Kirby's BLOG

UBC e-Marketing Trade Show

2008-10-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

We concluded the BAMA 513 course in the MBA program with a trade show on October 6th at Robson Square. My team members Jill and Cagri and I presented our web analytics research and recommendations. Here I am speaking to a consultant for Boeing about our project. Behind me on the computers, we demoed sample dashboards, which I have included the links to for anyone to try out.

BAMA513_Globe.swf
BAMA513_UnitedStatesMap.swf

I hope that you find our blogs on web analytics to be insightful and helpful.

-- Kirby

Web Analytics - Survey Questions

2008-10-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

While there is a lot of "clickstream" data, site surveys are also useful to determine visitor intent and satisfaction. At random intervals, we can ask the following key questions:

* Based on today's visit, how would you rate your site experience overall?

* Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of your visit?
- Learn about products
- Create or check your account
- Solve issue
- Learn about the company
- Other Please Specify

* Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit today?
- Yes
- No

* If no, please tell us why you were not able to fully complete the purpose of your visit today.

* Would you recommend BOC to others?

Web Analytics - KPIs Now

2008-10-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some KPIs that we are able to quantify now, although it will take some effort to gather the data:

*Bounce rate
*Referrers and Search Terms
*Click Density Analysis
*Top viewed pages (per visit)
*Top entry pages (per visit)
*Top destinations
*Page Analysis
*BLOG Analysis
*Top pages
*NPS or Average CSAT
*Growth of community

Each of these have actionable insights. For example, bounce rate can help us to understand the relevance of the page to the incoming traffic. If high rate, we need to look at whether the "right" traffic is coming to the page, and if so, then what can we do to lower the bounce rate, such as changing content and/or layout.

Web Analytics - Business Questions

2008-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

In the course of working on the Web Analytics project for the community, I came up with these preliminary business questions (based on the Web Analytics: An Hour a Day book)that must be addressed at some point:

· What is the incremental profit of a community member versus a non-community member?

· How much revenue do our members generate or influence online and offline?

· Which are the most effective types of content for generating trials and sales?

· What percentage of customers is able to find what they need?

· How can we increase the number of customer evangelists by leveraging our website?

· What are the most influential buckets of content on our website?

· What are the top N technical issues customers want answered on our website?

· What percentage of members is wowed?

· How much money does the community save the company in terms of reduced demand on support channels and lower customer acquisition costs?

These probably are the holy grail of questions - ultimately, it's about understanding the value that community brings to the company or is community just a way of doing business?

Building Brands by Building Relationships

2008-09-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting article about how Web 2.0 companies are building their brands through building good relationships. Companies such as Yelp and Threadless know with absolute clarity of who they are. By cultivating an enthusiastic community, the community will in turn "spread the word" - essentially marketing the company. When your custopmers LOVE you, they will do the heavy lifting for you in terms of promoting your company. This idea is not new but the Internet/Web 2.0 has brought this concept to the forefront of marketing.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i5e732e045deaaba35b0db0f0e2790a49?pn=2

NPS - May not be the only number you need after all

2008-09-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Came across a study published in Marketing Science which looked at the usefulness of various metrics in predicting business success. NPS or net promoter score has been widely hailed as the "only number you need" but this study shows that NPS has little to no value in predicting business success. Rather, average CSAT scores are the best, followed by the Top 2 Box satisfaction scores.

Study is published in Marketing Science, Vol. 25, No.5, September-October 2006, pp 426-439.

Book Review: "We Are Smarter Than We"

2008-09-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

WE ARE SMARTER THAN ME: HOW TO UNLEASH THE POWER OF CROWDS IN YOUR BUSINESS

Introduction
“We are Smarter then Me” ($24.99) is a collection of insights from the 4,000+ members of the community that was expressly created to write this book. The central premise is that in the new digital age where nearly a billion people are connected, this new “we” is infinitely smarter than any individual “me”.

Crowdsourcing
Whereas Web 1.0 was in part about profiting from hoarding data, Web 2.0 is about democratizing it – information is more valuable as more people use, increase, and refine it. By providing access, owners can reduce their costs and improve their product and thus revenues. As a business model, this is called crowdsourcing. The book cites many examples of companies tapping into the collective wisdom of a community for product ideas and improvements. For example, Virgin Mobile (USA) created an online community of 2,000 carefully selected users to help it keep abreast of trends and promising opportunities, and provide input into various aspects of their business such as providing input into designing phones.

Customer Support
The authors also discuss the well-entrenched trend of shifting customer support onto online forums: “…online support has been a double boon. They save money by freeing customer-service personnel from other work, while also building a cohesive, loyal community of repeat customers who can be tapped for other purposes – say, to test new products”. As one of the managers of a large community, while I agree with the authors assertion that with more complex products, companies need to invest more into nurturing them, I think they understate the effort involved. It requires dedicated moderators who are skilled at solving issues, mediating any conflicts, connecting community members, and stimulating discussion.

The Right, Passionate Members
The book shines when it addresses the issue of passion of community members to spread word of mouth: “…the most powerful form of marketing is an advocacy message from a trusted friend” and “Everyone is passionate about something…but we need to harness that enthusiasm.” Of course, the key lies in first identifying those connectors. For this point, the book advises you to “tap into you marketing people to find customer who have called or written praising the product and those who have a long track record of purchasing it.” Issuing a general invitation through the web site is also an option, although you may end up with less than ideal candidates. In my opinion, this underscores a key point – typically in a community, the top 1% influences the next 9%, who then influence the next 90%; therefore, it is important to target the top1%.

When creating a community, it is important to invite like-minded individuals. Like a dinner party, which guests you invite can result in drastically different outcomes. Invite loyal customers and find as many other bright people as possible. The bright members are critical for creating a vibrant community that can start and further the dialog to solve issues, create ideas, and create connections among members. To harness the power of crowds, companies must tap into the emotional aspect of people’s passions. For example, e-Marketers should not create a community about a new brand of aspirin, but rather create one about pain control. Furthermore, they should allow people to be engaged in as many ways as possible – forums, blogs, and rating systems to name a few.

To get the community engaged, E-Marketers cannot be afraid of creating debate by encouraging disparate opinions for it is in that exchange of views that innovative ideas germinate. By experimenting with different types of content and ways of inciting valuable conversation, companies can engage members to provide feedback, ideas, and suggestions. In particular, e-Marketers need to closely observe the flow of ideas and monitor reactions to products, campaigns, and other initiatives.

Leading from the Rear
Companies (and their eMarketers) who want to start up and/or engage communities should “lead from the rear”. Their role is to provide direction and then to stand back because interference will stifle contributions and ultimately is futile. The community will do what it wants – the best that companies can do is to nurture and guide, with the intent of developing a trusting relationship with its members. However, companies must also know when to step in as in the case of correcting harmful information or restarting stagnant discussions. What is required is a mixture of the right centralized leadership and ownership of functions, and decentralized contributions.

Trust
Companies can only succeed if they develop a trusting relationship with its members. They must deal openly and honestly with them, admitting mistakes immediately and then taking corrective action. Any hint of dishonesty, spinning the truth, or hiding from the truth will not be tolerated and will in fact make matters worse. In marketing to communities, e-Marketers must also let go of their need for perfection. Messages that are too polished or too perfect stifle conversation and promote distrust – can the product or service really be that good? It is OK to have comfortable, casual, and conversational message because that makes the message more human and thus accessible. On the technical community that I manage, we are very careful not to publish traditional marketing content because we know that our members will not welcome it.

In Conclusion
The book does a good job of providing an overview crowdsourcing, supplemented with numerous examples. In fact, it does an excellent job of making its case for the power of crowdsourcing but I could not help but be a bit skeptical about the realities. Maybe it is because I was left wanting for specifics about how do I exactly go about doing it? True, there are some solid tips yet they are intermixed with generic words of wisdom such as “Get serious about the crowd”, “Make sure everyone benefits”, and “Tread firmly but carefully”. And after awhile, all the examples seem to be the same – and maybe that’s the problem – this is a book of too many examples, and not enough specific advice.

SAP TechED 2008 - Las Vegas

2008-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the SAP TechED conference in Vegas last week. One of the main speakers was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. He spoke about two points that stood out for me.

The usefulness of a point system in fostering community contribution
- He was for the most part against it, arguing that point systems do not lead to valuable contributions; rather they lead to members to "point collect" for the rewards. The counterpoint to that is the SAP Community Network has altered its point system whereby the points earned go towards funding the World Food Program.

Control of Community
- He addressed the anxiety around how much control there should be around communities, given users can abuse their priviledges with SPAM and other inappropriate posts, and "point collecting". His argument is that as long as the community provides accountability (i.e., track who the user is), the benefits of having an open community outweigh having tight controls.

One other issue that came up was whether communities should be seeded with content to start or should they grow organically. One conference attendee was a vociferous proponent for seeding content but an SAP Community Network team member argued against it, calling it "intelligent design". I fall on the side of seeding content because I think it's important to guide the community growth to match the objectives set for the community.