This is a tricky question, and if you are responsible for your company’s social media efforts, then you might have already pondered what the answer might be. It is always helpful to know where you are heading in terms of future milestones, and also good to be able to reflect on your achievements.
How could you calculate the Social Media Maturity of your organization?
There is a lot of good advice available about how to get started with Social Media and how to take advantage of “low hanging fruit” which enables you and your organization to get up to speed quickly. However, I always feel that if you know where you are in a maturity assessment grid, then you can gain many advantages. I list at least three of them here;
– Provides a useful benchmark for your achievements and also when going forward into the future.
– Puts your organizations efforts and results in context with your competition.
– Creates a useful framework for organizational change and funding requirements.
I have used a few Social Media Maturity models in the past, but the one I have recently used in my organization is from Forrester research and is entitled “Accelerating Your Social Maturity: How To Move From Social Experimentation To Business Transformation” (June 2011). Forrester research surveyed 95 respondents involved in social media at companies with more than 1,000 employees, interviews with more than 30 companies at all stages of maturity, so it is based on a sound foundation of research.
Forrester’s Accelerating Your Social Maturity model has five stages
– Laggards
– Late majority
– Early majority
– Early adopters
– Innovators
You could probable guess at which stage your organization is just from these names alone! However, after using the model, I was able to define my company’s position in Social Media with regards to the five stages in respect of defining characteristic, resources, experiences, processes, measurement, commitment, and culture. This has proved to be very beneficial. You can read more about this particular model in the Forrester research blog.
To provide you with an alternative model, I suggest looking at some research from the Altimeter group, called “How Corporations Should Prioritize Social Business Budgets”. This can also provide you with valuable benchmarks as well.
Have you have used a maturity model to assess where you are going in your organization with Social media? Did you also estimate where your competitors are in comparison to your organization? What was the outcome within your organization following the assessment? If you have not considered using a maturity assessment before, are you intrigued to find out more?
- Avatars Are More Than a Trend - April 20, 2025
- AI is Revolutionizing Social Media Marketing – 5 Time-Saving Benefits - February 16, 2025
- 2024 Social Media Innovations: A Deep Dive into the Trends That Shaped the Year - January 7, 2025