While social media is pervasive to the extent that it’s hard to remember a time that it didn’t exist, it is nonetheless a young format. To put it frankly, the role of social media in the corporate marketing world is something that nobody has fully figured out yet.

Talks like this one at SXSW, given by Spredfast CEO Rod Favaron, are driven by the need to work toward an answer. Watch below to see him name the four things people in the corporate world most often say they want out of social.

What Favaron focused as being the most important aspects, however, are brand identity expression and interaction.

“Social gives you a chance to be who you are as a brand,” he said. “You want conversations.”

His unwavering conviction in the importance of interaction is driven by a survey Spredfast conducted of the top 20 brands on social media. They found that 95% of these brands social messages were 1:1. This, Favaron says, is a whole new world for marketers.

“Marketers are not used to listening,” he said.

He also emphasized the importance of innovation and risk-taking on social platforms. He advocated for marketing teams to allocate a percentage of their budget exclusively to experimenting on social, with no expectation of ROI. Employees, he said, need to push for this.

“If your boss won’t let you throw shit against the wall get a new boss.”