

Larger organizations are leading the charge - 46 per cent of organizations in that 50,000 plus employee category reported that they are already socially enabled, compared to nearly one-third of companies with less than 5,000 employees.

Transition towards a social business is not expected to be easy - 43 per cent of executives stated that it would take their organizations more than a year to truly leverage social throughout their businesses.

Social plays critical role in customer care - 60 per cent of respondents plan to integrate social business metrics into customer care initiatives in the next 12 months.

Social business metrics are still in their infancy, but are expected to be more operationally focused in the future - While companies consider a wide array of social business performance metrics, currently marketing metrics (awareness, customer satisfaction, and share of voice) are the leading performance metrics, followed by lead generation and sales and new product development.

U.S. lags in using social business insights - Organizations outside of the U.S. are significantly more likely to use social business insights for new product development and R&D: Non-U.S. at 38.6 per cent compared to 29.5 per cent for U.S.