DC Insights

Social Web Running. . .

Literally that, Running. Staying true to the more entertaining weekend blogs, and to share a bit about myself besides my professional pursuits, I wanted to write about running. . . via social media. I've been a big running for about 10 years now with 8 marathons under my belt and hopefully plenty more to follow. My last was the 5^th of December, a trail marathon in Indiana – check out this elevation profile! Lots of fun ;-)

I first thought about putting a top 5 or 10 list together but quickly realized I should leave that to Carol and her Top running websites list or the Healthcare Administration Degree's 100 list. Thanks for the thorough lists, folks!

Then, I thought about a site I used with some frequency before, Athletic Minded Traveler . . . but then I found out they went to a pay-for-service model since I last used them. As a traveling consultant, I found it to be a valuable resource when it was free. . . $20 a year now, but I don't have a need. So I moved on. . . .

For a community to gain serious momentum, it might just need to be on Facebook these days, right? Well I went looking and quickly found:

• Running: The largest running associated group associated with http://www.runningnews.gr/, and I don't have a marathon planned for Greece. . . yet
• Running: The second largest, and this appears to be out of New Zealand. . . perhaps
• Running: The third largest, somehow associated with http://running-shoe-coupons.110mb.com/, but with Chicago based photos. . .

So, if you are looking to become mayor of something that could be major, try aggregating the online running community. . . somewhere (for when they aren't out running, I suppose) There is Runners Lounge, but, and this is possibly horrible to say, can any social site be legitimate without use of Facebook Connect?

I did happen upon traineo, an awesome site for someone who is looking to get seriously motivated about weight loss and fitness. Watch the quick 1:41 min video to understand. Basically, you set up goals, they use analytics to guide and motivate you. But, most importantly, you join in on a community of motivators who all help each other – that's huge. A resource like this should be used in any/all preventative health programs! I wrote about this back in June. FYI, fitlink has a similar model.

traineo in under 2 mins from traineo on Vimeo.

So there you go. . . I have not been missing too much online while I've been out running ;-) BTW, Today's run along the lake was amazing!

Did I miss any amazing online running gems that you know of?

UPDATE:  Want to give mention to Weight Loss Buddy at http://tinyurl.com/ybkqpcj with features similar to traineo.  And, it appears the site is halfway to perfection.  They are on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. . . but I want to see them (1) using Facebook Connect and (2) allowing users to share their ongoing successes via Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace.  Thanks for the reference Stacy!

Microsoft LookingGlass – A Social Media Business Tool Assessment

I've been researching how a company can engage in social media (or should) and I written blog entries on how companies have used platforms like Facebook effectively and how they might be tracking the success of their engagement. But as a company's social media engagement increases in complexity (e.g., increasing number of platforms, deeper relationships across a broader spectrum of clients) the job of management can be daunting. Then there is the higher function of integrating social media content and learning with other business areas (e.g., marketing, service, R&D). Then I happened upon Mel's blog entry on Microsoft LookingGlass (and an update). This blog entry is an assessment of Microsoft's LookingGlass based on what's currently available.

Tagline: "make social media actionable for businesses"

Description: LookingGlass lets companies listen to, participate in, and analyze social media. This includes mining social media sites for information and applying a 'sentiment' measure (created by Microsoft Research (MSR) and is based on a "machine-learned" model so it doesn't use any manually created rules or heuristics) - LookingGlass automatically rates each posting as positive or negative (sounds like a tough order - Chris Dannen agrees). These efforts are taken to the next level as they are integrated into other systems to put social media to use for advertising, sales, support, and other key business areas.

Example benefits include:

1. Seeing a spike in activity to pinpoint how campaigns are being received
2. Helping internal product teams quickly become aware of, and respond to, bugs in the products
3. Comparing internal customer data with corresponding user sentiment on Twitter or other social networking sites
4. Leveraging new layers of information to target investments in social media (i.e., discover new customer segments)

Implementation: Microsoft will engage an external SI (system integrator) to help with the deployment, training, and support. The estimated time is a one-day pre-installation training, one-day installation, and one-day post-installation training.

Strengths:

• Enables entire marketing teams to access a portfolio of social media profiles from one central platform
• Includes plans for partner development capabilities . . . we'll see how open it really is
• Available as a software-plus-service for both PCs and Macs

Challenges:

• I'll note, and comments to Mel's blog site this: social media is theoretically based on engagement, not a dashboard that aggregates tweets and Facebook comments for a marketing team to then analyze and respond to. I believe a social media team (with marketing, support, and R&D roots to start) that stays true to their MO can greatly benefit from tools like this to:
  • Manage individuals' activities across the group to make a company's presence more uniform, and
  • Better integrate their efforts with company efforts and business metrics to better validate the overall social media approach
• The product's functionality may be limited for a business that not using Microsoft's enterprise suite (thanks Leena Rao)
• Timing: Only 50 slots for the 2010 incubation period with select marketers and agencies; general release around end of 2010 or beginning of 2011

Open Question: Can this platform compete against freemium startups like Viralheat, PeopleBrowsr, Socialseek and more that offer aggregating platforms. Additionally, Salesforce.com's Service Cloud is beginning to integrate social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. Barb Mosher believes Microsoft will likely be successful in their efforts to make LookingGlass used by their customers - that it integrates with SharePoint will be a key part of that success.

If you want to watch some video, I've embedded a good YouTube vid below, or check out the full 42 min show, a 4 min preview, or a 2 min preview.

Be sure to let me know if I missed something. . . and additional business tool assessments to come - Cheers

Bud v. Coors v. Miller – Facebook Battle of (light) Beers

First, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone . . . go to your fridge, grab a cold one, and return for a beer battle royal!

For the holidays and to get myself deeper into the guts of Facebook, I shall pit three light beers against each other . . . who is the social media KING?

To start, I set metrics for comparison – a quantitative assessment. Valuable metrics must be tied to the primary objective, or outcome, of a corporation's presence on Facebook. Metrics must also supply actionable information – information the analyst can use to make positive change. Now, owners of Facebook pages have access to a rich set of metrics and tools for measuring success of their own pages. How can they best measure themselves against a competitor? . . . I'll try my best, starting with a generic objective:

Corporate Facebook Page Objective:

• Engage customer base that participates in secondary Facebook relationships; begin a conversation
• Increase exposure to a branded experience that enhances the corporate product(s)
• Gather market insight for R&D, market planning, and improved customer support

Next, selecting metrics that are publically available (let me know if I missed something you were expecting):

• Number of Fans
• Corporate Post Frequency; # per month
  • Based on an average of x months
  • % of fan base response to above recorded posts (# of thumbs + responses/# of fans)
• Fan Post (absolute number; no assessment of quality)
  • Months Represented in fan post #
• Publication of material to build engagement on, including:
  • # of Videos
  • # of Photo Albums
  • # of Favorite Pages
  • # of Interactive Applications Offered

I put these in a tentatively prioritized order: Absolute # of fans is the foundation, but just a start), actual conversation/interaction or posts and responses is key, and then material to continue promoting conversation adds value. If one had a Facebook page with a ton of material and no engagement – it should get an F grade. What you think; valid reasoning?

So. . . drum roll please. . . here are the results as of 11/25/09, 12:00 CST:

	Coors Light	Bud Light	Miller Lite
Number of Fans	288,345	348,053	194,865
Favorite Pages	1	0	0
# of Videos	3	14	3
# of Photo Albums	0	0	43
Interactive Applications	2	8	2
Corporate Post Frequency; # per month	2.6	3.7	4.8
average of x months	5	3	4
% of fan base response to above posts	0.47%	0.46%	0.41%
Fan Post (absolute number)	3	538	718
# of last 6 months Represented	2	4	1

 

And my takeaways:

• There is much more to each companies approach then these numbers. For example, Miller Lite has a much more transparent site where fans and non-fans can see non-corporate posts. The number and complexity of variables means we'll speculate in the blog post – you'll have to bring me in for my more in-depth analysis

• Coors Light does so much more around their primary sponsorship, the NFL, which is no surprise. However, that then becomes the theme of the page/community. There are benefits and possible challenges with that. Bud Light and Miller Lite fans are certainly not there for just the season. . .
• Some metrics above point to what we can't see. While I don't specifically record it because I can't entirely substantiate it, I believe the age of the sites by month are as follows:

  Coors Light: 6        Bud Light: 3        Miller Lite: 4

  It is interesting how that has limited to no correlation with fan base and postings

• Because I'm a Bronco fan, I'd like to say the Silver Bullet one. . . but it appears Miller Lite has locked in their audience. . . and I would not be surprised if their wall settings and posted photo albums have something to do with it. . . but that's part of the more in-depth analysis

I do hope I have given you something to mull over as you digest your turkey and stuffing! As you sip your cold one of choice, what is your speculation on these numbers?

Again, Happy Thanksgiving and Cheers!

Editor's Notes: I'm partial to Pabst, Negro Modelo, and Samuel Smith

A Quick, Personal Intro to Behavioral Economics

I want to start a conversation on Behavioral Economics ("BE") and I want to make sure you can internalize it. . . AND I found the website that helps me!

Here is a personal (and positive) experience that allows you to 'live' BE. Here's what you do:

1. Visit stickK and identify a goal you've been struggling to achieve (e.g., marathon, last 10 lbs of baby fat, grad school)
2. Register/Login and enter the details of your commitment
3. Choose the stakes – this is where it can get REALLY interesting (i.e., I suggest Anti-Charity)!

   So. . . essentially decide which of the following is the most LOATHSOME:

• Americans United for Life
• NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation
• Nature Conservancy
• The National Center for Public Policy Research
• Freedom to Marry
• Institute for Marriage and Public Policy
• Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
• NRA Foundation
• George W. Bush Presidential Library
• William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library

1. Set a referee if you REALLY want to be serious
2. Start the races!!!!

I found the site through this New Yorker article and find the context of the article hilarious (HINT: I have a similar anti-charity).

QUESTION TO YOU: Have you had a recent retail or service experience on the web that created an incentive structure similar to sticK's? I'd love to hear about it!

 

To keep this blog fun, and short, I wanted to drop a few more BE references for you all:

• You should check out a great TEB video of Dan Ariely:

   

• And feel free to read a white paper I worked on while working with Dan (more on the paper later):

Predictably Irrational Customers

View more documents from Eric Siegmann.

 

• Finally, I want to put a plug in for Dan's book. . . BUY THIS BOOK ;-)

Cheers Folks

Virtual Web Agent: Intro and Channel Cost Data

Have you recently visited a bank* or retailer* and engaged in an online conversation. . . not knowing it was virtual (*instances are positioned next to bank/retailer website)? That's right, HAL is now a reality as virtual web agents start gaining in popularity as a means to extend a company's support services. Here, I provide a quick intro and high level channel cost data – information that should convince you to learn more (that's where I can help). I focus on MyCyberTwin here but recognize other solutions like Noah exist.

This blog entry is the second in a series focused on developing a service platform optimization model to quantify benefits. If you have not, read Channel Cost Analysis: Savings Potential of the Community Channel as a compliment to this entry.

Now, a little more from www.mycybertwin.com: A CyberTwin is an artificial intelligence character, which functions on your behalf. Enterprise CyberTwins are advanced customer support robots, which live on the web and talk to your clients. They outperform humans - CyberTwins are always accurate, always in a good mood, speak many languages, and work day and night. Benefits include:

• Increased sales - provides flexibility across outgoing interactions based on business objectives
• Improved customer satisfaction - responds quickly, with high accuracy, and always with a friendly disposition
• Reduced costs - handles thousands of simultaneous queries, 24 hours a day, at a low cost
• Improved resource availability - humans handle more valuable work

For additional background, check out this virtual web agent discussion by Charles Wooters and Daniel Marcu's.

If you were wondering who's started engaging in this, companies using virtual agents include: Alaska Airlines, Buy.com, Continental Airlines, IKEA (since 2004), NASA, National Bank of Australia, the U.S. Army, and Verizon Wireless

How does one create a virtual agent? Simply develop a virtual 'brain' to handle support needs by leveraging existing expertise among your support staff. As for pricing, think of it as a tiered model – just how smart (how large of a virtual brain) do you want your agent to be?

But, what are the benefits? I'm pulling data from MyCyberTwin. I recognize they have incentives to publish inflated benefits so I consider this a starting point. Focus on the magnitude of the potential cost savings:

Live call agent median cost per contact (source):

$5.50

Virtual agent median cost per contact:

$0.75

 

A few additional metrics that speak to cost savings:

• Virtual customer support character on Buy.com cut the cost of support as a percentage of revenue from 2.06% to 0.57% - Stanford University
• Web self-service systems reduce call-center volume between 8 and 12 percent.
• Users will opt for non-phone based support options 80% to 90% of the time.

If some of those numbers are not enticing enough, I offer these more generic benefits from implementing web-based or self-service technologies, from Supportindustry.com's 2009 survey. Note: the survey does not explicitly include the use of virtual agents. 6% of respondents offer 'Other' as a support channel - the default if a virtual agent is being used. Benefits (as identified by % of respondents):

• 33% - Increased efficiencies
• 18% - Cost reductions
• 16% - Reduction in the number of support requests
• 16% - Greater customer satisfaction and loyalty

And to tie this into my previous blog on customer support communities, a self-service knowledgebase represent the second most-offered support channel, with 63% of respondents making such access available.

Finally, if you want to continue this conversation with me, virtually, feel free to speak with my virtual self at https://mycybertwin.com/chat/easiegmann.

I'm excited to hear what you think of the potential for virtual agents. Does it seem like a viable extension for providing support? Are we going too far off the virtual deep-end?

Cheers!

Aardvark – New Best Animal, EVER!

Aardvark is a must see! O.k., so this is not about the animal (everyone know the Liger is the best animal EVER).

I want you introduce to the most amazing, new web service, aardvark. Here's their one liner, "Aardvark was conceived as the first Social Search engine: a way to find people, not web pages, that have specific information." It's a simple concept in theory:

• Identify and connect a network of people (LOTS of people - all over)
  • Aardvark is very smart to leverage multiple, mature networks that we already propagate
• Create multiple (infinite?) 'panels of experts' by allowing users to self select their expertise
• Open the network allowing users to ask and answer questions
  • Questions are most likely evaluated and allocated to a topic. . .
  • Then sent out to all folks within your 'network' with self-identified expertise in that topic. . .
  • BAM. . . answers get sent to you!

Saturday evening, with the fixings for dinner in front of me, I was inspired to test the site with the below question, and was quite pleased with the speed and quality of the answers – though somewhat subjective:

• You (that's me): What's the best spice to stir-fry shrimp with?
• Christopher G.; 26 / M / Pembroke Pines, FL: We had some shrimp using some Bahamian spices (not sure what it was), maybe some Paprika, and Curry (I think) last night - tasted great!
• Donald J.; 36 / M / Washington, DC: For something different try hoisin, five spice powder, or Szechuan peppercorn

Pretty Awesome for a Saturday evening Q&A on stir-fry shrimp between Chicago, Florida, and DC!

While Aardvark is awesome, the potential for enterprise use is huge. Can you imagine building a similar internal support network that allows customers to asynchronously connect with the most appropriate internal resources – big wins on improved customer satisfaction/loyalty and support cost savings.

I could spend all Sunday afternoon thinking and writing about aardvark. . . but instead I'm going to have a beer before seeing Springsteen play in Milwaukee. . . with GA tickets!!! I'll be sure to tell you all about it. . .

Tell me what you think of aardvark and the concept potential. . . looking forward to hearing thoughts, opinions, and cons! Cheers

What is Social Media to [fill in blank]

What is Social media? A lot of folks are asking, and answered that question. A very informative dissertation by Patrick James Cavanaugh starts by answering this question. As the paper continued, it inspired me to explore the question from the client-engagement perspective - How might different stakeholders answer the question? Here, I reference a few base answers, and then present a basic conversation slide to help an unengaged client think about what social media is. I'd love to hear from others who used a similar or different approach.

The most basic definition of social media comes from Wikipedia. Given the nature of the subject, most consider Wikipedia a primary source for this definition. There are many different flavors of this definition; I really liked this one from Jim Cuene:

I'm going to rip off Dan Zane's definition of folk music: Social media is media for social people. Or, a slightly more complicated version: Social media is the online content left by people as a by-product of being social online. It's the media that results when folks write, review, share, trade, connect, etc. online.

Marta Kagen has put a wonderful presentation together on what social media is and why anyone should care. You must flip through this. . . it's truly eye-opening!

Given the proliferation and breadth of answers, I want to crystallize an understanding for my client conversations. I propose a quick and easy communication piece to bring focus to what social media means-AND to make it more meaningful- to the audience, a potential client. Below is a slide that drafts a stakeholder* grid of social media benefits, challenges, and next steps:

Social Media Stakeholder Grid 11.13.09

View more documents from Eric Siegmann.

*These are just 4 that I thought through; there are certainly others one should consider (e.g., HR, production)

This could be a great back-pocket communication piece if you happen to be involved in a conversation solely on social media. Even better, this will be built into my proposal decks for service platform optimization projects – social media is a key element for that, and relatively new and foreign for my clients. A simple slide like this, matched with conversation on what my clients' personal experiences have been seems like a great way to break any fear barriers.

I'll be interested to know if others have used a similar communication tool to start a conversation with a potential client.

GrubHub.com – a Quick SM Assessment

Had a great Friday presentation at Booth School of Business where Matt Maloney spoke about the company he cofounded, Grubhub.com. I love the concept of GrubHub – using inexpensive web technology to aggregate information and make our lives easier. And with the business model where restaurants pay GrubHub a % of online orders, it is win-win for them and free for us.

I thought it would be fun to review how well they use social media tools. Below is the information I collected – I included information on foodler, a competitor, as a point of reference.

Looking at a restaurant, there is a review section – great place to get customer credentials on the food. I used La Gondola as a reference. Here are things that I liked:

• The default review sorting places links to published reviews up top
• And when available links you to Yelp reviews
• Each reviewer has number of reviews and orders by their name for credentialing
• One can rate reviews as helpful or not
• One can sort reviews by 'most helpful' and 'Reviewer's Experience'

Here are my weekend 2 cents:

• The reviews are simple. I might want to know what with the reviewer ate. Foodler goes to the next level, aggregating reviews to the menu items associated with the reviewed order. Foodler also let one know the frequency that menu items were ordered. Note that Foodler provides no visibility into the individual reviewers or quality ratings of reviews. It also does not provide an open field for review like GrubHub.
• Links to external published and Yelp reviews take me to a new tab. It may be better to keep the customer engage on their site – could they communicate that information internally through a mashup before letting the customer leave?
• There is so much more information on these restaurants online. Is it possible to pull this in through mashup/aggregation as well? I know sometime you can have too much information - but GrubHub could pull this in at a low cost and let customers use it to their needs. External content could include:
  • Google has 26 reviews; La Gondola is ZAGAT rated 17 years in a row; additional reviews exist on CenterStage Chicago, tripadvisor, 10best.com, and urban spoon

Some other obvious spaces for them to be in:

They have a facebook page with 1,298 fans. Foodler has 2,445 fans. Their use of this space is consistent with other similar merchants, including:

• Fan buzz and promotion
• Fan feedback, i.e. new restaurants to include
• Promotional Monday trivia post – answer a question get $10 gift card
• Blog publication announcements

They have a twitter page with 1,828 followers and consistent traffic of responses, links to daily specials, and general announcements. Foodler has 83 followers and last tweeted June 28^th. . .

There is an iPhone app, made available August of 2008. Foodler does not have one. Now, I'm ashamed to say I do not have an iPhone yet, so if someone out there has used this app, I'd love to hear about it – do share.

So there you go - an internet based business that does well in engaging their customers via social media tools. I believe they have additional opportunities to mashing up more external review information. It is an easy way to leverage valuable external information, and customer traffic, to add experience value at a minimal cost and effort. I'll see if Matt has time to discuss that with me ;-)

Cheers all, and Go Broncos!

Using Facebook to Jumpstart the Community Channel

An L.A. Times article on Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, inspired this blog. Charles and his wife run a viable, if not successful cupcake business in Beverly Hills. The business has been around for 5 years with an advertising budget of $0.00. That's right kids . . . the cupcakes aren't free, but Charles' ability to connect with his customers is. Now, I want to write about connecting with the customer, not marketing. I'm here to convince you of the need to develop a service community channel – and that it's not that hard!

First, let's put all doubts aside. Why should you have a community channel to serve your customers? One reason: a significant portion may expect it. According to 2009 Cone research, 78% of new media users interact with companies or brands and of those, 89% believe a company should present AND also interact with its consumers via social media. And new media has become one of the most popular media channels, see my previous blog.

And it can be easy. Charles leverages Facebook to create his Sprinkles community channel, on which he is able to:

• Manage more than 70,000 'customers', people who declare themselves as fans of Sprinkles'
• Collect feedback from customer base on new flavors (inventory) or potential new locations (distribution)
• Announce daily promotions, a secret word such as "ganache," to drive customers stores for free cupcakes
• Take advantage of free 'buzz' marketing –fans automatically communicate interest and support to their Facebook friends through comment boards

As an editorial assumption, I'll add a key tenet of the community support channel value. If a negative comment were posted in the community space, Charles can address in proactively as opposed to being powerless in dealing with the ramifications. Imagine the horrors of, "I found a fingernail in my cupcake," and the amazing creativity that could create a positive windfall, like, "I was wondering where that went. . . but seriously, Sprinkles considers quality to be the highest requirement in product and service. All incidents of this nature, like mice in beer bottles, will receive appropriate, timely customer care."

Being powerless is a real problem, because there will be talk about your products and services online. Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk, a web-based help desk services company, Suggests that if complaints are happening on media like Facebook and Twitter, "Take advantage of these tools and use them to keep a positive conversation going. Having a dedicated staff person that interacts with customers to answer their urgent questions on Twitter shows how responsive and committed a company is to its customers."

Now, you don't want to just jump in and create a Facebook company page during your lunch break. You should determine what you want to do with your customers online – start by knowing what they are looking by going online and listen to what they are saying about you. Then, with an objective in mind, consider your company's culture, products and services, and customers to determine the right tools to use for creating a community channel through social media space. Facebook may not be an appropriate starter.

Businesses need to go where their customers are. Facebook seems optimal for Sprinkles Cupcakes. That may not be the case for a more professional, B2B company. Traditionally transactional, information providing sites, Yelp (find the best Chicago pizza based on crowd opinion), Citysearch and other Yellow Pages type sites are incorporating social media elements that allow customers to rate and comment on service providers. This is a great way for companies to take baby steps in addressing their customer community through social media sites.

The initial conversations of "where and how to start" are the most exciting to engage in. Have you been asking these questions for yourself?

Informatics Tells You what to Like!

Here is the first weekend blog – where I explore the other side of eCommerce, web 2.0, and social media. Sure, it's all applicable to business – we just don't have to be too serious all the time ;-)

This article immediately caught my attention, mathematically analyzing music to determine the next blockbuster. If you've spent anytime listening to Pandora, and know the background to their Music Genome Project, then Music Intelligence Solution's concept of picking winners from historic data is no surprise. While it is always nice to hold an opinion, now you know you don't even have to put too much effort into that.

The same is happening with movies. While you can get recommendations at Netflix based on how your and others ratings of previously viewed movies, jinni takes it to the next level with their Movie Genome Project. I played around with it a bit, but my Netflix queue is long enough that I'm not desperate to know what I've missed. . . not yet. Here are two good blog reviews, one positive and one critical, if you want to read more. Another note of interest, Clerk Dogs believe the human aspect of picking out the right movies cannot be broken down to metadata and algorithms. They replaced the VHS rental experience by collecting movie clerk opinions and using those to suggest what you'll like – in a more human way? Here's a good blog for more on Clerk Dogs.

What's really exciting is where this can take us. . . can one engineer songs (or movies) that they know will be winners based on algorithmic analysis of historic data? Of course, one can suggest that engineering winners has been done in the past. I immediately think of cash-in phenomenon of boy bands or the ongoing success of Pixar animation and 007 movies. But, remove the experience and expertise that goes into developing those winners, find a small, highly intelligent team of data geeks in India, Nova Scotia, or Nowhere, OK, pick the genre you want to own, and start 'manufacturing'.

In terms of logging customer behavior and running algorithms to determine how best to serve them, this is not new. But there is a lot more to be done. If you're looking to get in on the ground floor with the next metadata/algorithm based recommendation site, you can always use rovi to start off at least. . .