Social media and product dev process

Developing a Product Strategy Leveraging Social Media

Scott K. WilderGary Angel

July 2011

Gary Angel, President of Semphonic Co-Founder and President of Semphonic, the leading

independent web analytics consultancy in the United States. Semphonic provides full-service web analytics consulting and advanced online measurement to digital media, financial services, health&pharma, B2B, technology, and the public sector. Gary blogs at http://semphonic.blogs.com/semangel

Introductions

Scott K. Wilder – Found Partner / Digital Strategist – Human 1.0

Human 1.0: focuses on Change Management, helping companies integrate social into their business processes and practices. Wilder also was SVP/Social Media Architect at Edelman – Digital. Before that he Founded and managed Intuit’s Small Business Online Community and Social Programs. Before Intuit, Scott was the VP of Marketing and Product Development at Kbtoys / eToys, the founder and director of Borders.com, and held senior positions at Apple, AOL, and American Express. Scott is also a founding Board member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Scott has two blogs: http://www.wildervoices.com and http://www.digitalrisks.com

Agenda

Pivots

Tribes

The Process (10 Step Program)

Recap

Organizational structure usually drives goals

Marketing Product Development

Customer Care

To generate leads and / or drive transactions

To integrate learnings/suggestions in product

To enable users to get quality answers fast

-# of leads-# of transactions-Revenue minus costs-Cost per conversion-Engagement Score

-Time / cost of driving innovation in organization-Cost per new feature (engineering hours) vs. impact of feature-Time to market

-# of answers by users vs. company-# ratings of answers-Resolution rates-Reduction of costs for answers-Customer Satisfaction

How to do these? How to do these? How to do these?Which department / division owns ‘Social?’Measure what really matters? But you can’t measure everything

Objectives and Goals…

The Pivot

Chegg: example of a Pivot

2003: Original business plan: Craig’s list for College StudentsWatched sales and went into books

2007: Book rentals for college students

Gained traction and bought two other companies:Cramster: Online Study CommunityCourserank: Evaluate classes and see other

students votesNotehall: Lecture notes

Chegg!

2006 Home Page 2011 Home Page

Other Pivots

Berkshire Hathaway: Textiles → Private equity

BMW: Aircraft engines → Vehicles

IBM: Punched card equipment → Computers → IT Consulting

Mannesmann: Steel pipes → Cellular network carrier

Nintendo: Playing cards → Video games

Nokia: Rubber boots → Cell phones

Paypal: PDA payments → Email/web payments

Philips: Light bulbs → Various electronics

Pixar: Animation tools → Animated movies

Odeo →Twitter

Challenges

“Say-Do” Ratio

Internal decision making / ownership (silos)

Speed to test and make adjustments

Kitchen sink syndrome

“It’s how we have always done it”

Control and command environment

Have a conversation with customers, business partners, etc.

Tools first approach, then focus on people and process

Understanding Tribes leads to innovation and product pivots

Tribes

Definition: A collection of people who choose to interact due to shared interests and passions (scrapbooking, software, wine, etc.) and affinity for one another. They are characterized more by whom they like to hand out with and their behaviors vs. individual traits (income, age, location)

Focus on ‘Social Interactions” 4Cs: culture, context, content, communication

Different from qualitative approaches: Focus Groups and Surveys Expensive, obtrusive, Say-Do ration different Not real time as users participate

Different from using just tools: Radian6, Scoutlabs: Participate and interact with the tribe

Simple approach: Learning about a Tribe or doing a Pivot

1. Select Social Networks or Communities

2. Sign up, participate and engage in multiple communities and/or social networks – be prepared for ongoing conversations

3. Collect, Cull and Classify discussion treads, blogs, tweets, etc. – all ‘mentions’ of brand, product, usage, descriptions, etc. (might need to export/download info)

4. Read posts!

5. Record observations and learnings

6. Understand potential, establish a benchmark and track behaviors over time

7. Test observations via posts or 1 on 1 interviews

8. Review the company’s site

9. Reposition

10. Close Loop and Measure

1. Select/Identify Social Networks

Conduct Google, Bing, etc. Searches

Use Radian6 or Scoutlabs

Ask employees, customer, business partners, prospects, etc.

2. Sign up and participate for Community

Be transparent

Don’t use a factious name, job title or company

Listen carefully to conversations

Pay attention to social structure (leaders, followers)

Pay attention to language

Pay attention to other sites mentioned, etc.

Define culture

Record hot topics, interests

“Walk in their shoes…”

2. Read PostsBounce Fabric Softener can keep bugs away. Who

knew?

Bounce and Bugs/Mosquitos

Search Results and the Long Tail

4. Collect, Cull and Classify Social Media Reporting with the current generation of Social

Media Monitoring tools present several challenges

5. Record Observations

People talk about Bounce being a bug repellentUse words like ‘Repel,’ etc.Some make lists for different Bounce uses

What do people not like about most ‘repellents’Stings eyesSmellsWet/Damp so dirt and sand stick to your bodyGreasy feelRain and sweat can take it off your bodyGreasy

“Bounce: Get them critters to stay away”Crazy idea?

6. Benchmark and LearnMaybe P&G should market Bounce as Mosquito

repellent

Top themes and topics on different social networks, blogs, etc.

Top leaders on different social networks, blogs, etc.

Review terms/keywords/categories using Google, Bing, Google Trends, Social Search, Twitter Search

Review Ad Words to determine if words are how people describe products:Bounce: Bug killer?, Household cleaner

Kills bugsLasts for hours

6. Benchmark and LearnMaybe Bounce should market as Mosquito

repellent

Keywords on Google

6. BenchmarkSocial Networks

% Relevant Content

% of Influencers with Relevant Content

Target Keyword Density

Channel Churn of Engagers

Content Measures % Classifiable by Topic % Classifiable by Sentiment % Garbage Classified % Duplication

Cu

stom

ers

Gain

ed

Lost

Net Churn Trend

7. One on one Interviews

8. Company Site

Home Page Clever Ideas

8. Company siteLeveraging keywords or “bug

repellent”

9. “To Pivot or not to Pivot”

Transfer learnings into products / solutions

Bounce Sheets:Reposition orRoll out new product (similar product)Leave as is and don’t change anything

10. Close the Loop and Measure

10. Close the Loop and Measure

Careful measurement of Social Media provides distinct advantages vis-à-vis traditional research:• Increase N Size (How many verbatims you have)• Save $ (Low cost to duplicating research)• Increase Immediacy (Very rapid cycle times)• Find new people (Non-research agenda)• Broaden the agenda (You don't drive the questions)• Standardize the presentation (No more one-off

presentations)

10. Close the Loop and Measure

Consider the creation of a Customer Intelligence System (CIS)

*Slide Courtesy of Clarabridge

Let’s Recap the Process

Gary Angel: gangel@semphonic.com Blog: http://semphonic.blogs.com/semangel/ @garyangel

Scott K. Wilder scott@human1.com New blog: http://www.wildervoices.com @skwilder For other presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/skwilder

Thank you!