1) Engagement with community members is important to obtain better quality data from higher survey response rates and richer responses, as well as to save money through reduced recruitment costs.
2) The document discusses setting engagement goals and creating an engagement plan to achieve those goals through tactics like monthly newsletters, annual surveys, highlighting top community members, and providing rewards.
3) The key to engagement is having members feel like they can express their opinions and that their feedback makes a difference, rather than just participating for rewards.
This presentation includes templates and instructions for Community Mapping (mapping your community segments), Content Mapping (creating a content strategy), and Tracking Metrics. Amy Sample Ward presented as part of the Nonprofit Webinars series. You can learn more about Amy at http://amysampleward.org or find other webinars at http://www.nonprofitwebinars.com/
A group project for my social marketing class at the University of Kansas. This assignment was created to promote Headquarters Counseling Center located in Lawrence, Kansas.
This presentation includes templates and instructions for Community Mapping (mapping your community segments), Content Mapping (creating a content strategy), and Tracking Metrics. Amy Sample Ward presented as part of the Nonprofit Webinars series. You can learn more about Amy at http://amysampleward.org or find other webinars at http://www.nonprofitwebinars.com/
A group project for my social marketing class at the University of Kansas. This assignment was created to promote Headquarters Counseling Center located in Lawrence, Kansas.
Here are 16 areas that I'm thinking about in my day job in marketing, public relations and social media at Ketchum in 2016. As in previous years they're not so much predictions for the coming 12-months, as work in progress.
Many charities consider social media a key channel to deliver their communications and fundraising goals, although few incorporate it into their core strategy – a problem exacerbated by the social media knowledge gap at senior levels in charities worldwide.
Drawing on interviews with international charity leaders and Grant Thornton Not for Profit specialists, this report provides charity leaders with guidance on how they can enable their charity to take advantage of social media’s power to engage new communities and to thrive online.
Key findings
• Strategy: Organisational strategy should drive social media use, the board must help formulate this from a position of knowledge.
• Governance: The social media governance approach and guidelines should be shared with everyone in the organisation.
• Education and training: Formal education should be used at every level. Internal social networks can help people gain knowledge of social media.
• Risk: Social media non-engagement is a risk in itself, although costs must be weighed against benefits.
• Impact: It is vital to measure social media outcomes to justify investment; metrics should be linked to a strategic goal and monitored.
Read more here: bit.ly/1otFEJR
Jive Webcast: Gamification #201: 7Summits, Hitachi and Solarwinds presentation7Summits
Gamification 201: Winning with Gamification, a Guide to Success
The top companies in the world understand the potential of game mechanics to drive measurable business value and user behavior, but are still learning how to properly implement them.
- Why are so many companies looking to gamification and digital motivation systems?
- Please join a panel discussion featuring SolarWinds and - - Hitachi Data Systems to gain valuable insight into their successful implementation of gamification within their online communities. The panel will be hosted by 7Summits, Bunchball, and Jive Software.
In this presentation you will learn:
- Core elements needed to achieve the desired business and program objectives
- How to plan missions, rewards and recognition to guide user behavior
- Design principles to consider during implementation
Real world examples and results from Solar Winds and Hitachi Data System
- How to factor gamification into your activation and adoption plans
Community Management vs Social Media Management - Whats The Difference? Dan Spicer
RECORDED SESSION LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LALQ0_FPAWg
The 'Social Media Manager' and the 'Community Manager' are distinct positions within an organisation, titles which are often used interchangeably with no real understanding to the individual roles and responsibilities of each. Yes there are over-lapping duties however it is a common misconception that there are more similarities than there are differences.
In this Social Media Week session we will look to uncover and explain these differences - what does community infer as opposed to social media, how does this relate to your respective audiences, how do these align with your business objectives and what the tools available in ones armoury to drive towards these objectives. Social strategy, content production and distribution, customer engagement, community development, analytics and ROI - who is best suited to deliver these?
During the hour we'll take a look at:
- A brief history of the community manager and social media manager
- The responsibilities of each role
- The different types of business outcomes
- What to look for when hiring
How To Successfully Promote Your Year-End Fundraising CampaignCauseVox
After seeing thousands of campaigns here at CauseVox, we know that promoting your fundraiser the right way can help to ensure a successful campaign. This is especially the case as the year comes to an end and your fundraising efforts ramp up.
Webinar details:
Thursday, October 20, 2016
12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT
During this 30-minute webinar, we will share what we've learned over the years as the most effective ways to promote your year-end fundraising campaigns. Following, we'll have a live Q&A session to answer your questions and help you uncover the best promotion tatics for your campaign.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The best ways to segment your supporters during year-end
Why you need a multi-channel approach to drive success
Best practices to leveraging email, social media, advertising, and more to promote your campaign
Toluna is a leading provider of digital consumer insights, and empowers companies to brainstorm ideas, uncover new business opportunities and answer their questions in real-time. Toluna is transforming the way marketing decisions are made by bringing consumers and brands together via the world’s largest social voting community of nine million members across 49 countries. This real-time access to consumers is coupled with its state-of-the-art, market research survey and analytics platform. Toluna has 18 offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit http://www.toluna-group.com/
Here are 16 areas that I'm thinking about in my day job in marketing, public relations and social media at Ketchum in 2016. As in previous years they're not so much predictions for the coming 12-months, as work in progress.
Many charities consider social media a key channel to deliver their communications and fundraising goals, although few incorporate it into their core strategy – a problem exacerbated by the social media knowledge gap at senior levels in charities worldwide.
Drawing on interviews with international charity leaders and Grant Thornton Not for Profit specialists, this report provides charity leaders with guidance on how they can enable their charity to take advantage of social media’s power to engage new communities and to thrive online.
Key findings
• Strategy: Organisational strategy should drive social media use, the board must help formulate this from a position of knowledge.
• Governance: The social media governance approach and guidelines should be shared with everyone in the organisation.
• Education and training: Formal education should be used at every level. Internal social networks can help people gain knowledge of social media.
• Risk: Social media non-engagement is a risk in itself, although costs must be weighed against benefits.
• Impact: It is vital to measure social media outcomes to justify investment; metrics should be linked to a strategic goal and monitored.
Read more here: bit.ly/1otFEJR
Jive Webcast: Gamification #201: 7Summits, Hitachi and Solarwinds presentation7Summits
Gamification 201: Winning with Gamification, a Guide to Success
The top companies in the world understand the potential of game mechanics to drive measurable business value and user behavior, but are still learning how to properly implement them.
- Why are so many companies looking to gamification and digital motivation systems?
- Please join a panel discussion featuring SolarWinds and - - Hitachi Data Systems to gain valuable insight into their successful implementation of gamification within their online communities. The panel will be hosted by 7Summits, Bunchball, and Jive Software.
In this presentation you will learn:
- Core elements needed to achieve the desired business and program objectives
- How to plan missions, rewards and recognition to guide user behavior
- Design principles to consider during implementation
Real world examples and results from Solar Winds and Hitachi Data System
- How to factor gamification into your activation and adoption plans
Community Management vs Social Media Management - Whats The Difference? Dan Spicer
RECORDED SESSION LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LALQ0_FPAWg
The 'Social Media Manager' and the 'Community Manager' are distinct positions within an organisation, titles which are often used interchangeably with no real understanding to the individual roles and responsibilities of each. Yes there are over-lapping duties however it is a common misconception that there are more similarities than there are differences.
In this Social Media Week session we will look to uncover and explain these differences - what does community infer as opposed to social media, how does this relate to your respective audiences, how do these align with your business objectives and what the tools available in ones armoury to drive towards these objectives. Social strategy, content production and distribution, customer engagement, community development, analytics and ROI - who is best suited to deliver these?
During the hour we'll take a look at:
- A brief history of the community manager and social media manager
- The responsibilities of each role
- The different types of business outcomes
- What to look for when hiring
How To Successfully Promote Your Year-End Fundraising CampaignCauseVox
After seeing thousands of campaigns here at CauseVox, we know that promoting your fundraiser the right way can help to ensure a successful campaign. This is especially the case as the year comes to an end and your fundraising efforts ramp up.
Webinar details:
Thursday, October 20, 2016
12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT
During this 30-minute webinar, we will share what we've learned over the years as the most effective ways to promote your year-end fundraising campaigns. Following, we'll have a live Q&A session to answer your questions and help you uncover the best promotion tatics for your campaign.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The best ways to segment your supporters during year-end
Why you need a multi-channel approach to drive success
Best practices to leveraging email, social media, advertising, and more to promote your campaign
Toluna is a leading provider of digital consumer insights, and empowers companies to brainstorm ideas, uncover new business opportunities and answer their questions in real-time. Toluna is transforming the way marketing decisions are made by bringing consumers and brands together via the world’s largest social voting community of nine million members across 49 countries. This real-time access to consumers is coupled with its state-of-the-art, market research survey and analytics platform. Toluna has 18 offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit http://www.toluna-group.com/
My books- Hacking Digital Learning Strategies http://hackingdls.com & Learning to Go https://gum.co/learn2go
Resources at http://shellyterrell.com/emoji
What does member engagement look like? Why are the programs used by associations beginning to fail? What are members REALLY LOOKING FOR? Answers to these questions and practical recommendations are presented in this presentation.
This presentation covers various life cycle stages in an online community and how you can identify the stages. Plan different action items for each stage of the life cycle. If you can successfully execute the activities, you'll be able to amplify the potential of the community as well as the value it delivers to your business.
Rewriting The Rules of Member Engagement - 5 Ways Associations Can Leverage S...Patrick Dorsey
Rewriting The Rules of Member Engagement - 5 Ways Associations Can Leverage Social CRM to Drive Interaction & Relevance to encourage two-way dialogue with your members, boost their loyalty to your organization and answer these questions and more:
•How to measure what programs and services your members value?
•How to monitor social comments and interactions?
•What are 5 key trends all association executives need to know?
No matter how good the technology, it won't guarantee you a successful on-line community. You need effective facilitation to build and nurture the community. The presentation describes the role and responsibilities of a community facilitator, and is a reminder that when implementing the technology - batteries are not included!
Social media is evolving faster than it has since the dawn of the industry. As people reassess their relationship with social media, they are increasingly turning to communities for deeper and more meaningful connections. 76% of internet users have already adopted online communities as a way to engage with others who share their interests and passions.
Framework for training on the essentials parts of Online Community Management.
This framework was used in a facilitated workshop where participants were actively involved and experienced:
- Difference between a following and a community.
- Why it is important to be very clear on the target group, the mission and the values in a community.
- What is takes to create a safe community for sharing information.
Participants learned about:
- Community KPI's.
- What community tasks to focus on.
- How to advance the community to the next phase.
- To tap into the wisdom of the group and community.
Community Engagement During & After The Holiday SeasonQuestionPro
Learn How to engage community members while brands fight for attention. Collect relevant insights from the holiday campaigns. How to utilize the insights to keep engagement after the holiday season.
How to Measure and Benchmark your Enterprise Social NetworkRachel Happe
How do you measure, benchmark and calculate the ROI of your enterprise social network or your community? This presentation will give you a framework for understanding how to define, baseline, compare and use data in a way that educates and sells stakeholders on the costs and benefits of building a community.
This is an ebook I created for a strategic social media class at the University of Oregon. It breaks down how to measure and communicate the importance of social media initiatives.
Why is the ROI of my community so difficult to measure?
How can I demonstrate the value of my community of practice to my management?
This article tells you how to do this and what are the benefits of this measure.
Webinar: "Digital Tracking - Insight Senza Precedenti"Toluna
Rivedi il primo appuntamento del 2018 e scopri Digital Tracking, la soluzione Toluna che ti aiuta a conoscere il comportamento online dei tuoi consumatori attraverso la rilevazione passiva, 24h/24h, dei loro comportamenti.
Digitalización y Automatización para Ampliar el Potencial de Insights Toluna
Durante este taller, el público aprenderá sobre:
Cómo Toluna proporciona una visión en tiempo real a través de productos automatizados
Cómo aprovechar de la tecnología y la automatización para asegurar una estrategia exitosa de lanzamiento al mercado
Cómo PowerConcept repiensa los timings tradicionales de la investigación de mercados y la reduce de forma exponencial
Facilitar y democratizar la investigación de mercados no es sólo lo que hace Toluna.
Es la misión de Toluna.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there. That’s why it’s estimated that 82% of consumer traffic will come from videos by 2025.
And with videos evolving from landscape to portrait and experts promoting shorter clips, one thing remains constant – our brains LOVE videos.
So is there science behind what makes people absolutely irresistible on camera?
The answer: definitely yes.
In this jam-packed session with Stephanie Garcia, you’ll get your hands on a steal-worthy guide that uncovers the art and science to being irresistible on camera. From body language to words that convert, she’ll show you how to captivate on command so that viewers are excited and ready to take action.
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
Core Web Vitals SEO Workshop - improve your performance [pdf]Peter Mead
Core Web Vitals to improve your website performance for better SEO results with CWV.
CWV Topics include:
- Understanding the latest Core Web Vitals including the significance of LCP, INP and CLS + their impact on SEO
- Optimisation techniques from our experts on how to improve your CWV on platforms like WordPress and WP Engine
- The impact of user experience and SEO
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
First Things First: Building and Effective Marketing Strategy
Too many companies (and marketers) jump straight into activation planning without formalizing a marketing strategy. It may seem tedious, but analyzing the mindset of your targeted audiences and identifying the messaging points most likely to resonate with them is time well spent. That process is also a great opportunity for marketers to collaborate with sales leaders and account managers on a galvanized go-to-market approach. I’ll walk you through the methods and tools we use with our clients to ensure campaign success.
Key Takeaways:
-Recognize the critical role of strategy in marketing
-Learn our approach for building an actionable, effective marketing strategy
-Receive templates and guides for developing a marketing strategy
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?Cut-the-SaaS
Discover the transformative power of AI in content creation with our presentation, "Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?" by Puran Parsani, CEO & Editor of Cut-The-SaaS. Learn how AI-generated content is revolutionizing marketing, publishing, education, healthcare, and finance by offering unprecedented efficiency, creativity, and scalability.
Understanding
AI-Generated Content:
AI-generated content includes text, images, videos, and audio produced by AI without direct human involvement. This technology leverages large datasets to create contextually relevant and coherent material, streamlining content production.
Key Benefits:
Content Creation: Rapidly generate high-quality content for blogs, articles, and social media.
Brainstorming: AI simulates conversations to inspire creative ideas.
Research Assistance: Efficiently summarize and research information.
Market Insights:
The content marketing industry is projected to grow to $17.6 billion by 2032, with AI-generated content expected to dominate over 55% of the market.
Case Study: CNET’s AI Content Controversy:
CNET’s use of AI for news articles led to public scrutiny due to factual inaccuracies, highlighting the need for transparency and human oversight.
Benefits Across Industries:
Marketing: Personalize content at scale and optimize engagement with predictive analytics.
Publishing: Automate content creation for faster publication cycles.
Education: Efficiently generate educational materials.
Healthcare: Create accurate content for patients and professionals.
Finance: Produce timely financial content for decision-making.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
Transparency: Disclose AI use to maintain trust.
Bias: Address potential AI biases with diverse datasets.
SEO: Ensure AI content meets SEO standards.
Quality: Maintain high standards to prevent misinformation.
Conclusion:
AI-generated content offers significant benefits in efficiency, personalization, and scalability. However, ethical considerations and quality assurance are crucial for responsible use. Explore the future of content creation with us and see how AI is transforming various industries.
Connect with Us:
Follow Cut-The-SaaS on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Medium. Visit cut-the-saas.com for more insights and resources.
How to Run Landing Page Tests On and Off Paid Social PlatformsVWO
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Mariate, Alexandra and Nima where we will unveil a comprehensive blueprint for crafting a successful paid media strategy focused on landing page testing.With escalating costs in paid advertising, understanding how to maximize each visitor’s experience is crucial for retention and conversion.
This session will dive into the methodologies for executing and analyzing landing page tests within paid social channels, offering a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical insights.
The Pearmill team will guide you through the nuances of setting up and managing landing page experiments on paid social platforms. You will learn about the critical rules to follow, the structure of effective tests, optimal conversion duration and budget allocation.
The session will also cover data analysis techniques and criteria for graduating landing pages.
In the second part of the webinar, Pearmill will explore the use of A/B testing platforms. Discover common pitfalls to avoid in A/B testing and gain insights into analyzing A/B tests results effectively.
SMM Cheap - No. 1 SMM panel in the worldsmmpanel567
Boost your social media marketing with our SMM Panel services offering SMM Cheap services! Get cost-effective services for your business and increase followers, likes, and engagement across all social media platforms. Get affordable services perfect for businesses and influencers looking to increase their social proof. See how cheap SMM strategies can help improve your social media presence and be a pro at the social media game.
SEO as the Backbone of Digital MarketingFelipe Bazon
In this talk Felipe Bazon will share how him and his team at Hedgehog Digital share our journey of making C-Levels alike, specially CMOS realize that SEO is the backbone of digital marketing by showing how SEO can contribute to brand awareness, reputation and authority and above all how to use SEO to create more robust global marketing strategies.
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
The Forgotten Secret Weapon of Digital Marketing: Email
Digital marketing is a rapidly changing, ever evolving industry--Influencers, Threads, X, AI, etc. But one of the most effective digital marketing tools is also one of the oldest: Email. Find out from two Houston-based digital experts how to maximize your results from email.
Key Takeaways:
Email has the best ROI of any digital tactic
It can be used at any stage of the customer journey
It is increasingly important as the cookie-less future gets closer and closer
5 big bets to drive growth in 2024 without one additional marketing dollar AND how to adapt to the biggest shifting eCommerce trend- AI.
1) Romance Your Customers - Retention
2) ‘Alternative’ Lead Gen - Advocacy
3) The Beautiful Basics - Conversion Rate Optimization
4) Land that Bottom Line - Profitability
5) Roll the Dice - New Business Models
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
1. ENGAGE LIKE NEVER BEFORE,
WITH A COMMUNITY LIKE NO OTHER
Julie Paul, SVP Communities
Communities
Playbook
January 2017
2. www.corporate.toluna.com
Information about the communities who took part:
UK, USA, APAC communities. Total Base 6,456
• Majority of communities are within the media sector (42%) or ‘general’
category (32%). The remainder were in a mix of education, consumer
goods, auto, finance or entertainment industries
• Community sizes were either 5k, to 5-10k in general
• The study fielded in September – October 2016
Julie Paul, January 2017
Learning what motivates
community members to engage
- and put your brand in the heart
of deep conversations
At Toluna, we’ve been building communities for years and one of the
topics we feel is most important to provide best practice for our clients,
is engagement. In simple terms, engagement means having a strong
connection with your community members to elicit thoughtful opinions
and insights and maximize your return on investment.
It means members are both interested and involved.
They are participating in the community.
It’s important for 2 reasons:
1. Better quality data
2. Save money
We undertook a study with our clients, and asked them to provide us
with access to their community members, and we designed a survey
to better understand members’ motivation for participation, likes and
dislikes, and more.
Here’s what we found.
2
3. www.corporate.toluna.com
Traditionally, Community-Panels offer three main benefits:
1: Provide deep engagement with customers
to really understand what they are thinking
about your brand.
• You do this by interacting directly with
customers through a number of methods
– qualitative activities, discussions, and
survey; it’s an iterative process where you
interchangeably are doing qual and quant
research, this provides continuous insights and
also has the side benefit of building advocacy.
2: The second benefit is just good quality data.
• Community-panels will generally garner
higher response rates than a traditional panel,
if the panel is managed properly and the
members are engaged.
• Communities and the software platforms they
use allow you to gather extensive data on
each individual member and aggregate that in
a number of ways – you have all the profiling
data you collect when members join, all the
data you collect through qual and survey
activities, and you can layer on segmentation
and so your entire community is segmented
into meaningful groups.
• Your community offers multiple data
sources – you can easily and quickly pre-test
questionnaires with small groups, validate qual
data with quant, and then layer on other data
points such as from CRM databases to really
get a very rich set of quality data.
• This iterative process allows you to collect
insights over time, tracking community
members over weeks, months and even years.
3: Return on Investment.
• All of this offers the benefit of very
comprehensive research, over time, for an
overall fee that is economical (e.g. you might
spend 100K on the initial community set-up
and build, but will likely spend over 100K in
research over the first few months – and
these panels can go on for years, amortizing
your initial investment even further).
3
4. www.corporate.toluna.com
Playbook v1 – Key Finding
In developing our Playbook V1 last year, we did a survey of our clients
who have a community and asked them how valuable they found their
community and how often they did research with their community
members. The vast majority (87%) reported using their communities at
least weekly, with a large sub-segment saying even daily. And that statistic
makes sense, because we know that the more you use your community
and amortize the initial cost of building it over several research studies,
the higher the return on investment. So the trick is to go out to your
community members as much as possible – BUT, without burning them
out. Which leads us to the whole topic of engagement.
ROI comes from RECRUITING a panelist and then USING them
as much as humanly possible, without burning them out.
59%
28%
Report using their
community at least
once each week
Report using
their community
daily
4
5. www.corporate.toluna.com
Clients often ask, “From your experience with all the communities
Toluna has, what goes into the most successful ones?”
My answer is immediately, “Member Engagement!”
And it’s true, the communities we have that are the most successful
are where there is a high level of member engagement.
Member Engagement is important for 2 reasons:
1. You will have better quality data from higher survey response rates
and richer, more in-depth responses in open-end verbatim answers
– both on discussions and survey.
2. You will save money – if you look at the big picture - it requires
an investment of time and funds to implement a good engagement
strategy, but the payoff is in members who stay longer with your
community and therefore less time and cost on recruitment of
new members; engaged members also tend to refer friends
to the community, so another savings on recruitment costs.
Engagement means having a connection with your community
members to elicit thoughtful opinions and feedback. It means
they are interested and involved. They are participating in
the community.
5
6. A platform for expressing my opinion
Being able to
express myself is a
nice thing in regards
to products and topics
that interest mePrimarily the best thing about being part of a community
is to be able to share opinions express views and feedback.
I want to share with you what community members have said to us
about WHY they joined the community and why they continue to
participate. You may be surprised to learn that it is not for the chance
to win 100 bucks or to get 20 points for an Amazon voucher. Although
those things are important to them, as we will see later, the #1 reason
why they join and why they stay is because they want to share their
opinion, and express their views.
www.corporate.toluna.com 6
7. www.corporate.toluna.com
The first step in a highly engaged community is setting goals relevant
to the type of community you have. Setting goals is important because
the things needed to ‘engage’ members takes time and therefore,
cost money.
The obvious goal of course, for an online research community, is to
have high participation rates in qualitative research and high response
rates to surveys. The type of community you have will help to drive what
your engagement goals should be. A community focused on qualitative
research will typically gain insights through observing the behaviors and
discussions of your members.
These types of communities tend to be small and require heavy
participation through online discussions, possibly one on one interviews,
and sometimes observation of what your community members are
posting, what comments they are making and how they are interactive
with other members.
Engagement goals for these types of communities should center around
achieving a high participation rate for discussion posts and commentary,
as well as a goal for the number of members posting their own topics for
discussion. Looking at how much time a member is spending on the site
is also important.
On the flip side, communities focused more on quantitative research with
survey as the primary method of insight would require engagement
goals centered around individual survey response rates, as well as a higher
segment of ‘medium to heavy responder group’ vs. the ’non or low’
responder group.
Many research communities fall on the quali-quant spectrum where there
is a good amount of both qual and quant research going on. For these
hybrid communities, goals centered around both survey response rates
and participation rates on the community site, # of visits to the site,
a # and quality of posts on discussions, is where you want to start.
Another consideration when setting goals for engagement is to think
about the affinity your members will feel toward your community.
If the community is branded, then there will be a naturally higher level
of engagement – the members can relate to the brand and feel like they
are contributing to helping the brand.
If the community is unbranded, then your work will be harder in building
engagement. Your engagement plan, which we will talk about in a
moment, will need to be more extensive and with a blind community
and your rewards may need to be greater in quantity and value.
Setting Goals
7
8. Once you have specific goals, you then need an Engagement Plan.
The plan lists out the tactical things you will do to achieve your
goals, with timelines. It spells out what you are going to do to drive
participation. The plan does not need to be a 50 page document –
keep it simple so you will execute it. The plan is not set in stone,
you can and should change it over time, as you learn more about
the nuances of your community.
Some examples are:
- a monthly newsletter
- an annual satisfaction survey
- choosing a member each month to be the VIP of the month
and profiling who they are to the other members
- posting a discussion on a specific topic that members themselves
have told you is of interest to them
- offer a surprise reward – pick a member who gave you really valuable
input and give them something, then announce it within
the community
There are a lot of different kinds of activities you can do to engage with
your members – this is just a few ideas. The point here is that you need
a plan and to execute that plan.
Engagement Plan
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9. www.corporate.toluna.com
Surprise Reward
Purchase an item relevant to the community give it to the member who has participated the most in the past 3 months
Discussions
8
Provide
members a
forum to discuss
topics relevant to
the community
(topics
submitted by
members or by
client).
Winner
Postings
7
Brand
Impact Piece
6
Article with
survey results
showing
how insights
influenced new
products.
Updates to
website with
latest winners of
sweepstakes.
To provide
members
information on
the impact their
contribution is
having to the
community.
To understand
satisfaction with
the community
ways we
can improve
to drive higher
participation
levels.
To provide
members a good
‘1st experience’
and build trust.
Within 1 day 1st Monday of
the month
February 4th Tues of
the month
1st Tues of
the month
Second week
of month
Last week
of month
Bi-monthly
Monthly
VIP
5
Member
Profile
4
Highlight
a specific
community
member to
encourage
members
getting to know
one another.
Highlight and
reward the
community
member with
the highest
participation in
discussions that
month.
Annual
Sat Survey
3
Monthly
Newsletter
2
Welcome
Activity
1
Below is an Example of an Engagement Plan Timeline.
It spells out a range of activities you will initiate with your members.
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So, you have your goals, you
have a plan. Now here are the
5 rules to follow
as you execute
your plan
Rule 1. Make it Real
Rule 2. Content is King
Rule 3. “Just Right” Timing
Rule 4. Offer The Right
Incentive Program
Rule 5. The Platform
1010
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1/3 of members have been on the community for more than 3 years!
Another 1/3 for 1-2 years; in other words, the majority of
your community members are in it for the long haul.
Creating a highly engaged community starts with realizing you are in
a relationship – with each and every member of your community.
I want you to think about your significant other, your Mother, your child,
your best friend… think about what makes that relationship work well.
(assuming it works well!)
You treat them with kindness, build trust, have open communication,
set the right expectations and admit when you are wrong.
Building trust and setting expectations starts right at the beginning of the
relationship – when you recruit community members, explain what they
can expect by being part of your community and what you expect of
them. Explain the reward program, but also explain what they can expect.
For example, how many activities do you want them to participate in? Will
it mostly be surveys? What other types of activities will they participate in?
Will they receive a newsletter?
To build trust, make sure you deliver on what you promise, and be open
and honest, when you can, share your business challenges and how the
research you are conducting will help.
Be kind by thinking about the activities or surveys you are asking them to
complete. Would you ask your friend to fill in a 35 minute, 10 grid survey
on the topic of how often you use paper clips?
If you make a mistake – let’s say there was a computer glitch and
everyone got 3 emails instead of one, or you sent out a survey that some
considered insensitive. We are human, we make mistakes.
Say sorry – send an email and apologize.
Finally, recognize that a relationship where you don’t really know the
person very well, will require more effort to build that relationship –
so blind communities where the sponsor is an unknown is going to
be harder to ‘engage’ then a branded community. Think “would you
like to join a beverage community” vs. “would you like to join the Coke
community”?
Rule 1. Make it Real Insight: You are in a relationship!
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12. www.corporate.toluna.com
Content throughout the community needs to be considered and
interesting. Otherwise, why would someone bother to read it? or to
participate?
The content you write for the community website is critical – this is the
place your members call ‘home’ and you need to give them a reason
to keep coming back. Share, share, share information – about your
company, about your brand, about how the last survey they did made
an impact on the business. Remember, members join your research
community because they want to know they are making a difference in
how you develop your products and services.
I hear this often “but we can’t share because the information is private
- we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag ahead of the campaign,
no spoilers, etc.”. I totally get it, there are ways around this: add a few
questions to the end of a survey where the information is important but
can be shared, do a survey just for the members where the information
collected isn’t going to jeopardize anything, and finally, share the
information after the critical campaign is over - it’s not too late.
Also think about the content of each activity you ask a member to
participate in – the topics for your discussions need to be interesting
and catchy. How can you reword to draw in your members to participate
in the topic?
Be present – there is nothing better than having the
Brand Manager participate by generating content for the website,
or by personally asking members to probe on specific topics.
For surveys, provide thoughtful surveys that are well crafted, and an
appropriate length. Ask your friend, Father, sister to do your survey,
do it yourself! If they hate it or you hate it, so will your members.
Be conversational in everything you present to members – whether it’s
a blog, an article, a discussion topic, a survey invite, a survey question.
Remember, you are in a relationship.
In all content you provide, be relevant – to the brand, to the member
themselves, to the world if you can. The ultimate way to build high
engagement is if you can show your members how being part of your
community can benefit and be relevant to them.
Rule 2. Content is King
Insight: When asked how they would describe their community
to friends, the main themes are around giving feedback, hope
(to make a difference).
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And this seems to be the sweet spot, as the majority (67%) said this was
about right.
Rule 3. “Just Right” Timing
3%
Too often
30%
Not often enough
Insight: (60%) of members take part in activities at least once
a month, with 2-4 times a month more likely.
67%
Just the
right amount
1%
Once a year 2%
Don’t know
27%
More than once
a week
19%
Once a week
10%
Once a month
8%
A few times
a year
33%
A few times
a month
13
14. Action:
• Deploy surveys and activities 1-4 times per month
• Cadence is important – sending newsletters and a ‘weekly email’ is
important to train members on what to expect (remember, you are in
a relationship)
Further, members told us that they usually take part in activities in the
evening and generally in the first half of the week. The cadence is
important because we are creatures of habit and like to know what to
expect.
Rule 3. “Just Right” Timing (cont’d)
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Insight: Members told us that they usually take part in activities in
the evening, and generally in the first half of the week.
15. www.corporate.toluna.com
• Match the incentive to the audience – be relevant (e.g. a community
about food, should give away different prizes for restaurants, or a
‘grocery’ shopping spree
• Match the incentive to the activity – a two hour group discussion
needs an individual cash incentive, not an entry to a sweepstakes
If you must ask your members to participate in something boring, or
lengthy, then be sure to offer the right extrinsic incentive. As I mentioned
before, one entry into a draw to maybe win 100 bucks is not going to cut
it for a 30 minute survey on the topic of paperclips. The incentive must
match the activity and amount of time you are asking of your members –
remember – be kind!
Same for qual, if you want members to spend 3 hours of their time each
week taking pictures while shopping, spending 20 minutes an online diary
every night and then participating in a 30 minute discussion, it will be
important to pay them for their valuable time. The rule of thumb is think
about how much time you are asking of your member and then provide
an incentive appropriate for that length of time.
Knowing what the right program to offer – be it points, sweeps, judged
contests, charity donations, cash, is very important on the road to high
engagement. There are pros and cons to each type, suffice to say, you
need an incentive program for an online community – make sure it’s the
right one.
Rule 4. Offer The Right Incentive Program
15
16. Today, there are many, many platforms out there, but I can say that
there are only a few providers that can truly offer the full package
– or almost the full package, there still is not one supplier that has
everything, but some come pretty close – and those that do also offer
the ability to use a variety of different software tools, depending on
what you need.
So, to be able to provide all these wonderfully engaging activities,
you need a platform that can do these basic functions:
- have the ability to customize a member website to your brand
- you need functionality that allows for interactive activities such
as discussion boards and other activities
- ideally, features that allow for members to do things themselves
- post their own discussions, interact with other members on
their own
- scripting features if you’re looking to do survey research
- a robust database that allows you to segment the members into
different groups – low responders vs. high responders for example
- and an ability to offer points programs and online rewards
Rule 5. The Platform
16
Insight: The Technology is important.
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Setting Proper Expectations
• Members that understand ‘what they signed
up for’
• Regular communication with members
• You are in a relationship!
Member Engagement
• A good mix of both survey and qualitative
activities
• Surveys that are short and interesting
• Proper monitoring of content
• Appropriate and meaningful incentive
programs
Community Management
• A Community Manager who cares about
the brand
• Communicate with your members
• Track your success: response rates, time spent
on site, # of posts, etc.
Conclusions
17
18. Putting It All Together
I hope this short playbook gives you a place to start to engage your community members in a meaningful way.
Once you have your panel in place and running smoothly, you’re sure to find the benefits well worth the effort.
Want to get in touch? Email us at toluna@toluna.com.
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