Want to Increase Word-of-Mouth Marketing by 35%? Start a community.

I read an interesting study today that said that Word of Mouth, Insights, Customer Loyalty Biggest Benefits of Online Communities.

According to Beeline Labs, Deloitte, and the Society for New Communications Research, the greatest value of online communities is increasing word of mouth (35%), increasing brand awareness (28%), bringing new ideas into the organization faster (24%) and increasing customer loyalty (24%).  I definetly see all of these at National Instruments.

“The 2008 Tribalization of Business” study found that the greatest obstacles to making a community work are not technology-related or getting funding, but getting people involved in the community (51%), finding enough time to manage the community (45%), and attracting people to the community (34%). Interestingly, management was not cited as an obstacle either. Just 9% of the respondents said that their management was unwilling to share with community members.

“At conferences around the world we’ve heard marketers say that their biggest challenge is executives’ resistance because they fear losing control,” said Lois Kelly, a Beeline Labs partner. “But this research indicates that this may not be as big of an issue as marketers think. Clearly the bigger challenge is focusing the community around a purpose that people want to contribute to and be involved with – and devoting the right resources to promote and support the community.”

What Contributes Most to Effectiveness: People Giving and Getting Help
The features cited as contributing most to community effectiveness were:
• Ability for community members to connect with other like-minded people: 54%
• Ability for members to help others: 43%
• The community is focused around a hot topic or issue: 41%
• Quality of the community manager/community management team: 33%

Measurement: Mix of Hard and Soft Measures, Business and Analytics – and Disconnects
Just as most marketers use diverse measures to assess overall marketing effectiveness, so is there diversity in how they are measuring the effectiveness of online communities. The top business measures being used are:
• Greater awareness: 49%
• Number of new ideas from the community: 41%
• More referrals: 28%
• Increased sales attributable to the community: 26%
The top analytic measures included:
• Number of visitors: 63%
• Number of “active” users: 58%
• How often people post/comment: 57%
• Number of registered users: 49%
• How often people visit: 45%

“One interesting discovery was the apparent inconsistency between what organizations set as goals and what they actually measure,” commented Francois Gossieaux, a partner at Beeline Labs, and Senior Fellow with the Society for New Communications Research. “We also noticed mismatches between what respondents set as goals and the investments they actually make, as well as between their goals and the talent that they deploy against the community initiatives.”

Key Takeaways from the Survey:
• A majority of community efforts are more focused on improving the top line revenue than reducing costs.
• Communications-related benefits seem to dominate the objectives, and are achieved most successfully.
• There is generally a mismatch between the web stats that companies track and the stated goals for the communities.

When asked what their most important piece of advice is for others creating online communities, survey participants’ advice focused on eight areas:
1. Start with the end in mind: “Start with a business strategy, defining carefully what you want to accomplish through the community.” “Invest most in the area that services your key business objective.” “Be clear about the purpose of the community.”
2. Focus on the value to the members: “Make sure you deliver real, special, unique, obvious value to the core group you’re hoping to attract.” “Build the community around existing passion groups.” “The core of the community needs to be of high value or interest to people, a focus worth contributing to.” “Get insight into what motivates members to join the community; we found a different motivation than we hypothesized.”
3. Don’t start with the technology: “Too often people get drunk with Web 2.0 tool excitement and then try to push their business and customer goals into the wrong tool.”
4. Keep it simple and intuitive: “Focus on the least common denominator first. Keep it easy to navigate with simple tools to use.” “People are busy; they need information in brief, easy-to-scan bits they can quickly choose what is interesting to them and go right to it.”
5. Keep it fresh and active: “Keep activity levels up, constantly add new content.” “Think of how to create ‘events’ – what can you do to excite people and get them to share in the community.” “Update regularly, find topics for discussion.” “Content is king.”
6. Have dynamic community leaders: “Make sure you devote enough time to managing the community; letting it fester is worse than not having it in the first place.” “Participate but do not try to control. The community belongs to the people, not you.”
7. Think through who to involve – or not. “ Get commitment from top management and communicate, communicate, communicate.” “Get Legal and PR to buy-in and help on design, but keep them out of active management.”
8. Get a passionate core of participants active before launching: “Make sure you have a committed core of passionate users before you launch.” “You must have a critical number of high-quality participants to get the momentum going.” “Beta test and seed before launch.”

Omegle.com Saved Me from Eating Cow Bones

When I was a kid, I would sneak onto my Aunt Colleen’s computer, sign into Prodigy, and get on chat rooms.  I pretended to be an expert at sewing.  Don’t ask me why or how I picked this hobby, but at least it was better than some of the other room choices like “Night People.”  And back then my parents “Don’t Talk to Strangers” rule didn’t translate online, so I would talk it up with random grandmas (cool enough to know how to use DOS) about teddy bear patterns.  

After reading, “Tired of Old Web Friends? A New Site Promises Strangers,” in the New York Times yesterday, I decided to test out a new Web site called Omegle created by 18-year-old Leif K-Brooks.  This new site connects you via live private chat to a “stranger,” where you can talk about everything or nothing.  There are no usernames, no logins, no rules .  Just pure anonymity.  

From the New York Times article: 

“You can’t learn anything from someone exactly like you,” said Mr. K-Brooks. “The goal was to create a new kind of association: anonymous interaction with a stranger that complements existing social sites and helps people broaden their horizons.”

The problem is people can be idiots when their reputation is taken away.  Sam Lawrence, author of one of my all-time favorite blogs Go Big Always, once included the following cartoon series in a post called On Social Networks, nobody thinks you’re a dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With both of the above scenarios in mind, I wanted to test out how people would act 1:1 anonymously. Would I get another “sewing expert?” This platform doesn’t seem too revolutionary, but after my rant about personal vs. business identity last week, I figured testing it out would be a good experiment. 

My first conversation was worthless.  I chatted with a “stranger” for less than a minute. They disconnected after finding out I was from “Bush country.”  In round two, I met Lucas from the Netherlands.  Apparently, he was having a hard time meeting people.  Even though the system said 2221 users online, he kept connecting with ad bots. 

But we started to chat.  He was planning a trip to the US in late September and was getting feedback on his research on Texas (which seemed legit).  He started talking about how he can’t wait to have Jiff Extra Crunch Peanut Butter, and I told him how I would love to visit Holland, especially since they produce the best candy in the world – Dutch Gummy Pigs.

Here is the conversation:

COW BONES???  According to Yahoo! Answers, this is legit information.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a really nice chat and I decided to break the “stranger” rule and gave him my Twitter account.  

I’m not sure how often folks would want to chat with a random stranger, especially about cow bones and I don’t really see a B2B use case; however, I wonder if something like this would work for AA or teen help lines,  where real-time anonymity is key.  Let me know your thoughts!

UPDATE: Lucas is real. Right after I posted this, he commented on a previous post. Yippee. New friend thanks to the strange site Omegle.

The Lines are Getting Blurry

Today, I saw a tweet from @omarg, journalist and contributor to NPRs All Tech Considered, about the new Twitter Directory on the Austin-American Statesman’s Web site.  I was immediately excited.  Finally, a quality site to find cool, local Tweeple!!  I clicked on the budurl and was instantly disappointed.  I couldn’t even get past the first question. 

 

BUSINESS OR PERSONAL? BUSINESS OR PERSONAL? BUSINESS OR PERSONAL? 

 

 

I feel like this question haunts me.  As the Social Media Manager at National Instruments, I get asked at least once a week questions like, “Do I have to become our VP’s friend on Facebook? (Sorry, John).  How do I block my boss from seeing my pictures from the party last Friday night? Do I need to create two Twitter accounts – one for “work me” and one for “home me.”  In my opinion, the answer is a resounding no.  

Gone our the days of the headshot.  I’m both professional and goofy.  This is the ying and the yang of me.  And I’m not alone.  

My friend Morgan and I often dream of a world where we have one email account (preferably Gmail) for all of our communications.  Of course, I’ll always keep my spam account as well, but for the rest of the communications, streamlining systems would make me more efficient.  Yes, I admit that I sometimes answer personal emails at the office, but I also respond to LabVIEW tweets on the weekends.  As a social media professional, the 9-5 work schedule is not an option, and I love that!  

Recently, my friend/coworker (another blurry line) Jenn asked if she should create a separate Twitter account for her role as the Embedded Campaign Manager at NI.  When I asked why she wanted to do so, she responded by saying, “well, I tweet a lot about running.”  While I’m not sure of the exact demographic overlap of embedded engineers with runners, I do know that I enjoy following people that are open about who they are and what they are doing.  

Many companies may feel different about this.  After reading posts like Facebook Post Gets Worker Fired on ESPN.com and following the recent Dominos incident, it’s clear that institutions must have a mantra of hiring the best and the brightest for this model to work.  By trusting your employees, you can build an army of intelligent folks discussing your products and engaging in meaningful dialog online.  

Let me know your thoughts!

UPDATE: Stats from Mike on Social Media Fundrasing

In this post, Happy Earth Day – Social Media Style, I gave an electronic round of applause to Mike Boudreaux for his great use of social media to raise money for the MS150.  

He has sent me a breakdown of his success:

55 % of $1600 raised via Social Networking

- 15% Twitter

- 29% Facebook

- 12% LinkedIN

Congrats again!

Happy Earth Day — Social Media Style

Today, my friends Brad and Jon sent me this cute card in celebration of Earth Day. 

Immediately, I thought about a cool experience I had this weekend.  On Sunday, my dad rode in his 11th MS150.  (To say I’m proud is an understandment)!

In order to participate, he had to raise at least $400.  While this isn’t a large sum of money, I can imagine it was a bit akward asking our friends and family to donate during these tough economic times.  To combat that, my friend Mike Boudreaux, an awesome product manager at Emerson, shared his story at the B2B Tweetup last Friday about how he used Twitter to raise funds for the 180-mile bike ride.  

 

In less than 140 characters, Mike asks his followers for help:

 

 

 

They respond graciously! 

 

 

 

In the end, Mike exceeded his goal.  

 

 

Once again, social media saves the day.  Plus, it’s really cool.  I got to “follow” Mike throughout the ride on Sunday and cheer him on both in real life and in the Twittersphere. 

Congrats to all the riders, who helped raise a significant amout of money for a great cause.  You are truly inspirational.