Study: ‘Digitally mature’ companies are more profitable

The years-long study from Capgemeni Consulting and the MIT Center for Digital Business looked at more than 400 companies and found that the ones that thoughtfully invest in social media and let it drive their business decisions “benefit from a considerable ‘Digital Advantage’ and demonstrate significantly better financial performance than their peers.”

In other words, it pays to use social media.

What, exactly, does “digitally mature” mean? According to the study’s authors, it’s based on two factors: “digital intensity” and “transformation management intensity.”

Apparently, it’s all about intensity—although really, it sounds a bit like word soup, so let’s explore what they mean.

“Digital intensity” refers to investing in technologies to “change how the company operates,” the study says. An example would be the high-end British fashion label Burberry, which has a robust presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. According to the study, the label coupled these sexier efforts on social platforms with a strategy of integrating the data it was collecting on a global scale.