ISG Provider Lens™ Social Business and Collaboration 2018: Social Media Consulting and Managed Services
Social Media Consulting and Managed Services
Social media consulting and managed services include social media strategy formulation, social media monitoring, analytics, reporting and other managed services. These services aim to serve the enterprise marketing function by managing customer relations and interactions over different social media channels.
Defining a social media strategy includes defining the audience and the appropriate engagement model, along with ROI calculations. Social media monitoring involves keeping a tab on brand-sensitive customer interactions over social media, influencer identification and management and sentiment analysis. These services also include reporting and analytics to measure social media campaign effectiveness and other KPI measurement. Managing social media governance definition and monitoring is also included.
In the U.S., enterprises generally opt for social media management solutions like the ones identified in Social Media Management section of this report. However, many leading service integrators and consulting houses offer strategic and managed services for social media management. All leading social media management solution vendors partner with key consulting service providers to help their clients with social media strategy. Many service providers have also acquired small or midsize digital agencies and added the acquired functionality to their managed services portfolios. Leading contact center services provider also offer social media monitoring and management as part of their omnichannel services. Some traditional information technology and business process outsourcing service providers have developed in-house frameworks and solutions for social media management to compete directly with product vendors. In this quadrant we have identified some key players offering the complete spectrum, from consulting and community management to monitoring, analysis, reporting and management.
Observations
- Social media consulting and managed services is a smaller market with different providers offering pockets of services from the entire service portfolio. Social media analytics is generally part of service providers’ broader analytics capabilities. Many contact center service providers offer social media monitoring as part of their customer support services. Some large consulting firms offer only advisory services around social media strategy formulation and governance but not implementation. For this study, we included service providers with a dedicated focus on social media-based marketing services not only for customer support, but also for building brand strategy.
- Accenture leads this market with its interactive digital marketing agency and experience with diverse set of clients. It offers consulting, analytics and marketing services for social media channels. Cognizant Interactive offers complete marketing support to its clients, both through its own consulting and Cadient Group, a digital marketing agency it acquired. It has many success stories in the U.S. for social media marketing services.
- HGS is a contact center services player with a focus on social media-based marketing and omnichannel experience. It offers AI- and analytics-based user behavior tracking and proactive support services.
- Tech Mahindra has been identified as the Rising Star in this space because it is gradually increasing its presence in the U.S. with a strong portfolio. Tech Mahindra provides its own Socio framework for social media management and digital marketing services. Its focus on consulting, workflow and engagement make the company an important player.