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IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Social Marketing Software for Growth Companies 2024–2025 Vendor Assessment

Roger Beharry Lall — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 05:00:00 GMT

The IDC study evaluates social marketing solutions tailored for small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees. The industry has matured significantly, with leading social marketing platforms transforming into comprehensive tools that offer multiple functions and channels for the entire front office. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into the user experience, enhancing areas such as content creation, audience selection, performance optimization, and offer recommendations. This evolution underscores the vital role of social media as a growth channel for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

SMBs, known for their agile nature and founder-centric personalities, have a unique opportunity in the social space to provide authentic and timely interactions that cultivate strong customer relationships. To capitalize on this potential, SMBs must prioritize social marketing as a distinct category and invest in sophisticated targeting, reporting, and campaign management capabilities.

"Social media has transformed from a free, nice-to-have trend into an essential marketing strategy for small and medium-sized businesses. As social channels increasingly outpace traditional marketing tactics, it's crucial for SMBs to prioritize social marketing as a distinct category, rather than an afterthought. Investment in modern social media tools is a critical part of the SMB martech stack to drive targeted campaigns and outpace larger competitors in today's dynamic marketplace," said Roger Beharry Lall, research director, Advertising Technologies and SMB Marketing Applications.

IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide Taxonomy, 2024: Release V2, 2024

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide methodology and taxonomy. It should be used as a companion piece for IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide. Technology suppliers may utilize IDC’s use case approach and structure, as presented in this document, to help them refocus their products and services and build relevant business cases.

“IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide presents a comprehensive view of the digital transformation ecosystem,” said Angela Vacca, senior research manager of IDC’s Customer Insights and Analysis Group. “It is an invaluable resource to help vendors define and standardize their vocabulary when approaching this expanding and dynamic market.”

AI Everywhere, IDC Digital Platform Forum 2024, Japan：企業のバリューチェーンを全体最適化するデジタルテクノロジーの役割

Ko Shikita — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 05:00:00 GMT

本Conference Proceeding: Tech BuyerはIDC Japan、Verticals & Cross Technologiesのリサーチマネージャーである敷田康による講演の内容をプレゼンテーションスライドと音声ファイルによって提供するものである。

組織がサイロ化している企業においてはデジタルの取り組みも個別最適に陥りがちであり、バリューチェーン全体、あるいは社外の組織を含めたサプライチェーン全体の最適化を志向したデジタルの取り組みは至難となる。本講演では、デジタル施策によって生まれる価値が真に連鎖し、バリューチェーンやサプライチェーンが全体最適化されて機能するようにするAIを始めとするデジタルテクノロジーの役割を、さまざまな産業分野の企業事例やアンケート調査結果を用いて考察する。

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Social Marketing Software for Large Enterprises 2024–2025 Vendor Assessment

Gerry Murray — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC study assesses the state of social marketing solutions for large enterprises (1,000+ employees). The industry has consolidated, and leading social marketing solutions have rapidly evolved into platforms that have multiple social functions and channels that can serve the entire front office. In addition, AI is becoming ubiquitous throughout the user experience from content creation to audience selection, recommendations for offers, optimizing performance, and more.

“As buyers seek trusted sources to guide their purchasing, social marketing is becoming increasingly important — as long as it is perceived as authentic,” said Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Technology Practice, IDC. “Social media is critical to scaling brand presence and personalizing customer experiences. Scale is important for optimizing brand exposure to LLMs and other AI tools buyers will increasingly use to support product discovery, consideration, and purchase. Personalization is critical to sustaining customer satisfaction across touchpoints, so customers feel the brand is always acting as one regardless of which department or system handles their next interaction. Modern social marketing solutions deliver on both fronts.”

2024 Tech Buyer Behavior Survey Results

Laurie Buczek — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey addresses tech buyer digital behaviors while balancing their preferences for personalized communication. The survey examines how digital and AI are impacting the buying journey. The survey seeks to further define the role of human interaction in the buying journey as the acceleration of digital buying preferences occurs. The survey explores trust factors and the impact of trust and customer experience on the buyers' willingness to purchase vendor products. It examines tech buyers' propensity to switch vendors and the main underlying reasons. The survey highlights factors impacting tech buying and tech spending. This document is intended to help B2B tech vendor executives better understand their buyers and therefore adapt their experience and marketing and sales practices to improve customer experience and business results.

"The accelerated pace at which B2B buyers are shifting their buying behavior, adopting digital and AI, and changing their search habits is a wake-up call for marketers," says Laurie Buczek, research vice president, CMO Advisory Practice at IDC. "The standard marketing playbook is no longer effective, leaving marketers to quickly evolve their strategy, organizational structure, skill sets, and tactics."

Shortcomings in Managing Third-Party Software Risks: Lack of Oversight, Software Bill of Materials Generation

Christopher Tozzi — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Survey Spotlight answers the following question: What are the shortcomings in managing third-party software risks?

Flaws in software used by third parties have been vectors for a number of high-profile breaches in recent years. Yet IDC's CIO Sentiment Survey shows that the bulk of IT organizations are not actively assessing third parties for risks. Most are also not automatically generating software bill of materials (SBOM).

These gaps pose major challenges today, and they will likely grow worse in the future, unless CIOs and their IT teams take action.

Consumer Social Media Survey Results: Beyond Content Sharing to Researching Travel, Dining, Wellness, and Other Topics

Greg Ireland — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines selected results from IDC's Consumer Behavior Survey fielded in 2Q24. Results and analysis focus on consumer engagement with social media. Areas of focus in this presentation include the share of survey respondents engaged in specific categories of social media apps, average time per week spent by consumers on social media, share of consumers that post content and frequency of posting, and how social media is used by consumers as a source of information across a wide range of topics. Generational differences are also highlighted.

"Social media remains a vibrant and significant part of the consumer digital landscape as all survey respondents report at least some level of social media use," said Greg Ireland, senior director for IDC's Consumer research. "Social media is used by many consumers to research travel and dining, health and wellness, and product information and to follow news."

Consumer Video Entertainment Survey Results: Streaming, Social Media, Smartphones, and Sound Quality in Focus

Greg Ireland — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines selected results from IDC's Consumer Behavior Survey fielded in 2Q24. Results and analysis focus on consumer engagement with video entertainment. Areas of focus in this presentation include the share of time spent by consumers on video entertainment relative to other entertainment services and the share of time spent viewing video from traditional pay TV, streaming, and social media. Also covered is the share of viewing time spent on different devices, including the television and the smartphone, and how consumers view the importance of sound quality and personalized entertainment experiences. Generational differences are also highlighted.

"Gen Z and millennial consumers continue to reshape the consumer video entertainment market," said Greg Ireland, senior director for IDC's Consumer research. "While attention has been placed on how streaming continues to disrupt traditional pay TV services, Gen Z and millennial consumers are spending more time viewing video on social media platforms than on streaming services, with Gen X not far behind."

What can Retailers Glean from How Consumers Shop Online?

Filippo Battaini — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight provides an overview of consumers' online shopping behavior, showing where shoppers research products before purchasing and what channel mix they use to buy online. Based on IDC's 2024 Consumer Sentiment Survey, it shows that online shopping is a key element of the customer journey, and that brands and retailers should ensure consistency and quality of product information across different online channels.