Management & Technology
Psych your mind!
Psych your mind!
IAs and Social Computing Strategy
Matthew Hodgson
ACT Regional-lead, Web and Information Management
g , g
SMS Management & Technology
Oz-IA Sydney, September 2008

Why Cheers and not The Establishment?
y
VS
• Reputation by word of mouth • p y p g
Reputation by corporate branding
• No barriers to entry • Gatekeepers
• Friendly community • Impersonal and elitist
• Open square bar design • Private ‘nooks’
• Everybody knows your name • No one knows your name

CHOICE Magazine = Cheers?
g
• Trusted, honest, household name
• Community builders
• Friendly champion for consumer causes
…but…
Gatekeeper perception:
G t k ti
• “I can get free information elsewhere”
Online branding:
• Can feel impersonal – content doesn’t
doesn t
speak with a ‘human voice’
No one knows your name:
• Pay first in order to have a (member) relationship

Problems we all share
Fighting for relevance:
• Search ranking – Google likes blogs but not my website
• Competitors are interacting with users – e g CNET
e.g. CNET,
Amazon, epinions.com – and improving their marketability
and reputation
It’ as a result of working i th ‘ ld way’:
It’s lt f ki in the ‘old ’
• Corporate website just a reflection of printed media
• Publishing processes are not responsive enough to users’
information and communications needs
• Don’t know how to change

CHOICE – deciding to act
g
We want:
• Conversations of our own
• 21st century brand
• Greater market share
• K
Keep members and make new ones
b d k
Implement a social computing strategy:
• Understand how to interact with users with Web 2 0-style
2.0 style
tools and online communities
• Create new website with new IA, UXD, CMS – using
IA UXD
tagging, comments, user reviews

Strategy, planning for social computing
gy, p g p g
Forrester’s POST model for implementation
People:
• Assess your audience social behaviour
Objectives:
• Decide what you want to accomplish
Strategy:
St t
• Plan how relationships with audience will change
Technology:
• Gather requirements to decide what social technologies to use
Source: Forrester, 2007

Forrester’s POST model
Benefits:
• Simple
• U
User-centred – th fi t step iis not t h l
t d the first t t technology but
b t
understanding and involving people
Disadvantages:
• There’s more to people than overt behaviour
p p
• There’s more to social computing technology than
wikis or blogging software

OZ‐IA PIST model
Psychology:
• U d t d people’s sociall
Understand l ’ i
behaviour and thinking processes
.
Information Architecture:
• SScope of functions, llanguage,
f f ti
structure of information, and layout on the screen
.
Strategy:
• Aims objectives and goals to build relationships online
Aims, objectives,
.
Technology:
• What ‘bits’ to use for delivery?

1. Psychology
y gy
people’s thinking & behaviour

Our behaviour is controlled by needs
y
Source: Wikipedia (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, 1943)

When it comes to online interaction…
• Certain needs drive our behaviour more than others
Source: M Hodgson, 2007

But what about the environment?

Personal + group = influence decision
g p
Source: M Hodgson, 2007

Decision isn’t instant – it takes time
Source: Transtheoretical Model of Change. Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983; Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992;
Prochaska & Velicer, 1997

Assessing adoption thinking & behaviour
g p g
Issue – CHOICE wanted to know:
• Would members decide to use social computing tools?
• Would increased interaction result in more members?
• How to implement social computing tools successfully?
Solution – CHOICE did user research:
• Thinking: benefits of CHOICE
• Behaviour: experiences with CHOICE
• Relationships: benefits of membership, would perception
change if social computing tools were introduced?

Archetypes in traditional media
yp

Six archetypes of social computing
yp p g
33%
19% 13%
19%
15%
Source: Forrester Research, 2008 52%

A look at member personas
p
Born: Chicago
Lives: Boston
Wife: Vera
Best-friend: Cliff Clavin
Career: Accountant (soon to be unemployed)
Social behaviour: Collector (jokes)
(j )
Membership attitudes: Trust
Born: Boston
Lives: Boston (with his mother)
Wife: None
Best-friend: Norm Peterson
Career: Postman
Social behaviour: Critic (commenter)
Member attitudes: Trust

Who do you trust?
y
Source: Edelman, 2008

How do you build trust?
y

Trust, membership and communities
, p
During Preparation p
g p phase:
• Trust is a pre-requisite leading into Contemplation
• I fl
Influences decision to adopt and jjoin
d i i t d t d i
Build trust in online environments by:
• Giving opportunities to interact – meeting ‘role’ needs
• Establishing identity – ie. “he’s like me!
he s me!”
• Building reputation – consistency of content from
authors
th

But trust is not the end … I trust
them
There s
There’s still a final I interact with I think like
decision to be made them … but I’m them … but
in the Contemplation not a I’m not
full member formally one of
phase
them

Cognitive dissonance
g
I behave like a
member
…but I’m not a
member

Cognitive dissonance
g
I must formalise my
involvement and
commit … or …

Actions for IAs
Generating cognitive dissonance is the key to the decision
.
Promote identification:
Show b fil
• Sh member profiles – th are like me!
they lik !
• Guest profiles – reinforce that they’re not a member
Encourage interaction prior to Contemplation stage:
• Make it easy to interact – build reputation
Build trust:
• R i f i t f t t
Reinforce consistency of content & iinteraction over ti
t ti time
Acting on Contemplation (behaviour):
• Make it easy to join (or run away … unlike Facebook!)

2 Information
2. Information
Architecture
creating th perfect environment f
ti the f t i t for
cognitive dissonance
g

Roles, content & interaction needs
,
Our designs need to take account of:
g
• Roles & behaviour, language, information structure
and presentation influencing Contemplation
• Creator – I want to make content
• Joiner – I want to join a group
• Critic – I want to comment and trackback
• Collector – I want lots of tags, lots of pages
g p g
• Spectator – Just watching the action for now
• I ti – E ti th t stay a while
Inactive Entice them to t hil

Facebook v MySpace – group‐dynamics
y p g p y
• Facebook has quicker uptake – clearer group membership

Amazon – identification
• I should buy what people like me buy!
What other
What other
people are
people are
thinking
buying
What other
people are
doing
What other
people are
l
saying

Ninemsn – meeting ‘Collector’ needs
g
What message
does this say to
Joiners and
Collectors?
Sending it to
other people,
friends,
communities

Flickr – meeting ‘Joiner’ needs
g
He’s a Pro and
he ‘thinks’
like me!
Amateur
photographer
‘Professional’
photographer
= Joiner
Human
interaction --
just click on my
image!

Toshiba – ‘Creator’ and ‘Critic’ needs
Why write a
review when
there’s no
community here
to listen to what
you have to say?
Where are
the joiner
h j i
needs met?

Epinions – ‘Joiners’, ‘Creators’ and
‘Critics’ and ‘Spectators’
‘C iti ’ d ‘S t t ’
No ‘corporate-line’, just
people like me
An invitation to
participate for
p p
Joiners
Identity
Answering
“What’s in it
for me”
me

CHOICE – Identification, ‘Critic’, and
‘Collector’ needs
‘Collector’ needs
What other
Building trust
g people are
with the saying
author
How people like
to classify the
article

CHOICE – Identification, ‘Critic’ needs
,
What other
people are
saying
Identity:
Id tit
people who
think like me

CHOICE – Identification, ‘Critics’,
‘Collectors’ needs
‘Collectors’ needs What other
people are
saying
How other
Share with
people think
other
about the
people
article
Share your
thoughts with
g
this community

IA reinforce relationships
p
My blog page(s)
All my comments
Content page Profile page
My intersections
with other
communities
All my articles

Personal profiles are critical
p
Benefits:
• Information is no longer faceless, anonymous
• E t bli h credibility and articulate expertise
Establishes dibilit d ti l t ti
• Builds trust – easier to trust people than a machine
p p
• Builds community – for members and non-members
Disadvantages:
• Some authors would rather remain hidden (using a
g
ghost writer can avoid this though)
g )
• Some chaos? – need good governance and rules

Actions for IAs
Widgetize everything! Big ideas, little components:
g y g g , p
• Thi ki give th thinking of Critics, Joiners, etc, a
Thinking: i the thi ki f C iti J i t
predominant place in the interface
• Behaviour: promote interaction (prior to
contemplation stage) between the user and others
others,
between user and the content
• Relationships: show the relationships between
users and users, users and content , and content
,
with like-content

3. Strategy
gy
inside and outside the walls

Components of a strategy
p gy
Aims:
• Articulate what do we want to do
Goals:
G l
• What’s the change we want to engender – thinking,
g g g,
behaviour, and/or relationships?
• How will we do it how do we get there?
it,
• Over what time period?
p
Objectives:
• H will we know when we get there?
How ill k h t th ?

CHOICE – Inside the walls
Aims:
• Move from print to modern online model
• Utilise social computing as a vehicle for organisational
change
Goals:
• Change in thinking – value ‘normal people’ (vs researcher)
reviews and comments
i d t
• Behavioural change – changes to business processes
• Relationship change – start to generate ‘conversations’ with
external audiences

CHOICE – acting on the strategy
g gy
CO
ON M
TI M
UN
ICA IC
UN CHOICE Staff A
MM TI
ON
CO
CATION
COMMUNIC
COMMUNICATION
Magazine Website user
reader
N
IO
CO AT
M MU N IC
N IC U
AT MM
IO N CO
Consumer
Chain M d
Ch i Modell Wheel M d
Wh l Modell

CHOICE – acting on the strategy (cont)
g gy ( )
Content creation:
• Governance model - move to decentralised
• St li t b ttl
Streamline to remove bottlenecks and information
k di f ti
gatekeepers
Blog internally:
• Get people used to what will happen externally
Build online communities:
• Experiment with YouTube and Flickr accounts for
projects

CHOICE – Outside the walls
Aims:
• Improve face of online business
Affect h
Aff t a change in thinking:
i thi ki
• CHOICE as a relevant 21st century brand
y
Behavioural change in users:
• Active interaction with CHOICE, rather than passive
Relationship change:
• Community building
• Personal one-to-one communications

Putting IA into the strategy
g gy
Requires us to identify how we’re g g to change:
q y going g
• Thinking: identification, to join (or not to join)
• B h i
Behaviour: jjoin, create, collect, comment
i t ll t t
• Relationships: create between individuals and with
p
groups, associations, identifying ‘friends’
.
In order to meet:
• PPersonall sociall needs
i d
• Group social needs – social cohesion and norms
p

Strategy results – objectives to aim for
gy j
Traffic:
• 50% of blogs generate 75% web traffic for corporate
sites
Media exposure:
• 59% of blogs generate journalist contact
• 53% of journalist contacts become journalist
p
publications
Source: Backbone Media, 2005

4. Technology
gy
let there be widgety-things!

Web technology has matured
gy
• Web is no longer a reflection of p counterpart
g print p
• Barrier to end-user participation has dropped (again)
• W ’ got new t h l
We’ve t technology:
– Web 2.0 frameworks
– Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social messaging and
more!
• Old technology:
– N putting the sociall computing stuff iin th also!
Now tti th i ti t ff there l !
• Enabler of human interaction:
– Some people will use this tool, but some won’t

Web 2.0 framework
Source: www.futureexploration.net

Actions for IAs
Think broader:
• Social computing strategy technology ≠ wikis,
blogs, Twitter
blogs Twitter, etc
Think deeper:
• More lower-level than off-the-shelf software
• Web apps that deliver the IA widgets
Technology alignment:
• M t h psychology, IA and strategy with the right
Match h l d t t ith th i ht
technology components

Conclusions
where do we go from here…?

Social computing strategies
p g g
Only truly effective if:
y y
• Take account of people’s behaviour and thinking
Uses these factors to:
U th f t t
• Determine aims, g, goals and strategy – plan on how it
gy p
all evolves from pre-contemplation into action
• Influence thinking, behaviour and relationships –
thinking
decisions to adopt social computing tools, interact
with other people on our websites
• Help manage internal and external change

Its more than radical trust & wikis
Psychology:
y gy
• Know the psychology of trust – thinking and behaviour
• Understand the power of cognitive dissonance
p g
IA:
• Align widget-style components with p
g g y p persona/role interaction
needs
Strategy:
• Determine aims, goals and strategy – plan on how it all
evolves from pre-contemplation into action
Technology:
T h l
• The right tool for the right job – not just throwing-up blogs
and wikis

Take home messages
g
To architect great online environments:
• Be strategic – think and act PIST
• Leverage psychology theory and IA best-practice
• Use personas to understand and articulate roles’
roles
interaction preferences, thinking and behaviour
• Create Opera Houses that are more than just Opera
Houses

The ultimate goal …
g
Online since 2008
www.cheers.com

Management & Technology
Fin
Questions?

Management & Technology
Psych your mind!
Psych your mind!
IAs and Social Computing Strategy

Management & Technology
Matthew Hodgson
ACT Regional-lead, Web and Information Management
Regional lead,
SMS Management & Technology
Blog: magia3e.wordpress.com
g g p
Twitter: magia3e
Slideshare: www.slideshare.net/magia3e
Email: mhodgson@smsmt.com
Mobile: 0404 006695