Leader Networks blog

The Market Research Nuggets Most Companies Ignore (at their peril): Comments In Online Communities

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:40:45 PDT

A customer shares an insight within your company’s online community. He somehow found the time in between meetings, phone calls and lunch to share a suggestion, idea or complaint in a discussion thread. “It would be great if the XYZ product would … ,” he writes. What does your company do with that customer input? This is the $1,000,000 dollar question -- literally.

Should you:

Choice #1: Fail to notice it? Because the online community is large or understaffed, the customer suggestion falls through the cracks.

Choice #2: See it and leave the customer question/comment/complaint unanswered? They assume that “someone” will take care of it because the customer does have people to talk to in the company.

Choice #3: Fire all alarms? A community manager copies and pastes that message and emails it to everyone she can think of -- her boss, her boss’s boss, and others. After the email train goes round for a few days, the customer gets many [and sometimes contradictory?] responses.

Choice #4: Have a clear plan in place to manage such feedback – to consider internally and make sure the customer eventually is informed of the outcome of the evaluation? This ensures that you respond quickly and appropriately to every customer comment shared online.

Of course, the correct answer is Choice #4. Yet from my experience in guiding the strategies of dozens of online communities over the last two decades and seeing message after message go unanswered, I believe this is the least-chosen option. The most common response is to not respond and/or hope another customer does instead.

This is ironic given that organizations worldwide spend $18.9 billion annually on customer research ($6.7 billion in the U.S. alone), according to CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organization). Organizations make enormous investments to divine what their customers want from their products and services. So why should customer feedback in online communities be regarded as far less important than input from focus groups, online or phone surveys, or other established methods of customer research? The failure to act on customer input in online customer communities may be the largest missed opportunity of the social business decade.

While companies are busy hiring market research firms to learn what their customers think, they often have the answers right under their noses if they have an online customer community (and most B2B companies should). Thriving B2B communities are chock full of useful customer insights -- ideas that could spark innovation or be early warning signals for a crisis-in-the-making.

Here is the most exciting part: Unlike expensive and episodic market research, online community comments are both free and continuous. But sadly, companies allow this customer feedback to fall through the cracks because they don’t have plans and processes to deal with the input.

From our experience as online community strategists, we believe the main reason why so few companies act on their digitally shared customer insights is because they either don't know how to leverage so much unstructured data or haven't considered its operational value. Only a few B2B online communities like SAP, Autodesk, and LexisNexis have developed repeatable processes for leveraging online customer insights in research and development, sales, product development, marketing and other functions. These communities also happen to be among the most successful ones.

Why aren’t more companies following suit? One reason is that community managers are often not well integrated into the core business functions. Even when community managers see customer input shared online, they are typically not empowered to do more than simply acknowledge such comments; they are not permitted to act.

How do you make sure your online community isn’t one of these? Answering the following questions will reveal a lot:

Who does the community manager need to inform about relevant customer feedback? Who is on the triage team and what are their responsibilities?
Is the feedback welcome (or at least expected) by R&D, product development, sales, and any other department that could benefit from it?
Who is responsible for evaluating the idea or suggestion? What is the standard process for handling customer insights?
Who will let the customer know about the outcome of his idea? While not all ideas, complaints or insights are viable, when a customer takes the time to offer his perspective, isn’t it appropriate to respond?
And most importantly, who is in charge of shepherding this process from cradle to grave?

These are big questions that organizations need to answer to turn their online customer community into more than just an occasional listening post and feel-good platform. When we help companies create the operational processes for their online community, our focus quickly turns to developing processes and performance indicators that directly affect the company’s ability to get products and services to market better, faster and more accurately because they reflect customer needs and identify market trends. It is essential to align community objectives and outcomes with the overall organizational strategy.

Ignoring online customers is even more detrimental to customer satisfaction than disregarding their input in offline channels. Online comments are forever captured for the entire world to see.

There is a better way. The next time your company plans the next market research study, in–person customer event, executive briefing center program or social media listening platform launch to get closer to the customer, you should first explore how your customers are being treated in the online community. A wellspring of customer insights might already be there for the taking.

Why Your Doctor Can't Be Your Online Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:57:45 PDT

The boundaries between the physician - patient relationship have always been difficult as the relationship is based on trust, intimacy and the ability to share information from both sides of the desk. This relationship has grown more complex due to the rise of social media engagement. Physicians are being friend-ed, followed and reviewed across the digital channel like crazy, placing the doctors that care for them in difficult positions regarding the confidentiality of their patients who often don't think about the impact of their digital-buddy request.

Similarly, due to the ease of digital communications, the commonly time-stretched doctor also faces temptation to use quick communication methods to reach their audience, in lieu of a more professional path. No-one really wants their test results Tweeted to them! These examples of digital doctoring to be avoided are covered in the guidance. Protecting patient privacy and confidentiality is stressed as the main area for focus when using social media.

In order to help doctors better understand digital communication best practices and to fill a gap than many medical practice management efforts have neglected, about a week ago, the American College of Physicians (ACP) and Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) published a policy paper entitled“Online Medical Professionalism: Patient and Public Relationships.” Some of the highlights from this publication can be found in this helpful table (click to enlarge):

The article itself is interesting to read and a good idea for both doctor and patient alike to understand the digital expectations. Here, I have called out some of the guidance details:

On boundaries: "Professional distance and privacy are appropriate for both physician and patient. Physicians should not “friend” or contact patients through personal social media. Physicians should familiarize themselves with the privacy settings and terms of agreements for social media platforms to which they subscribe, and they should maintain strict privacy settings on personal accounts. Professional profiles should be constructed with an explicit purpose (such as networking and community outreach)."

On self auditing: "Physicians should consider periodically “self-auditing” to assess the accuracy of information available about them on physician-ranking Web sites and other sources online.

Ranking, feedback, and other Web sites may offer patients insight into physician training and office practices... Physicians should consider doing routine surveillance of their online presence by searching for their names, and they should correct inaccurate information."

On Googling patients: "Digitally tracking the personal behaviors of patients, such as determining whether they have indeed quit smoking or are maintaining a healthy diet, may threaten the trust needed for a strong patient–physician relationship. Commentators encourage physicians to consider the intent of the search, whether it affects continuing therapy for the patient, and how to appropriately document findings with implications for ongoing care."

And it cautions doctors to pause before they post controversial or negative content. Certainly good advice for everyone!

What Online Communities Can Learn From a Master Convener: Eva Perón

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:23:36 PDT

As I sit at my desk thinking about a new blog post topic, I struggle to write. Not because of a lack of topics, but because this is my first day back from a glorious vacation. We all know that post-vacation tension between enjoying the past and needing to return to the business at hand. But in this case, I am delighted to realize that my trip to Buenos Aires makes for excellent fodder for a community-related discussion.

My fascination with Argentina's obsession with Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina (1946-1952) started shortly after I landed in the airport where her image was distinctly present. I was only vaguely aware of her and my data was largely fueled by the Madonna musical, a South American history scholar I was not. So, I endeavored to learn more about this women of great interest and learned Perón came from humble means, became a radio actor, and eventually the second wife of President Juan Perón. She is credited with being the voice of the people, the inspiration behind the Argentinean’s women’s movement, and developed countless programs to aid low-middle class people. She died very young, more than 50 years ago.

However, despite the lengthy time passage since her death, there are patronages to her honor all throughout the city (and I mean all throughout the city – as in everywhere!). From museums dedicated to her life, to her face being illuminated on the Ministry of Work high-rise building (this installation happened in 2011), to flags of her on street corners and apartment balconies.

Why does she retain the ability to captivate a nation, controversial as she was? What did she do for Argentina that prevents her from fading in the way so many icons eventually do? Wandering around her museum, I pondered the artifacts to glean a better understand of her.

What I discovered was that Eva Perón was a community builder, extraordinaire. Her undeniably amazing contribution was her power to convene. She brought together a country of disenfranchised people, enabled them to unify around their collective needs. She gave voice to groups and helped them represent themselves. She learned about her people and tried to reach them all: orphans, elderly, women, victims of foreign war. Through her, the country was stronger, more resilient. And, she listened to her community – a lot. She walked among them and ensured when a program was developed that it was meaningful to those it intended to serve. She ensured that her service of community was evergreen.

When you look at her offerings the essence of her activities will sound very familiar to many community builders. After all, Isn’t using the power to convene really what community building is about – online or offline?

When I think back to some of the online communities I have been involved with, the memorable moments happen when the community was able to create/support a federated, representative voice of a group…To be bigger than an individual member could be alone. In some cases, like with Cambridge Information Network (CIN) groups of CIOs came together online to grapple with big ideas like what does the invention of the World Wide Web really mean (yes, this was the 1990’s)? In other cases, like with the WEGOHealth online community, health care advocates are supported in their quest to share their stories and help inform healthcare about their needs. And, sometimes, even in B2B communities, it gets personal. For example, there was a time when Computerworld’s CIO community ComputerWorld Executive Suite rallied together online to organize technical assistance to NYC companies during the aftermath of 9/11. These are all examples big and small, where, with the help of a community builder, groups were supported and great things resulted.

So, if you aspire to be Evita of your online community, there are a few lessons learned from her powerful and beloved tenure:

Show a human face to your community – personality, passion and insight go a long way with a community.

Bring people together in groups and help them connect with each other in meaningful ways. Profession, title, interest, geography are all good fodder for micro-group formation provided they share a common need to connect.
Listen to your community and understand their needs and point(s) of pain. (Not just what you think their problems or needs may be.)
Validate your assumption about your community with rigor and persistence. This will help ensure any changes or new community offerings will be well received.

Understand that one size does not fit all! Endeavor to serve all community members in the ways that they can benefit and customize offering to different types of members.

Never lose sight of the community members you endeavor to serve. As Evita once said “I am only a sparrow amongst a great flock of sparrows.”

Avoid Online Customer Community Failure!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 08:56:52 PDT

Failure. It’s not a word anyone likes. Yet it is common occurrence with innovation projects. When projects fail, there’s a natural inclination to avoid looking for the reasons why. This is especially true for online customer communities. A failure with customers (Ouch!) is far more painful than any internally-facing problem, because it touches the people and companies that are core to the organizations’ success.

The usual reasons offered for online customer community failure include: the members weren’t ready for online discussions; the software wasn’t what we expected; the subject matter experts didn’t produce enough content; the customers were too “traditional.” These deflections don’t address the root cause of your community’s failure. It was the result of your firm’s organizational process, strategy and execution.

In 2012, Gartner predicted that by 2014 70 percent of proprietary communities would fail –a sizable group of investments generating little or no return for some of the world's largest enterprises. At the same time, use of social channels continues to grow. A recent Forrester report (Understand Communication Channel Needs To Craft Your Customer Service Strategy, March 2013) states “Online communities and Twitter have seen increases in usage rates in the past three years. However, satisfaction remains low for these channels, as companies have not invested in best practices for managing interactions on these channels.”

Not all communities are doomed. For those who succeed, the returns are enormous. Online communities are growing in importance for mid-size to large organizations, especially in this era of tight budgets and greater focus on customer retention. The case for online communities is based on an increase in customer satisfaction and customer retention, which lead to increased profits. The business case for customer community initiatives is overwhelmingly positive. For example, Forrester calculates that a 10-percentage-point improvement in a company’s customer experience score can translate into more than $1 billion in revenue. (The Business Impact of Customer Experience, 2012).

Why the wide gap between success and failure? One reason is some organizations are much better at managing large-scale innovation initiatives than others – those which do not skimp on process will emerge the victors. Eventually, most organizations will figure out how to leverage their community investment and learn from community-driven insights. But it will take time to change their core business processes to reflect and integrate this customer community-supplied data. Struggles to achieve online community success can be attributed to a few common missteps.

Business Goals Don’t Match Community intentions: The online community strategy and goals need to be clearly articulated to insure the mission, vision and execution are reachable. Once these are defined, able leadership can guide the creation of an online customer community that successfully blends business and member needs. Too often, community programs are skewed toward business priorities, forsaking the promise of value made to each customer and member. Every community must serve its customer-members -- without members, there is no community -- and not the other way around.

“Tool Talk” Before Business Strategy: Organizations large and small have a propensity to make the online community software purchase without a careful analysis of their business objectives, technical requirements and customer preferences. The result is an online community that provides what the tool has to offer – and not what the business, IT and customers want or need.

Building Mausoleums Instead of Sherpa Tents: Social business success means constant innovation through iterative cycles, driven by member feedback. Enterprises, often very skilled at long-range planning, try to plan a large, long-term community effort. That’s a recipe for disaster. Communities, by their very nature, are in constant flux from changing member needs, business objectives, technical improvements and online social norms. Community programs and plans should focus on short sprints -- not big-bang approach. In the social business world, planning that spans years is simply not an option. Think this way: build, learn, evolve; build, learn, evolve; build, learn ...

Failure to Feed the Content Beast: The iterative cycle of innovation also requires a constant flow of new information into the community. This is especially important for new communities, where access to insightful content and provocative ideas is what brings first-time visitors back a second time and, eventually, an expanding population of members. Engaging content builds a growing community.

Poor Community Management Skills: There is no shortage of information on this topic, often in painful and painstaking detail. Community management is a professional role. Managing relationships online requires dedicated, experienced professionals with wide range of specialized skills, who are treated with the same respect and expectations as any other skilled managers.

Excessive Exuberance: The old saying “you achieve what you measure” is especially true for social business. It is common for online customer communities to track the wrong metrics – ones that don’t matter to the business but are the easiest to gather. Likes and fan numbers only go so far in determining value. Achieving real success is means taking on the difficult task of measuring the impact an online community brings to customer satisfaction and other business success measures.

Lack of Business Integration: This is the biggest misstep of all, for fledgling online communities and established, successful ones alike. To be truly effective and valuable, an online community must have an impact on core operations. Organizations may struggle to create a repeatable process to mine the data from the online community to inform new product development, R&D, influencer relations, partner and supplier programs and market messaging, but this is the way customer insights can be brought to bear on all aspects of the organizations operations.

Lack of Strong Executive Sponsorship: Any innovation project needs effective leadership and commitment from the business. Recall the Standish Group CHAOS report findings? The number 1 reason why IT-dependent projects fail is the absence of a fearless leader willing to take charge.

I share these failure factors not to frighten but to forewarn. Online communities, when successful, can transform an organization and are an imperative for the future. Who wouldn’t want to develop better mechanisms for learning from their customers, prospects, employees, partners and other stakeholders?

So what does it take to succeed? Review this Customer Community Readiness Checklist

John Coate and the WELL: Looking ahead by looking back

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:56:22 PDT

A month ago I went to London to give a presentation at the 13th annual VIRCOMM Summit. On a cold and rainy morning (it was London, after all) about a thousand community builders and social media managers from around the world gathered to think and talk about the art and science of our complex profession -- creating and managing online communities. It was a rare luxury to take part in an industry-specific conference, we all wear many hats and operate in a diverse group of reporting structures: marketing, customer care and sometimes IT. The event was well covered, with lots of blog posts and reports. It even trended on Twitter for a while (#VICROMM13).

Reading through the post-event writings, I was struck by the limited coverage of the opening keynote by John Coate, one of the leaders of the WELL. For me, this was a shining moment, a bit of online community building history. John's keynote offered a pictorial narrative of the history of the WELL. Why it was started, who was involved and what it meant to those who were a part of the online community movement, now almost 30 years old. He shared a view of our collective history as community builders; where we have been and what the future may hold. Coate's presentation offered a view into the origins and growth of our profession, something of real value to the many 20-something attendees who were not part of this history. As virtual communities and online social interactions have become ubiquitous (at last!), it's essential that current practitioner know about this history and consider its lessons – where we’ve been and where we’re headed.

For those not familiar with the WELL, it was the first substantial online community open to ordinary people. While there were online communities prior to the WELL, they were largely for academics and research. The technologies in use – then termed "Computer-Mediated Telecommunications"-- were expensive, difficult to locate and access, and even more difficult to navigate. [Sidenote: Back in the day, many of us had to travel with a screwdriver and spare phone wires so we could disassemble a hotel phone and connect our dial-up modems to the phone lines!]

By and large, VIRCOMM conference attendees haven't had to deal with such inconveniences just to get email or access a chat group. That’s real progress! But they also weren't online during a time when online community was more focused on the pure power and impact of human-to-human connections, nor did they have to answer to the revenue gods. Today, we have come a long way in terms of tools and opportunities for online community to do great things for learning. We live in a world where we can gain instant access to connections and information about everything from a specialist's point of view to travel suggestions to how to fix a fussy smartphone app. These changes are unarguably for the better.

However, there are core principles about online community that John Coate's presentation -- indeed, his whole body of work -- remind us are a fundamental part of whatever flavor of online community building we do. Starting in 1992, and revised twice since, Coate's wrote an essay called "InnKeeping in CyberSpace" which still serves as an up-to-the-minute guide to online community best practices. In it, he identifies the Principles of CyberSpace InnKeeping:

The currency is human attention. Work with it. Discourage abuse of it.
You are in the relationship business.
Welcome newcomers. Help them find their place.
Show by example.
Strive to influence and persuade.
Have a big fuse. Never let the bottom drop out.
Use a light touch. Don't be authoritarian.
Affirm people. Encourage them to open up.
Expect ferment. Allow some tumbling.
Don't give in to tyranny by individual or group.
Leave room in the rules for judgment calls.
Encourage personal and professional overlap.
Think "tolerance."

These principles are still true today, 20+ years later. It doesn't matter if your online community supports a brand, a professional community of practice, or even a gathering of fans. Human-human connection is the centerpiece of all substantive online community interactions. Without meaningful exchanges of information, there are no insights to be harvested; without sustained involvement and a sense of comfort, there is no customer retention or connection. Without people connecting to people, there is no community - online or otherwise.

*Blog post edited on 3/21 to correct spelling of John's name.

Spotlight on Cognizant's B2B Online Community

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:27:02 PST

B2B online customer communities are often the elusive queen of the social business world- gated, private and not often in the limelight, but powerful to the companies that host them. Due to the insights and competitive advantages they offer, their inner-workings are often a best-kept secret. But, in celebration of a recent redesign of Cognizant’s community – Cognizant Connections, my colleague Alan Alper, senior director of corporate marketing, was willing to share some insights about their online community through a Q&A session with me.

Cognizant is one of the world’s largest providers of global IT, business process and consulting services) and their online community is designed to share best practices with business and IT leaders from around the globe as well as enable peer-peer connections on professional topics from key business and technology trends through sourcing of strategic services. Alan leads the charter on Cognizant’s thought leadership efforts – publications and points of view. The community plays an important role Cognizant’s ability to collaborate with their customers on strategy and operations vision and implementation.

Now on to Alan’s insights….

Question: Would you please share a bit about the Cognizant Community?

Answer: Cognizant Connections is a private community comprised primarily of senior level Cognizant clients, from CIOs and COOS, through vice presidents of various business functions and technology departments. It is by invitation only and there are private groups where members can more comfortably share their PoVs without fear of offending anyone or breaching confidentialities. Interestingly, our Quality Strategy Council is one of our most active and engaged groups, where members discuss the latest and greatest developments related to business continuity and software testing practices.

We have built a safe place for them to join common interest groups and share insights among themselves and with our subject matters, as well outside experts (partners, academics, friends of the company, etc.). Current count is 3800 members since we soft launched in October 2007. Focus on quality of member and level of engagement, not raw numbers. In fact, we pruned a third of our list last year to weed out people who are members but hadn't engaged in at least a year. We came to the conclusion that if someone didn’t come back after seeing at least 12 e- newsletters and countless alerts on everything from new content and conversations in groups to which they subscribe, they really weren’t interested in being a member.

Question: Does Cognizant differentiate between social media marketing and social business? Where does the online community fall in the spectrum of social strategy?

Answer: We see the community as social business ... we are all about creating a comfortable place for clients to connect with experts, share knowledge and solve problems in a collaborative way. Our social media marketing is separate but integrated across platforms (SlideShare, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.). Our ecommunity manager is also our social media evangelist and digital marketing strategist. This ensures that our strategy is integrated and best practices are shared across our various channels.

Question: How do you define social business?

Answer: We define it as the art of business collaboration, using digital tools and techniques that enable individuals across silos , organizations and industries to work together to share insights and tackle thorny business challenges. Not everyone gets this, so our view is that we are building this platform for younger and up-and-coming business leaders who can hopefully model more collaborative and transparent social business behaviors for the rest of the community.

Question: What are some of the ways, if any, that you as the Community leader have integrated offline and online activities in support of your customers?

Answer: Cognizant Connections is a perfect extension of our physical world meetings, enabling pre-, mid-, and post-event exchanges of knowledge and informational needs. We have used special interest groups to gauge interest in events, call for speakers and get feedback on materials presented at our events. In fact, these are the groups where we tend to have the most engaged and active users. I guess Cognizant Connections, when combined with real-world meet and greets, is the most effective way to build esprit de corps!

Question: Are there any other ways you use the data or insights surfaced through community to impact / inform core operations?

Answer: We do use an assortment of web analytics to highlight which content areas are most fertile. This helps us to see where we should focus our thought leadership development efforts. The community also acts as a sounding board for trends and PoVs that we want to share with a broader audience. The results may not totally influence business decisions, but they provide an important input for figuring out client/prospect sentiment.

Question: What do you think are the biggest benefits of community for Cognizant? Why do you do it?

Answer: As I tell all of our senior execs -- we are building this community for the next generation of business leaders. More important, Cognizant Connections enables us to create more transparent and real-time ways to work with and share insights with clients. It is an important investment, particularly if we want to reinforce that we are company they can count on to build more digitally collaborative ways of working across silos and industries.

Question: Do you have any advice or lessons learned for other B2B companies seeking to build an online community to service their customers?

Answer: Suggest you let your targeted audience lead you initially, but do not despair if they do not know what they want. There’s a lot of trial and error involved; no organization has gotten it totally right. It’s a two-parts experimentation, one part perspiration formula. Keep trying new things; if user blogs aren’t your members’ cup of tea, get rid of them. Seek ways for members to connect and participate at the level that makes them most comfortable. Also, remember most networking usually takes place at a level that is invisible to the community operator/sponsor, so don’t fret if you don’t see members exploiting the connections they make within your community by commenting on blogs and discussion areas. It is happening in the physical world, on the phone, via private email, etc. Therefore, make sure to connect members through physical world meet and greets, if possible. It enables members to further develop virtual relationships established in your ecommunity.

Connecting The Dots On The Social Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:56:42 PST

Your B2B firm trumpets its engaged, active customers. These customers, the sweet center of any successful business, generate a significant portion of your firm’s revenue. These same customers serve as references; speak at industry conferences; share ideas and feedback about your company. When they broadcast positive feedback (public or private), that precious message makes the rounds in your firm’s C-suite. In return, these customers will be thanked with some great company swag in appreciation … maybe even be featured on your company’s website.

Is that all? Really?

With all that back-and-forth communication, how often do customer suggestions and ideas actually make a difference in your company? More specifically, how often does what your customers say to your firm about your company’s processes, products or services serve as a catalyst for real change in your operations? I thought so. But really, how could it?

Many large organizations have created what I like to call a “Social Media Muddle.” They have a plethora of social media tool experiments underway: newsletters and blogs for customer communications, twitter and Facebook for customer interaction, LinkedIN for promotions, sometimes even an online customer community to provide all of the above and more. But … all these different social outreach and listening opportunities are run by different departments, and are completely and utterly divorced from core operations and processes. Product development, customer care and R&D most likely do not have direct access to information they crave – the voice of the customer.

So while your customers are actively sharing information about their needs in many places – public and private, online and offline – your company keeps on keeping on, just doing things according to plan. A plan that is not adjusting and adapting to ever-changing customer needs.

Here’s a common example: How many times have you gone hunting for a technical solution in a company’s customer care forums? You may have found dozens of postings, reams of information, customer inquiries and discussions that span multiple threads, some lasting months or even years. Eventually, someone (usually a customer – not the company!) suggests a righteous fix that really works. All those searching for a similar solution are generally happy. Once in awhile, a few staff in the support call center may point people to that solution, if they know where to look and have been paying attention. This scenario plays out time and again for all manner of products and service, some well-establish, some brand new. But does the underlying product undergo a bug fix, enhancement or redesign as a result? Is an entirely new product or service fast-tracked into testing based on this priceless feedback? Probably not. Why not?

When customer interactions are fragmented throughout the firm, the typical B2B organization’s core operations have little chance of being responsive to customer needs. Absent an interactive customer communications strategy that reaches from the edge of the distribution channel into the heart of your firm’s innovation, production and supply processes, your core operations won’t be able to respond.

Of course, the customers don’t know, or even care, about your firm’s creaky processes. They’ve spoken to you. They expect outcomes or, at the very least, acknowledgement of the issue.

Accountability is the name of the game and B2B customers are coming to expect it. Consumers are already there. Remember the iPhone 4 antenna-gate debacle? In seven days, “bad social” feedback cost AAPL $12B in market cap. Did they make it back? Sure, with a surly Steve Jobs saying nothing’s wrong but we’ll acknowledge your complaint with a rubber case. Imagine how a less nimble, less responsive firm might have fared? Then again, there was Apple Maps earlier this year …

Another consideration: Isolating customer interactions from core process can allow customers to game the system. Some frequent flyers – that’s me, folks -- “work” multiple channels to get what they want. The online systems and the call centers are completely unconnected, and there is no record of me as a customer that is shared across the channels. To improve the price for a ticket or get an upgrade, pure persistence coupled with a multi-channel strategy will eventually yield a better result. I am depending on the airline’s failure to achieve customer integration with core operations to save me money. I doubt there’s a line on the airline’s strategic pricing map that reads: “create variable pricing wormholes to delight persistent customers through multi-channel inconsistencies!”

So here’s to all you B2B organizations (except airlines -- I love the savings operational confusion gives me), isn’t it time to get your customer interactions moving in the same direction? It’s time you started connecting your core operations to respond to the commands your customers are giving you.

And in honor of the recent inauguration ceremonies, I’ll repurpose a useful concept: “Ask not what your customers can do for you. Ask what you can do for your customers!”

10 Cheers for Community Managers Everywhere! (#CMAD)

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:25:43 PST

Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) is just around the corner. Monday, January 28^thmarks the fourth annual celebration, started by Jeremiah Owyang. Read about the history and happenings of this day here. This is the day for celebrating the often-unsung heroes of the online world, the tireless individuals who keep customer connections alive and well so organizations and the customers can both thrive and prosper through knowledge-sharing.

Why should there be a day dedicated to celebrating this job? It’s a mystery to many people what a community manager does, so why does the role warrant such fanfare? That’s easy. Offering appreciation to someone requires understanding the value she or he creates for the organization. So here are 10 things I think a skilled community manager brings to the organization – and the community – they support:

1. Peerless host. Tireless attention to, care and feeding of the community’s members (customers and prospects) to ensure they are heard and their needs are met.

2. Tireless monitor. The work never stops. The dedicated community manager follows and logs on to the community after-hours, on weekends and holidays to make sure the community is humming.

3. Virtual concierge. Attention means more than checking posts. Community managers provide off-line support and engagement with members. Believe it or not, they pick up the phone, write personal notes, send little gifts and do research for their members.

4. Reference librarian. They sweat the details, remembering a wide range of facts about their members. This in-depth knowledge is the key to personal outreach within the community. Sam got a new job – congratulations! Sue had an issue with the product - was it resolved to her satisfaction?

5. Online coach. Community managers are the shepherds of member-created content. Member comments they encourage, articles they help refine or even edit. Just because the member is a senior professional doesn’t mean they can write well. Thanks to the community manager, the customer’s posts or articles read better and smarter!

6. Tech support whiz. They tackle the day-to-day, every day. Lost passwords, “help, I can’t find the X button?”, responding to the vague “it doesn’t work for me!” and always helping solve puzzle without judging the member.

7. Hail the members’ champion! They fight battles on behalf of the membership every day as the liaison with product development, customer care and sales to help get a member’s message across even when the feedback may be unwanted within the company.

8. Stats master. Quickly gathering on-the spot metrics and tracking data even when there are other pressing matters at hand. “Hi, I know it’s after 11am but can you pull some data together for the noon meeting?” Really? Yes … and they can do it.

9. Constant student. Tech never sleeps. They must always learn new tools and techniques to keep pace with the rapidly-changing techscape. The community manager is often expected to be the resident social media technologist, so they must know about every tool ever developed and have an opinion on its suitability.

10. Executive assistant for social. The hours they spend with executives and senior folks showing and teaching them how communities and social media “work”.

That’s ten, and the list could go on and on. I think these are just a few examples of why community managers need a day – or a year – of appreciation.

In case you are unfamiliar with the complexity of the community manager’s role, I have explored this topic in a number of past posts to better explain the nuances and challenges. Here are some examples of posts that focus on the details of community management.

Don’t ask community managers to be strategists was a controversial piece that looked at the need especially in larger organizations to hone in on the specific skills of the community managers and not assign too many hats to a single individual, thus rendering them unable to focus on customer care.

Social media manager vs online community manager – Same or different? tackled the challenge of trying to parse the two, often overlapping roles by focusing on performance metrics rather than job requirements.

A day in the life of a B2B online community manager is a perennial favorite about the specifics of working in the business-to-business world which holds different demands from consumer-facing online communities.

Here’s to all of you out there doing this important work. Happy Community Managers Appreciation Day!

Online Community Content Map (Part II): Why Online Content Must Answer The “So What?” Question For Members

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:33:40 PST

In part one of this series, I discussed how content in an online community has to answer the “So What?” question for members. My approach is to go beyond simplistic editorial calendars and, instead, focus on the content’s value to members using “Level of Analysis” and “Member Impact” as a way to define content categories with online communities. The chart from part 1 is repeated here for reference (click to enlarge):

The third dimension of this chart defines the categories or types of content – the diagonal bands moving from the lower left to the upper right. The types are: Individual Exposure, Idea Exchange and Reflective Practice. What are the characteristics of each?

Individual Exposure content typically reflects the experience of a single individual from their point of view and undergoes no analysis or assimilation on the part of the community organization. Individual exposure content is important because it allows a member of the community to share something about herself, offering a way to let other members know a little bit about her. A member shares this information hopeful that it will lead to professional connections and/or increased visibility. It’s often an individual sharing of facts (e.g. profile information) or a brief description of experience (e.g. a short article) Content curation is also a form of Individual Exposure. When a member or community manager shares news, links, photos or other information with the community to showcase an industry or issue, the individual associates themselves with the information shared, and indicates that the member is a valuable information source. Note that this content type requires no analysis.

These are typically Low Risk experiences for the community member and an important first foray leading to deeper online community experiences. It’s essential that community organizers recognize, support and encourage this content creation activity. As LinkedIN researcher Krista Canfield recently discovered, professionals with photos in their LinkedIn profile are seven times more likely to participate in the community.

Idea Exchange content usually takes place between a small number of members. It offers the community a way to see (and possibly participate in) a shared experience of a personal or professional nature. Idea Exchange content can take many forms: online discussions, point/counterpoint articles, Webinars on member-driven topics and Ask the Expert features, sometimes supported by professionals within the community’s sponsoring organization.

Idea Exchange material is of greater value to the community members and the sponsoring organization because it provides relevance or insight into a particular industry or affinity group. It supports and reinforces the impulse which drove the community’s members to gather online: find others facing similar issues, share passions or struggle with the same set of concerns. The act of sharing an idea or problem (even in a private gated online community of vetted peers) is a mid-risk activity. It requires participants to expose a bit of their thinking or practice to others for discussion or response. It is, however, of higher value to the community than Individual Exposure. Idea Exchange content requires some analysis on the part of either the members or the sponsoring organization.

Reflective Practice is the final content type. It offers deep analysis or research into a given topic or issue, and brings out the experiences of many in the community as an additional element for analysis. This enables all or most community members to gain additional insights and think about the topic in a new or different way. This idea of reflective practice was first introduced by organizational behaviorist Don Schön in 1983 in his book The Reflective Practitioner. Later, in my first online community role, LabNet, we worked with him to apply his theories on reflective practice to an online community. The asynchronous timing of online posts offered great opportunities for professionals to share details of their practice, often with greater detail and more candor than in-person settings such as meetings.

Examples of this content type include an analysis report on an active discussion group, a research study of the community members’ points of view, or a well-done benchmark study that combines data with information from community members about their experiences.

Reflective Practice community content is the most challenging to produce but yields the greatest benefit to the community members and the community organization. It provides insight that cannot be obtained elsewhere when there is participation from a large number of community members. This content type (driven by one’s peer group and validated through the analysis effort) helps the community organizer and its members be first to market with the analysis, so long as the community organizer acts quickly to analyze the data. This is especially important for newer and fast-changing member issues.

It is different than a summary of a vibrant discussion or the quantitative results of a survey. It is the act of sense-making that frames the content (discussions, data and ideas) and analyzes it in a way that is actionable. One example of Reflective Practice is the Cognizant Technologies online community Cognizanti. Here members discuss a key topic -- “the future of work”-- which has a direct impact on its’ CIO-level clients. The process does not stop with the discussion group exchanges. Cognizant then analyzes the data shared by members to shape and directly influence their thought leadership platform on this topic. They create thought-provoking research reports which are then shared with members online, through their customer events, and via their journal. The member-driven content takes on new life through the thoughtful examination – Reflective Practice -- the community organizers bring to the table. The more Reflective Practice content a community can offer, the more likely members are to share and participate more deeply over time.

Most successful online communities have the material to create Reflective Practice content, but often do not have the skills or the patience to convert the raw data into a meaningful analysis. That is a missed opportunity. Content that is able to reflect the experiences of many members, and is examined for trends, insights and impact, is the most meaningful gift an online community can offer to its members. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Content this sophisticated is a rarity in an era of 140 character tweets. Members join a community in the hope of engaging with and learning from peers. Online communities which enable learning and draw directly from peer-peer experiences are by definition a success.

The Online Community Content Map – Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa DiMauro) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:55:42 PST

Creating meaningful content for an online community is a tricky business. Few online communities survive solely on member discussions. As I am fond of saying, people come for content but stay for community. However, if online community management shares too much content of marginal value, members can be overwhelmed and distracted. And of course, too little content usually results in an empty community.

Striking the right balance of content and conversation is an elusive but necessary combination for success. When developing the content component, online community managers often think in terms of monthly or weekly Editorial Calendars to ensure a steady flow of ideas and content sources to keep the site active. This is a best practice, as it allows community management to plan for the future, align site activities around topic themes and, frankly, helps forestall a constant scramble for articles and the like. But in too many cases, calendars are devised with the primary goal of filling the content bucket, with little regard for the needs of and value to members. Community management hasn’t stopped to ask the “So what?” question on the members’ behalf.

What’s needed is the right kind of content to fuel interactions and provide ideas and insights that help members solve the problems that brought them to the community in the first place. The most important content in an online community is that which comes from its own members (i.e., members sharing their experiences) vs. content which the community organizer brings to the community from other places ((i.e., external articles published elsewhere.) Emphasizing community-generated content supports the peer-peer exchanges which brought members to the community in the first place.

I’ve created this chart to help visualize the how member contribution varies with the different content types in an online community (click to enlarge):

The vertical axis – Level of Analysis – describes the degree to which the member is providing synthesis or interpretation based on experiences or data. For example, at the low end, a member profile is a simple biographical statement about the member. Further up, a member article or point-of-view item would offer some analysis and informed opinion about an experience or issue – from the viewpoint of a member in the community.

The horizontal axis – Member Impact – denotes the relative number of members involved in the creation or authorship experience. For example, a member’s own profile or an individual interview involves only one or two people, while a rapid poll draws on a number of members’ responses to create value.

When viewed through the lens of member creation and contribution, it’s easy to see how so many externally-generated content types, such as Industry News, may not address member needs. They can probably get the information someplace else, unless it is sourced from and intended only for members of this community. Note that, if a number of members began posting comments about a particular item or engaging in an ongoing discussion about an issue raised by an item, the value of the resulting content rises. The level of analysis and number of contributors (member impact) both increase, moving it up and to the right into the realm of a forum discussion.

The third dimension of this chart defines the categories of content – the diagonal bands moving from the lower left to the upper right. The categories are: Individual Exposure, Idea Exchange and Reflective Practice.

Part two of this post will explore the special aspects of each of these content categories, based on how members and the community organizer can work together to create content of maximum value and impact for the community as a whole.