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Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

Vendor Evaluation

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Contributors

  • Crafton Jennings, IT Department Head, eGov Jamaica Ltd.
  • Ken Knitter, Senior Digital Strategy Exec., Bombardier
  • Casey Hall, Digital and Social Media Professional, Thomson Reuters
  • Anonymous, Sr. Programmer Analyst, Municipal Government
  • Anonymous, Information Security Officer, County Court
  • Anonymous, Digital Strategy Professional, School Board

Your Challenge

  • The proliferation of social media networks, customer data, and use cases has made ad hoc social media management challenging.
  • Many organizations struggle with shadow IT when it comes to technology enablement for social media; SMMP fragmentation leads to increased costs and no uniformity in enterprise social media management capabilities.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • SMMP selection must be driven by your overall customer experience management strategy; link your SMMP selection to your organization’s CXM framework.
  • Shadow IT will dominate if IT does not step in. Even more so than other areas, SMMP selection is rife with shadow IT.
  • Ensure strong points of integration between SMMP and other software such as CRM. SMMPs can contribute to a unified, 360-degree customer view.

Impact and Result

  • The value proposition of SMMPs revolves around enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of social media. Using an SMMP to manage social media is considerably more cost effective than ad hoc (manual) management.
  • IT must partner with other departments (e.g. Marketing) to successfully evaluate, select, and implement an SMMP. Before selecting an SMMP, the organization must have a solid overall strategy for leveraging social media in place. If IT does not work as a trusted advisor to the business, shadow IT in social media management will be rampant.
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Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement an SMMP, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Develop a technology enablement approach

Conduct a maturity assessment to determine whether a dedicated SMMP is right for your organization.

2. Select an SMMP

Use the Vendor Landscape findings and project guidance to develop requirements for your SMMP RFP, and evaluate and shortlist vendors based on your expressed requirements.

3. Review implementation considerations

Even a solution that is a perfect fit for an organization will fail to generate value if it is not properly implemented or measured. Conduct the necessary planning before implementing your SMMP.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is an eight call advisory process.

Guided Implementation #1 - Develop a technology enablement approach

Call #1 - Identify organizational fit for the technology.
Call #2 - Evaluate social media opportunities within your organization.
Call #3 - Evaluate which SMMP use-case scenario is best fit for your organization.

Guided Implementation #2 - Select an SMMP

Call #1 - Discuss the use-case fit assessment results and the Vendor Landscape.
Call #2 - Review contract.

Guided Implementation #3 - Review implementation considerations

Call #1 - Determine what is the right governance structure to overlook the SMMP implementation.
Call #2 - Identify the right deployment model for your organization.
Call #3 - Identify key performance indicators for business units using an SMMP.

Onsite Workshop

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Book Your Workshop

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Launch Your SMMP Selection Project

The Purpose

  • Discuss the general project overview for the SMMP selection.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Determine your organization’s readiness for SMMP.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Identify organizational fit for the technology.

  • Organizational maturity assessment
1.2

Evaluate social media opportunities within your organization.

1.3

Determine the best use-case scenario for your organization.

  • SMMP use-case fit assessment

Module 2: Plan Your Procurement and Implementation Process

The Purpose

  • Plan the procurement and implementation of the SMMP.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Select an SMMP.
  • Review implementation considerations.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Review use-case scenario results, identify use-case alignment

  • Vendor shortlist
2.2

Review the SMMP Vendor Landscape vendor profiles and performance.

  • SMMP RFP
  • Vendor evaluations
2.3

Create a custom vendor shortlist and investigate additional vendors for exploration in the marketplace.

  • Selection of an SMMP
2.4

Meet with the project manager to discuss results and action items.

  • Framework for SMMP deployment and integration
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Member Testimonials

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After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.

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General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Guided Implementation

10/10

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