"strata ny 2013" entries

Social data intelligence in the enterprise

An interview with Susan Etlinger, an Industry Analyst at Altimeter Group

Strata co-chair, Alistair Croll recently introduced me to Susan Etlinger and indicated that “Susan is the smartest person I know on the collision of enterprise and social data.” Susan is an Industry Analyst at Altimeter Group and an upcoming speaker at Strata New York 2013. She is also the lead analyst on the new report, Social Data Intelligence: Integrating Social and Enterprise Data for Competitive Advantage. She put aside some time to answer a few questions about the study and provide insights into social data intelligence.

Why did Altimeter Group decide to conduct this study?

Susan Etlinger

Susan Etlinger

Susan Etlinger: During the past year, we’ve seen growing evidence of social media proliferation throughout the enterprise. My colleague Jeremiah Owyang did a study earlier this year that found that the average enterprise-class company has 178 social media accounts, while a total of thirteen different departments—from marketing to customer service to HR, Sales and Legal—all engage in social media. That’s a substantial investment of time and resources.

I’ve been researching how the enterprise measures the business impact of social media for several years, and the sheer scope of social media proliferation made me curious as to how broadly organizations were using the data generated by social media platforms. After all, social data carries signals related to business opportunities, risk and threats, customer experience, top and bottom-line financial performance, and brand reputation.

Given the proliferation of this data throughout the organization, I wanted to look at whether companies were viewing it in the context of other enterprise data. And, if they weren’t, why not?
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