iNET Interactive» Social Media

Trends in Online Community Engagement

kevin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:50:18 +0000

I read an excellent report titled, “Online Community Marketing, Growth and Engagement,” coordinated and produced by Forum One Networks. The report presented the findings from a study conducted in May 2008 to research the relationship marketing, community growth and member engagement.

According to blog SocialMediaToday.com, some of the top trends reported by the study’s participants and presented in the report included:

A majority (38% of 95 respondents) stated that within their companies the of online community staff and associated responsibilities actually fell under the Marketing department.

Most (27%) of the participants said that 11-20% of their community members logged into the online community each month. The overall average member login rate is 34% and the Median is 25%.

27 participants gave detailed feedback about how they successfully attracted new members to their communities using Newsletter and Emails, Events, Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, and other techniques.

What I specifically found interesting was the success of growing community through surveys, sponsored blogs and allowing members to recommend to a friend. Within a community environment, I would expect to find peer-to-peer recruitment (social influence from recommendations/word of mouth) as one of the strongest community building activities. I also wasn’t surprised to find search engine optimization high on the list since online communities by their very nature generate excellent long-tail search opprtunties.

At the core of the report, an excellent presentation was given in response to the question, “how do you define Communtiy Member Engagement?” The responses varied but the main points involved (1) amount of activity, (2) amount of content created and (3) amount of time spent on the site. The type of community further defined the specific measures.

If you own, operate or intend to strat an online community, I highly recommend getting a copy of the report. It will help set benchmarks for your metrics and provide some creative insight for new ways to grow your online communities and gain higher engagement.

Getting Your Arms Around Social Media

kevin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:37:44 +0000

There is little doubt that social media is transforming business. However, even as a marketer working within social media, putting it all together into a coherent framework is challenging. The other day I found an outstanding tool that has helped me “connect the dots” among all the various facets of social media, called, the, “Conceptual Map of the Social Web” developed by the brilliant group over at www.websocialarchitecture.com.

One component of the Social Web where we spend the majority of our time is in developing and nurturing communities. As stated on the blog post I linked to above, “Communities are different than social networks in that they are built primarily around groups of people, rather than individuals. Another way of saying it is that the group is the point in communities, whereas the individual is the point in social networks.” This explanation offers an excellent differentiation. I would add that social networks develop within communities and likewise, communities form through social networks because people have a natural tendency to attract likeness. For example, as individuals connect through a social network, similarities in occupation, interests, hobbies or other characteristics, become the common ground necessary to start a community. Other influences such as the individuals’ passion, span of their influence, and the size and strength of each individuals personal network, can lead to community growth and stronger attraction.

I highly recommend printing off the Social Web Map and hanging it on your wall or office cubicle. It is a great reference to help understand social media connections.

Web 2.0 Expo: Lessons learned from a web developer’s perspective

Aaron Forgue — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:07:32 +0000

iNET’s attendance of the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo gave us the chance to interact with some of the people behind the most popular online services. As a developer, the sessions were extremely informative while humbling at the same time. Despite the ego check, I walked away with a handful of things that I feel are important for all web developers.

Semantics

Semantically marked up data is where the action is. As torrential amounts of data are added to the web, it is clear that organization of that data must be improved. Semantics allow us to describe data based on what it is and does, instead of how the data should be displayed on a web page. Semantic markup increases the portability of data and allows any number of disparate systems to grep that data and mash it up with their own.

Microformats – Microformats are standardized schemes of the more common semantic data markup formats. By setting standard ways of semantically marking up data, we increase the data portability substantially. New microformats are being created everyday. Keep track of the progress at http://microformats.org

Free the data

A common theme extracted from all of the developer sessions was embracing open data exchange. Many organizations hold invaluable data sets that, if opened to the public, would enable the creation amazing new services. Freebase is an excellent example of this in action.

Mashups and APIs – Mashups are a recently popular form of web applications that grab data from multiple sources and combine it into a useful service. APIs are the secret ingredient for mashups to be successful. Build APIs for your data and the third party developers will add incredible value to your product or service.

Scaling

The recent uptime struggles of Twitter have made many people aware of the importance of scaling issues. Developers must design their applications to scale up front before it is too late. It is better to code in scaling capabilities up front than to crash and burn when your service gains popularity exponentially.

Ajax security

Web 2.0 design principles have ushered in heavy reliance on AJAX patterns and with it have come security issues. Security audits should be run on all AJAX code just the same as any other chunk of logic. Many developers are not aware of the risks involved with using AJAX; a little extra effort can help eliminate these risks.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the next evolution for hosting applications and databases. Moving data off of single servers and into a redundant, highly available cloud of servers is quickly becoming the norm. Services like Amazon EC2/S3/SimpleDB and Google App Engine are leading the way for this new model of developing web applications.

Technology to keep you eye on: OAuth

OAuth is a protocol for allowing third party applications to authenticate with a user’s account. This is extremely important as API’s, mashups, and piggy-backing services proliferate. OAuth will provide a secure way for these services to operate without exposing the user’s private information.

It is a very exciting time to be a web developer. Keep your ear to the ground regularly to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the fascinating new technologies that are emerging!

Controlling chaos: Three recommendations for managing your brand in the social media

troy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:42:52 +0000

Sometimes we forget how much media has changed. Before the days of the Internet and social media, brands used to be able to spoon feed their message. They only needed to concern themselves with a couple of media channels — three network TV stations, a handful of national newspapers, and maybe a few trade magazines. The message was easy to control. It was neat, clean, and sanitized. Well, my friends, those days are gone.

With the onset of social media, the public controls the channel. There are literally millions of media outlets and tens of millions of contributors. Control is gone, and the control freaks are freaking out. If a community gets behind your product, the brand value is enormous. But even the most vaunted products are criticized, bashed, and dragged through the mud. So what is a marketer to do to protect and grow a brand? We have three recommendations:

1) Build a presence in the community

Figure out which communities are important to you and your brand, and get involved. If it’s a forum, start contributing. If it’s a blog, start commenting. But don’t spam the board or the blog with self promotion. Be helpful, unbiased and objective. In doing so, you will build your virtual bank account of goodwill with the membership, which will come in handy some day. By helping others through the sharing of knowledge, ideas and assistance, you will ultimately be helping yourself and your brand.

2) Respond, both to praise and criticism

In addition to helping others, respond to the praise and criticism your brand receives. Responding to praise is easy. A simple thank-you will do. Criticism… well, that can be a bit tricky. First, you MUST respond. Silence implies guilt. If the statement is untrue or misleading, try to clarify or offer a rebuttal. Provide supporting data. Stay focused on the facts and the issue at hand. Keep your cool. Never, ever make it personal. And if you made a mistake, admit it. Mistakes happen. You will be remembered by how you handle them.

3) Accept that not everyone will love you

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you will not be able to win over an unhappy customer or a vocal critic. It’s going to happen. Just accept it. However, you can take comfort that the audience is smart. Media is no longer neat, clean and sanitized. As a result, consumers of this media do not take everything they read as the gospel truth. They understand that not everyone can be pleased. They understand that there may be hidden agendas. Your brand will be judged on the overall sentiment. It will not be condemned for a handful of negative remarks.

With these three simple steps, you can minimize brand bashing and maximize brand building. In the brave new world of social media, it’s as close to “controlling the message” as you can expect.