Forrester does not expect social listening platforms to become a major marketing technology in 2015 even though social listening and engaging with customers on social channels are a must-have for marketers today. Both listening platform vendors and marketers must take steps to infuse social data more deeply into the organization for the strategy to be successful.

 

"Obviously, a social listening platform is a tool that must be operated by people: leaders, administrators, and analysts all must interact with it,? said Allison Smith, a Forrester analyst and co-author of the report. "But the role of people extends beyond those who interact with a tool every day.

?Thirty-four percent of respondents to our survey said that they struggle to disseminate insights across the organization, a ?people? problem at its core,? she said. ?Social listening leaders must evangelize the value of social data and seek new uses for social data from their colleagues across the enterprise.?

CRM integration
?Forrester expects it will be two years before marketers see useful changes in social listening tools. 

 

In the meantime, marketers should make it a priority to integrate social listening tools with CRM, survey tools and customer service technologies. They should also develop and nurture their internal listening strategy and competency. 

 

The report, Listening Platforms Won?t Become A Major Marketing Technology in 2015, asserts that marketers? efforts are falling short of expectations, with no clear value demonstrated. At the same time, customer insights professionals fail themselves by not uncovering actionable insights, measuring the results of social listening and disseminating insights across the organization.

 

The report also lays out some of the shortcomings in listening platforms. 

 

One shortcoming is low match rates between CRM databases and social media. Even when social IDs have been identified in a marketer?s database, many do not know what to do with this information. 

 

Additionally, many marketers find it challenging to track trends in social data, in part because they do not have a clear objective. 

 

Finally, proving a return on investment is close to impossible.

 

Late in 2014, there were signs that social listening vendors are working to make a bigger impact. 

 

For example, vendors such as Clarabridge are moving to be more channel agnostic so that marketers can centralize listening efforts not just on social media but from call centers and surveys. 

 

Vendors are also moving towards a more unified tracking of media and developing new ways to query and measure social data, for example, by searching for a segment or affinity first and then finding what those people are talking about. 

 

"Most metrics tracked by social listening technologies are quantitative: number of likes, potential impressions, and sentiment,? Ms. Smith said.

 

?But the real value of social data is in the qualitative data ? verbatim quotations from consumers,? she said. ?Listening technologies help process this data for topics and themes, but human analysts must find the most useful and actionable content.?