Interact Offers Analytics, Benchmarking To Identify Intranet Problems In Real-Time

Interact Internet has always managed to keep its intranet application up to speed with market trends. In June it added social capabilities to Intranet v5.1 in response to growing enterprise demands. In v5.2 which is being released today, it is adding intranet analytics.

Intranet Analytics

The release does not bring analytics to intranet platforms to analyze business trends, or customer behaviors, but uses analytics to…well to analyze itself.

That is to say that an enterprises uses it to analyze its intranet: assess intranet performance, compare it with other intranets of similar sizes, or intranets in the same verticals, identify problems, and suggest ways those problems might be fixed.

This, as far as we know, is the first tool on the market that actually does this using the Interact Analytics component, which also comes with an integrated benchmarking tool.

It enables enterprises to answer what business managers ask themselves everyday: Is our intranet being used, is it effective?

Given the amount of investment that is being put into intranets, and the fact that they are increasingly being used for enterprise collaboration on content of all kinds, this really is a fundamental question.

Without the ability to compare the performance of other intranets,  it is also a question that is being asked in a vacuum.

Interact benchmarking

Interact v5.2

In practical terms, it aims to identify and eliminate out-of-data content, poorly authored content, badly developed user profiles and encourages secure content collaboration across the intranet.

Every intranet in the world faces numerous operational challenges and for many intranet managers, it can be a mystery as to why these problems occur. So we developed Interact Analytics with powerful tools that take the guess work out of why an intranet could be failing and provide statistical, hard evidence that can be quickly acted on, to guarantee a healthy intranet,” VP of Product, Simon Dance said.

The benchmarking works in real-time so that intranet managers can follow developments across the intranet as they happen, and target areas of weakness as soon as they are identified.

Interact problem warnings
 

On top of this, it also suggests ways of fixing the problems as they occur, and identifies areas that are likely to become problems in the future. Other functions include:

• Reporting: Daily intranet activity reports that outline data, device and problem flagging that is sent directly to the intranet manager’s inbox.
• Profile Analytics: Analysis of profile pages to ensure that they are up to date and that other users can find suitable co-workers to resolve issues, or collaborate with.
• Search Analytics: Shows what users are trying to find, what they found, and what they didn’t find.
• Document Score: All documents on the intranet are scored based on enterprise criteria. The Document Quality Score ensures that content present on the intranet is the best available in the enterprise, and that it is useful for other workers.
• Data over Time: Data analysis over time enabling enterprises to identify content trends.
• Influence Score: Shows who is really using the intranet and who is paying attention to what is being said by others in relation to specific content. It encourages users to contribute to intranet content by content scoring.

The new version of Interact Intranet is available Wednesday.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

You Say You Want to be a Media Company

Many companies say they are different because they are a true media company on the Internet or that they aspire to be a true media company. But what does that really mean?

Content Suggestions

• Understand that we are in a 2+ screen world, where people are watching their TV or a Netflix video, while texting with their iPhone (and in some cases, even working with their laptop).
• Relinquish control, which means join your fans on other social networks and platforms (this sounds obvious, but most people still want to bring their fans home to their site).
• Identify your relevant fans and tribes: Where they spend their time? How they speak about your products and your competitors’ products? Who are the leaders? How do they help each other out?
• Know that your work is never done, meaning that once you post something it is part of an ongoing story (you can add more later on).
• Go beyond text and incorporate video, photos and more.
• Wear multiple hats: Curator, Editor, Organizer (inviting guests to participate) and Host (invite your users to contribute to your site and find out what they need for their own site).
• Establish brand, tone, etc. consistency across multiple channels (iPad, Web, etc.)
• Interact face-to-face, such as in Google Hangout’s NFL Fantasy Football forum!
• Turn each commenter into editor by encouraging them to contribute to the discussion.
• Concentrate editorial content on “people” — their stories, their lives, etc.

Questions to Keep in Mind

Paid Content came out with a list of the most successful media companies that included Twitter, Amazon, Gawker, BuzzFeed and the Guardian, but here are some questions I have:

• Is Amazon creating any of its own content or successfully curating third party content (yet)? I know they are working on this.
• Is Twitter doing real “content programming” or generating real ad revenue?
• Is the Guardian turning a profit? (This would be important for a successful company : )

Organizational Requirements

Finally, companies need to have the kind of organization that:

• Makes quick decisions and does not get bogged down in office politics or in over analyzing the right approach (I always liked it when my former boss said, if you are 65 percent sure something is the right decision, then go for it and implement it).
• Scores their decisions and determine how well they make them, how fast they make them and what’s entailed (What resources are involved?).
• Provide clarity on whom they are targeting, what the offer is and why you are offering it (and continue to refine over time).
• Building a learning environment which is one of the key things people are looking for these days. I always believe in the “Learn, Teach, Learn” approach which requires an individual to teach something they recently learned to others.

What does it mean to you to be a media company? What is entailed? Which businesses qualify?

For me, the definition would have to be a company that produces or curates content and distributes that information on two or more screens. It also entails thinking holistically about your content strategy, knowing that it is not just words on a page, but rather the look and feel, the taxonomy of the site, the tone and voice of the site and how all of this is shared via multiple channels and platforms.

Oh yeah, you are probably asking, “OK, Wilder, who is a successful media company?"

One company that comes to mind is Bloomberg LP (and I am not just saying this because I am a native New Yorker : ).  It meets all the criteria I list above. For a great article on Bloomberg, check out what the New York Magazine recently had to say about them.

Editor's Note: Interested in reading more by Scott? Then check out Don't Learn Social Media on the Fly

About the Author

Scott K. Wilder is a founding partner and digital strategist at Human 1.0, a customer focused business consulting firm. Before Human 1.0, he created the award winning Intuit Small Business Community. Scott has been using interactive media since the early 1980s and on the Internet since 1991.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

UserVoice CEO Richard White: Users Expect 'Luxury' Customer Experience #UserConf

Businesses are growing up on the Internet, and more and more, customers are used to self-service online. Businesses increasingly handle customer service via chat and social media channels. It's changing how we do business, Richard White, CEO of UserVoice said at the inaugural UserConf this week.

All Your Customer Support Belongs to Us

White pointed out that exceptional customer service is not new — we just call those companies luxury brands. But the majority of companies — who aren't luxury brands — have also seen their customers' expectations of service change.

"43 percent of people we surveyed said they could have solved a problem if they had the tools," White said. 

White's company, UserVoice is a startup that provides online forums and support systems for companies to better understand their customers. White founded the UserConf to gather people — not from the sales management or IT departments — who are focused on customer experience and let them share their ideas.

Traditional customer service is painful, and poor customer service is the #1 cause of customer attrition.

When we call our airlines or wireless companies, we expect to have to enter in our 10-digit account number, wait on hold and then have to give the number again to an agent, White said. In the future, agents will be better equipped to handle multiple channels, nearly all will respond to tweets and it will all be done in less than one day, he said. 

"As companies move to subscription-based models (Saas), customer support begins to look more like sales," White said.

Those customer support people aren't just solving problems but working with current customers to keep them coming back. The sales funnel indeed looks more like a loop in this scenario, but the kinds of problems being solved changes as well. In the subscription model, the more common problems are automated, so customer support is focused on dealing with more complex problems — even if they have fewer to handle overall.

The Digital Marketing Land Rush is Over

Companies can't simply build a Facebook app that tricks 10,000 people into handing over their contact info, and then raise a ton of money based on a gimmick, White said. Google AdWords bring in less money while the keywords cost more, he pointed out. In other words, as the Internet has grown up, it's become harder to bring in new customers in ways no one else has thought of. According to White, that means companies have to go back to old school tactics — like giving great customer service.

Editor's Note: For more insight into customer support strategies, read 5 Ways to Integrate Social Media Into Your Contact Center.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Three Big Data Rules to Live By

The Internet walks into a [karaoke] bar: “Every breath you take, every move you make…I’ll be watching you.”

In today’s increasingly connected world, practically everything we do creates an electronic record. Every purchase, every status update, every Like becomes a part of the digital ether — a tiny but permanent speck in the growing collective. And as organizations continue to amass this so-called Big Data, so grows the pressure to prove its intrinsic value. If you’re lost as to how, you’ve got a lot of company.

Here are three important rules to keep in mind:

1. Don’t Treat it Like it’s New

While being romanticized by a new/new-ish term is a pretty easy thing to fall victim to these days, when it comes to “Big Data” we really should know better. Companies have been analyzing large data sets for decades.

In other words: data have always been big.

Myriad social technologies — blogs, geo-location, networking platforms, etc. — have certainly sped up both the creation and collection of data, and our response has (naturally) been to speed up our analysis in return. But doing so hasn’t exactly yielded the results we’d hoped for.

In some ways, we are going in the wrong direction … there used to be time to digest the information between data dumps. Companies would spend time thinking about the numbers, looking at benchmarks and making thoughtful decisions. But that idea of forecasting and diagnosing is getting lost today, because the data are coming so rapidly. In some ways we are processing the data less thoughtfully," Peter Fader, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Tip: Don’t bet on a first analysis. We’ve been good at being thoughtful about data up until this point — that practice shouldn’t change just because we’ve got more of it.

2. Know What You Know — and What You Don’t

Let’s pretend you’ve been bitten by the Big Data bug and have decided, as a result, that a multi-faceted beast of an analyzation product is absolutely necessary for the future of your organization. You shell out the money for said product only to find that the information you really need to get ahold of is inconveniently dispersed, inaccessible or totally M.I.A. What then?

"Sure, if we could crack the code on big data, we'd all be swimming in game-changing insights. Sounds great. But in my day-to-day work with clients, I know better,” explained Deloitte director Greg Szwartz. “They're already waging a war to make sense of the growing pile of data that's right under their noses. Forget big data — those more immediate insights alone could be game changers, and most companies still aren't even there yet.”

Tip: Move from small to big — not the other way around. Before you go on a new mining adventure, do a simple gut check: how much of a hold do you have on the surface stuff? If it’s shaky, you’re probably not yet ready for a deep dive.

3. Have a Question (or Three)

Lastly, keep in mind that analyzing data just because everyone else is doing it isn’t the right attitude. Whether it’s one of customer retention, operational efficiency, or the general health of your business, you should have some question in mind. After all, if you can't define the goal of an effort, where’s the sense in pursuing it?

In an article from Forbes, Piyanka Jain outlines three basic starting points:

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Don't Fear Scary Internet Faces, A Community Manager's Guide

Considering that billions of people now use the Internet, it is only natural that Web users cannot easily be pigeonholed into a single “type” and not all Web users offer a positive interactive experience. As described in an infographic from online marketing technology provider Flowtown, there are at least seven different “faces” of potentially negative Internet users you are likely to encounter.

Faces of Web, Parts 1-7

The infographic warns that “the Web is a menagerie of personalities, personas and psychos” that online marketers will encounter. Following is a brief summary of the seven Internet faces Flowtown says are waiting “deep (in) the dark heart of the Internet.”

• Politico — Easy to spot due to their timelines “filled with reposted headlines and copy-pasted political speeches,” Flowtown says Politicos tend to “hibernate” once a favorite cause is no longer a hot topic of conversation. Flowtown advises that Politcos can be found in online locations such as Politico (naturally) and Gawker, and to avoid engaging them or liking their status updates.
• Lurker — Lurkers like to read and follow online discussions and chat threads without participating or directly making themselves known. Flowtown says Lurkers are typically found in the “nOOb (new Web users with little understanding of how to interact) subgroup.” Flowtown also advises to avoid engaging Lurkers, who can be found anywhere online, and cautioned they can turn into Trolls (see below).
• Fact-Finder — These Internet users enjoy finding obscure facts on Wikipedia and Google. They congregate in online locales such as Wikipedia, Google Search and Quora and Flowtown recommends never questioning the validity of their facts.
• Troll — Trolls enjoy making inflammatory online remarks and are immune to logical arguments and insults as they feed off negative reaction. They hang out in online places like social media, comment threads and 4chan and it is recommended to not feed them (i.e., respond to their comments).
• Meme Machine — Meme Machines feel the need to include a reaction GIF or meme in all online communications. They prefer constant solitude, hang out in spots such as Reddit, 4Chan, Imgur and Tumblr, and have potential to “explode into Meta- Memes.”
• Critic — Critics offer negative opinions on other people’s Web posts, pictures, etc. without being asked and “enjoy a good black turtleneck and monocle.” They can be found in locations such as comment threads, Reddit and Yelp and Flowtown urges those who encounter them to “never poke fun at a critic’s monocle.”
• Spambot — These automated distributors of marketing messages are among the “most prolific” Web users and frequent comment threads, Google search results and AIM. Direct eye contact should be avoided. 

Community Influencers Exist

Although obviously tongue-in-cheek, the Flowtown infographic does offer some genuine insight into the dynamics of online interaction. An entry on the UK social media blog The Wall uses the infographic to illustrate a broader point about the real phenomenon of “community influencers” in online forums.

After reviewing the infographic, Blogger Eoghan O’Neill of Ipsos MORI states “They’re a horrible social media cliché, but it seems to me that ‘community influencers’ (people who take the lead on a broad range of topics in a forum) really do exist.” O’Neill also points out that forum users generally take a “fierce sense of identity” in the perceived superiority of their forum compared to other forums on similar topics, form into cliques, give respect for regular participation as well as for specialist knowledge and often devolve into arguments and bitterness.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Meet Apple's 'New iPhone' Today

 As Android fans, and those with fed up with the whole smartphone bandwagon, take the day off from using the Internet, the rest of us look for the last snippets of news before Apple's big reveal. A shot of the new packaging suggests that the official name for the phone will be "The New iPhone." But, will it be new enough?

New and Better, or Just New?

Following on from the dropping of the "3" from Apple's third iPad, it looks like the new iPhone will just be called "New iPhone" at today's big launch. That will help get over the rather dull guess-the-name scenario, which could have seen us with an iPhone 4G, iPhone 5 or even an iPhone 6. 

A photo from a packaging factory suggests that the last nugget of information has been leaked out before the event, making a mockery of Tim Cook's pledge for greater secrecy. Short of wholly automated the supply chain, factories and delivery systems, and a complete denial of information to stores and stockists, Apple has zero hope of keeping its products a secret. 

For the next model of Apple product, it might as well let Sir Jony Ive keep a daily blog of what parts he's machined, from what material and which chips his designers have played with that week. Leaving the magical unveils for genuine new products like Apple TV sets or computing trousers is the only way to keep things fresh. 

Welcome the new iPhone, just to confuse salespeople everywhere

Even Fake Steve Jobs is Angry

Such is the lack of magic that even Fake Steve Jobs seems to have had enough. In an interview with the BBC he cites the amount of time Apple has had to evolve the phone and iOS and achieved so little.

The hardware on the iPhone has been the same for two years, since the iPhone 4 and 4S were virtually identical. Now, having had two years to plot and scheme, Apple's renowned designer Jonathan Ive has replaced the tiny 3.5in (8.9cm) screen with a slightly-less-tiny 4in (10.2cm) screen? Wow. Knock me over with a feather. What do you do with the rest of your time, Jony?

Of course, it is easy to be cynical and always demand more, but since Apple is the one claiming it is pushing things further, and ramping up the hype via the silly secrecy, it could be easy to come away disappointed later on today.

With iOS 6's Passbook feature likely to be the practical user's highlight of the event, we'll see and have full coverage of all the news. But, right now, the new Windows Phone 8 in a Nokia Lumia 920 is looking rather attractive. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Google Study: 9 in 10 Consumers Engage in Sequential Device Usage

As the number of Internet-enabled consumer devices continues to grow, so does the propensity of consumers to sequentially use multiple devices to complete a single online task. In fact, according to a new study from Google, 90 percent of people move among devices to accomplish a goal.

Results of “The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior” indicate that these devices can include smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV. Examples of how consumers sequentially use multiple devices for a single task include opening an email on a smartphone and then finishing reading it on a home PC and looking up product specs on a laptop after seeing a TV commercial. And 98 percent of sequential screeners move between devices in the same day to complete a task.  

The most popular reasons for sequential device usage include web browsing (81 percent), shopping online (67 percent), managing finances (46 percent) and planning a trip (43 percent). Eighty-one percent of sequential online shopping is spontaneous, which Google credits to the widespread availability of smartphones.

The other primary way of using multiple devices is simultaneous use, meaning using more than one device at the same time. This includes both multitasking — performing different tasks on different devices — and complementary usage such as looking up a product online while watching a TV commercial.

Seventy-seven percent of the time, TV viewers have another device plugged in — with smartphones (49 percent) and PCs/laptops (34 percent) the most popular.

Search Connects Devices

The study also found search to be a critical connector between devices used sequentially. Consumers use search to pick up on a second device where they left off on the first 63 percet of the time they are conducting multi-device search, 61 percent of the time they are browsing the Internet using multiple devices, 51 percent of the time they are shopping online via multiple screens, and 43 percent of the time they are using more than one device to watch online video.

In response, Google advises digital marketers to allow customers to save their progress between devices, as well as use tactics like keyword parity (maintaining the same keywords across different publishers and the three primary match type silos of broad, phrase and exact) to ensure that they can be found easily via search when that customer moves to the next device.

Consumers Combust into Spontaneous Search

Study findings show that 80 percent of searches that happen on smartphones are spur-of-the-moment, and 44 percent of these spontaneous searches are goal-oriented. And more than half (52 percent) of PC/laptop searches are spontaneous, with 43 percent goal-oriented. Google says this presents more opportunities to connect with consumers, so businesses have to make sure they’re present and optimized across multiple screens.

Advertisers and Publishers Take Heed

In an interview with AdWeek, Google head of global mobile sales and strategy Jason Spero said direct-response advertisers “cannot ignore the sequential use of devices because it’s a direct effect on how we shop and how we purchase. A brand advertiser — and many, many, many brand advertisers spend on TV — can’t ignore how the connected device is being used to complement TV.” 

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Reddit Is Getting A Dwolla and Stripe-Powered Fundraising Button

Redditors have used "the front page of the Internet" for all kinds of good deeds--from raising Haiti relief funds to sending a bus monitor on a permanent vacation. New tools could make those efforts easier.

Being “the front page of the Internet” comes with power, and Redditors have often, if not a bit spontaneously, channeled that power for fundraising.

Among their good deeds: giving a bullied senior citizen bus monitor a $700,000 vacation budget, scrounging up $31,000 overnight to help a three-year-old who needed a bone marrow transplant and contributing more than $180,000 to Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

Now, for the first time, Reddit users will be able to execute some of these fundraisers within Reddit-branded pages.

Starting today, managers of the site's topic pages, or Subreddits, can opt to accept donations to specific non-profits by installing new donate buttons on their Subreddit pages. The TwoXChromosomes Subreddit, for instance, will add a button to support She's the First, an organization that supports girls' education in the developing world.

The buttons and the donation system they're attached to, Reddit Donate, were developed by payment startup Dwolla in partnership with another payment startup called Stripe. It will launch with 12 non-profit partners, including Kiva, Charity: Water and DonorsChoose.

Many Subreddits are already active fundraisers. The atheism Subreddit, for instance, helped raise more than $200,000 for Doctors Without Boarders by directing traffic to a third-party fundraising page.

Without a Reddit tool for accepting donations, most fundraising Redditors have, like the athiest group, pointed each other to crowdfunding sites such as Indiegogo, independent funding sites and custom landing pages on charities' websites to contribute.

At times it can be unclear, however, where the money is actually going. Money raised for the bullied bus monitor's vacation, for instance, was collected on an Indiegogo page that was not set up in her name, but a Redditor's name. If a less scrupulous person had created the page, the story may have lost its happy ending.

“We want to protect our community, and for it to know that if it donates $100, that its going to the right person and not to various fees,” Erik Martin, the general manager of Reddit, tells Fast Company.

Dwolla removes credit card numbers from transactions--and with them a handful of third-party financial service providers–-and thus is able to charge an impressively low fee of $.25 for transactions more than $10 (transactions involving less than that are free). Money travels directly from donors' bank accounts to non profits' bank accounts. Stripe keeps the credit card in the process and charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.

Reddit has taken other steps to support charitable efforts initiated in its site, but none so significant.

Earlier this month, the site named Crowdtilt its official fundraising partner. A newly-launched startup, Crowdtilt enables anyone to raise money for any kind of project, and it promised Reddit to wave fees and verify that donated money ends up where it is intended.

It's difficult to verify how organizations that aren't registered non-profits are spending their money, so the Dwolla and Stripe button only applies to non-profit partners for now. That leaves out individual-specific causes Reddit is famous for supporting.

Ben Milne, the CEO of Dwolla, tells Fast Company that if Redditors embrace it, there's likely room for the project to evolve. For now, the new feature formalizes a giving habit that has already become part of Reddit's reputation.

“It’s just like anyone could always raise money for their project," says Milne, "but it got way easier when Kickstarter launched.”

Source : fastcompany[dot]com