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Filed under: Social Web

I'm Attending the Facebook Success Summit 2010

I'm attending Facebook Success Summit 2010

This week the Social Media Examiner just announced a follow up online conference to the extremely successful Socia Media Success Summit 2010, from earlier this summer, which is focused solely on Facebook. I attended the Social Media Success Summit 2010 and was very impressed by the quality of presentations and audience interaction.

The Summit utilized all the platforms it preached about and brought thousands of business professionals together from around the world.

Check out the Facebook Success Summit 2010 website to register.

Measuring customer experience: The power of story

A while back I did some research on the Ontario Science Center (OSC) and the lessons enterprises could learn from such a leader in customer experience design. Of particular interest was measuring the ROI related to customer experience initiatives – I know a lot of our member companies use social media to improve customer experience, but how exactly do you measure it? When I interviewed Kevin von Appen, director of Daily Experience Operations at the OSC, he used a turn of phrase that really got me thinking: “the systematic gathering and analysis of anecdote.”

Collecting and analyzing customer stories – the impact you have on specific individual – is one of three approaches that I think makes sense when calculating overall ROI in a customer experience context. The other two are mission and reach. Mission is easy – most organizations have some sort of mission statement, or if they don’t, they usually at least have a CEO or a board with a well-articulated vision. Reach is also pretty straightforward: How many people to you touch? What reach does is calculate the influence of an organization or an individual. It acts as a proxy for several influence measures including: authority, frequency (how often you create the opportunity to influence consumers), independence (lack of bias in their opinion), charisma (in the case of an individual), and persuasiveness. At the OSC, the measure of reach includes both the number of people that came through the physical location and the over five million that engage with them online.

For me, impact is the most interesting measure. When assessing impact, Kevin uses the example of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Having someone like Hadfield say that going to the OSC as a child helped inspire him to be what he is today means the OSC had a strong impact on him. Most companies have at least a couple of these types of exemplary stories. But at a more pedestrian level, any organization can listen to and analyze the stories of people that come through the doors and that write online in blogs, forums, and social networks every day. There are now several companies such as Attensity, Scout Labs, Radian6, Visible Technologies, Crimson Hexagon (and many others), that have software to help analyze unstructured information like customer stories. These companies can identify basic metrics like the percentage of positive and negative sentiment, as well as provide deeper analytics about specific product and service features that lead to customers having positive and negative experiences. The end goal for those looking for quantifiable ROI numbers around customer experience is to convert all unstructured data to these types of “numeric” representations that are consistent, tracked over time, and can be charted in a dashboard. In short, the systematic gathering and analysis of anecdotes.

via wikinomics.com

TVO: The Curious Case of Television Web Presence

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Earlier this week I observed a lecture by Nancy Chappelle, the Managing Director of Content and Programming for TVO. If you’ve followed what goes on at TVO in the past but have perhaps lost touch do check in again. I was (and still am) amazed and inspired with not only their web presence but also their social media penetration.

We all know the typical model for a television networks website whose general purpose is to bring eyes back to the TV. Although we are slowing seeing a shift in this behaviour, with examples like Hulu, the flow is generally one direction and the intent is to direct all eyes back to television. The ads are on television, the ratings are tied to the television, there are definitely legitimate reasons for this behaviour, but things are changing slowly and surely.

Increasingly we are seeing networks putting up full episodes and bonus content because perhaps there is some value to the web. Acknowledging that now might not be the best time to experiment with fantasy revenue streams, there is still a growing potential for this shift. Anyone heard of Netflix? Is there anything they are doing wrong?

Although TVO doesn’t fairly compare to a major network (mainly because of where their funding comes from) they are still an excellent example of online potential for networks. They specialize in children’s content and have an entire website of over 150 games. Yes we are still talking about a television network. They produce podcasts (TVO Parents, The Agenda), they are on Twitter (@AgendaCamp, @TheAgenda), they have Facebook groups, they’ve got all the basics covered. But what goes above and beyond simply existing on the web is that they not only do all those things (which should now be considered requirements), they also promote topical unconferences and social events with an educational theme for children. They physically and virtually exist in the world of the audience.

They are creating online social communities. They are connecting with their audience(s). They aren’t just selling a product, they’re creating brand advocates. I urge you to take note of what they are accomplishing and if it’s not the next step for all networks.

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