Jivespace : Thread List - Measure

Article Marketing is Better for your Site than SEO

rick@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:20:09 GMT

That was the headline from this morning's email digest from SEO News:

http://www.seo-news.com/archives/2008/oct/16.html

Disclaimer: Don't feel the need to click through the author's sales blurp at the end to buy his book on this topic (I almost didn't post this just because of that).

The simple method for marketing your community's discussions (articles) is to submit them to social bookmarking sites like digg.com, stumblupon.com, delicious.com, google.com, backflip, diigo, and a host of other web 2.0 social bookmarking sites where people go to find articles on topics they're interested in.

I've certainly found this to be the case on my personal geek blog, where I've seen jumps in traffic to over 1,000 unique visitors in a single day to a particular article, just by submitting it to social bookmarking sites. Those articles a few months later have read counts of over 90,000 on the high side.

Another great way to market your community's articles is to link to them as answers on sites like Yahoo! Answers. Create an account and start monitoring the Yahoo communities that cover similar topics as your online community, or search for questions related to the content that your community is discussing. Providing an answer to these questions with a link back to your community article as a reference is a great way to market your articles - and if the answer is marked as a "Best Answer" then it draws even more traffic to your site.

Not to say that SEO isn't important - it is very important. And yes, content is still king, as it always was with SEO - but content generated by your community is the best kind of content you can be marketing, and you can generate a lot more traffic, and without paying for adwords, just by marketing your articles in these ways.

How much of your advertising/marketing budget goes towards SEO, and how much time/effort do you spend marketing the individual discussions that are popular on your community?

How to track URL traffic

communities@jivesoftware.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:45:51 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to track some of the hardcoded URLs within our Jive community. Any best practice? We also use Omniture throughout the corporate web site. Also use Google analytics.

Thanks!

Measuring the buzz across the social web

communities@jivesoftware.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:59:47 GMT

I'm wondering what members of this community have to say about buzz monitoring.

Is anyone doing this with a tool today and if so what has been your experience? Or are you using more of a patchwork of free tools and RSS feeds?

I'm asking because I'm giving a webcast Tuesday morning on Jive's new Market Engagement Solution (focuses on interacting with the broader social web) and would love to hear any thoughts, feedback, or experiences that anyone might be willing to share on this topic.

Also, if you're interested in checking out the webcast, here's the reg link.

Ideal size of an Online Community

gisele@lechevallier.net — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:34:46 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to set up goals for the launch of a business online community, with the metrics that go with them.

Since it's so hard to set target percentages per goal based on benchmark, I have to make estimations but I have no clue about what is the minimum number of people I need for a successful community. Is ther any way to define this?

Also, another challenge that I have is since we have different initiatives inhouse that have the same goal as those of our coming onine community, how can I isolate the impact of the online community alone on those goals?

Thank you guys in advance!!

Have a great week-end!

Gisèle

Online Community Cost Justification

jjanowsk@cisco.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:38:16 GMT

Considering the current economic conditions, many companies have drastically reduced travel to business critical trips only. This has limited the ability for people to get together live which leaves a void to fill in business networking that is difficult to fill with email and voice mail. Webconferencing works great for syncronous communitcation and sharing information in real time but there's still a need for non-real time communications in between conference calls.

Online communities fill this void in a virtual world by integrating the social networking aspect we find in Facebook and Linked in with their internal network. However, some are finding it hard to justify the cost associate with purchasing and maintaing on online community environment as well as the resources it takes to manage it from a community administration perspective.

We have started an internal pilot at our company and have justified to some extent by pointing to money saved in travel. It's a drop in the bucket compared to travel budget and this has allowed us to get a "foot in the door" so to speak. Execs are watching our pilot and soliciting metrics to evaluate the usefulness and adoption. To date we've exceeded our expectations and we're hoping this success leads to continued support of online communities within the company.

Have others been able to leverage expense reduction from travel to justify deployment of online communities?

Industry Standards/Averages?

erik.krone@optumhealth.com — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:55:29 GMT

I've found a lot of information on what kind of metrics are being used to measure community success, but what are the actual results? What kind of 'industry standards/averages' exist for engagement and penetration? What is the average length of involvement/participation in a community?

If anyone has any input, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks

- Erik

Community Under Attack in Recessionary Times?

communities@jivesoftware.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:07:37 GMT

Is community the new training of the corporate world — the first casualty when budget and staff are cut in lean times? Have your community projects been scaled back or cancelled altogether? I am witnessing this first-hand, and I wonder if others are experiencing this disturbing trend too. What can be done to combat the management perception that communities don't contribute to top-line and bottom-line revenue?

Economic downturn boosts Web 2.0 marketing tactics (Marketing Sherpa report)

communities@jivesoftware.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:15:45 GMT

Marketing Sherpa just released the results of a survey they recorded, detailing Marketers' response to the economic downturn:

SUMMARY: Every marketing tactic gets more scrutiny when budgets face the sting of a struggling economy. Here is a glance at how marketers expect to tailor their investments in digital tactics during a downturn.

Marketers face a difficult budget cycle, so every marketing tactic comes under more scrutiny. This chart offers a snapshot of how marketers view each digital tactic through the lens of the economic downturn.

Note that the chart shows only the percentage of marketers who are adding to or subtracting from their budgets; it doesn’t reflect their investments – an important distinction. For example, one-third of marketers predict that they will reduce their paid search spending; 27% plan an increase. Based on our analysis, the dollar value of those who plan on increasing will significantly outweigh the value of those who are decreasing.

Not surprisingly, house email and Web 2.0 are getting high attention; both are relatively low-cost and the former, at least, has proven ROI. Web 2.0 is seen as having the same virtue, although it doesn’t have email’s well-documented ROI.

Online display takes some lumps as the most brand-centric tactic. As we discussed in last week’s chart analysis, brand tactics suffer as marketers look to prove the value and return of every dollar spent. Expect to see an increase in hybrid-pricing deals and bundled packages, with brand impressions being attached to lead-generation and pay-per-action deals.

Mobile is still in its early stages, and most organizations reducing their mobile investment were likely in the testing phase. Large marketers have taken mobile seriously and likely make up the majority of the 13% who will boost spend. Now is not the time to stall mobile marketing – those organizations that master new channels will have an edge as marketers flood email inboxes and compete for paid-search terms.

Rental email doesn’t fare well. But will reality reflect intention in this case? Rental email is inexpensive, relatively predictable and fast – companies desperate to generate traffic and sales may turn to rental lists. But remember this chestnut: “You get what you pay for.”

Full article can be found on Marketing Sherpa here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30925

I'm wondering how other people are reacting to the downturn? I know we're tightening up marketing budgets, and focusing on our channels with the best lead gen results (tied back to pipeline and closed deals). Definitely less $$$ allocated to branding/awareness initiatives in the broader sense. Putting down the shotgun and getting out the rifle. We're digging in our beachhead more around search (paid and organic), live webcasts, etc... all of which are prime examples of the impact of social media marketing tactics, and give the most bang for our buck. For example, here is how an online community can impact organic search/SEO: The specified document was not found.

Community Health Index

barry@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:30:00 GMT

This is a topic that has been getting a lot of discussion at the Online Community Summit in Sonoma today. Hearing a bunch of ideas, but want to get your opinion as well.

From the online commnity summit crowd:

* a combination of growth over time of traffic, content, and users

* number of new advocate/influencers

* increased loyalty

* amount of traffic

Each community SHOULD have their own algorithm for calculating CHI (Community Health Index) what is yours and what do you call it besides community health index. I've heard engagement metrics, etc.

Reviewing ROI/ROA models for online business communities...

scott.b.palmer@intel.com — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:38:15 GMT

ROI or ROA, either way, it's OK, (yes, i did that for the rhyme)

First let me propose that ROA (return on assets--initialism not acronym) is a more appropriate term because most of the community costs will come from re-allocating resources you probably already have...in my case 100 employees "volunteering" their time for this "business cause" vs. another business cause. Yes, there are some initial sunk costs (software, hardware, build fees etc.) but the ongoing operational costs are mostly labor that you probably already have.

So, weather we call it ROI or ROA or ROC (return on capital) let's move on to some specific issues and details:

Firstly, ROA has to be broken down into specific business functions/operations. Just as the case with any operational program within a company, the primary function (where it belongs) will help determine the ROA models--many of which have existed for quite some time.

For example, if the "community e-program" (in this case businesss-centric social media features--aka communities) has a primary function as "customer support", then it will likely be measured against its alternatives by measuring opportunity costs (e.g. inbound telephone call center support, online chat and email support etc.). Evaluating those more traditional costs (inbound call center support) vs. online community support will be a key ROA question.

If the community can resolve customer (post sale) issues more efficiently, then it has a chance of successfully competing with the call center program. Or, simply blending the two support programs together. When a call center person answers a response to a customer issue question, that same information can easily be included in the community = an integrated solution of old (call centers) with new (business communities). So these support programs do not have to be mutually exclusive. Thus the ROA can be blended with old and new as well.

Of course, as is the case in many business communities, the solutions to customer problems are given by other customers, so the incremental cost for the answer back to the company is almost zero. Now that is a nice word to use "zero cost" (minus the initial sunk cost extended over time). As examples, look at Apple Iphone and Blackberry discussions (problem and solution topics). Personally I have not had to call Apple about 8 times, because other customers (customer advocacy) provided me a great solution. This dynamic is also gaining momentum on our private channel site, customers helping customers. The point is that there is a savings every time a customer finds a solution and they didn't have to call our 800 numbers around the world.

However, if the community e-program is focused more on "sales and marketing" functions (e.g. acquisition, retention), then the ROA measurement will likely include competing with the ROI/ROA of hiring more sales and marketing folks. As one of our VP's once asked, "should I spend my resources on online communities focused on sales or should I hire more sales people? This was a dramatic statement, but a fair one.

In my case, our channel (partner customers) community has multiple functions from customer support to sales to online customer research to change agent for our company paradigm (i.e. transparency, everyone sells--staying closer to customers, global views and issues etc.).

So in summary, ROA depends on the primary function (s) of the community. More than likely, as is our case, we can justify "returns" (weather correlations to sales growth or reduction in costs--costs saving) because the community is playing many business roles from sales person to PR person, to customer support person, to research person, to executive presentation person, to technical engineer person and on and on.

Yes, some of the "hard" numbers are hard to find;) But others are easier. By combining hard numbers with soft numbers (i.e. quantitative data with qualitative data) and also executive sponsorship (it took us about a year for that piece), it is hard to resist or refuse the inevitability of the value of online business communities.

Other issues to consider if the ROA comes up:

Make sure you have VP sponsorship, then the ROA issue will dissipate. VP's take risks all the time and, from what I have seen, the ROI models are pretty thin. Can't mention specific examples here;) But whether at Intel or other large companies for which I have consulted, ROI can be as much a PR exercise as a truly "financial modeling" exercise.

Make sure you are integrated with other groups that already have defendable ROA models (e.g. support and sales and marketing) as a combined meta-group each group can afford a few % of assets to go into a new initiative (e.g. online community). Thus the community is truly a joint effort of many groups and each group is taking a very, very small risk (i.e. allocating a few assets--weather money or people).

Also consider measuring against the cost of customer conferences. At Intel we have literally dozens of customer conferences around the world each year. However, our online programs are starting to replace the "in person" conferences at a huge savings. Those numbers are easy to get. Moreover, a conference lasts one or two days and then they are gone (poof). An online community lives much longer. Not to mention the reach of an online community can be global...not to oversell this point, but the cost of one conference for our top customers is easily more expensive than my total investment to date in a community that supports 200,000 channel customers. Again, blending the community e-program with your current conference program can be a great partnership and help promote and defend the value of the community.

Finally, with our channel customers, we can also correlate sales data with community participation...so that we can understand if the community attracts top customers or passive customers and ultimately if participation leads to greater sales. This will take about a year to establish in order to gather a critical mass of data, rule out seasonality and allow the community to grow.

Sorry for the lack of structure to these arguments and a bit of spontaneity. Being the weekend, I have been enjoying a really cold frozen margarita, hence the occasional sarcasm and breaks in logic.

hope this helps a bit.

Please feel free to challenge any points.

And please add to the ROI methods and techniques...the more the merrier.

cheers,

Message was edited by: scott palmer