Really interesting article from Eric Pratum rounding up social ROI opinions from several industry experts. Could have used more concrete examples IMHO, but good stuff nonetheless. For many still, social ROI is little more than voodoo. And I think one of the best ways to demystify it is to share experience with peers. I don’t claim to know more than the next social strategist about ROI, but I’m sure happy to share what we’ve done with ROI at my work place to gauge our SocialService@Scale efforts. At Autodesk we measure against several “center of mass” KPI across the entire support and service division. Social is no different. These KPIs and associated desired outcomes are as follows: 1:1 contacts -> 0 TTA -> 0 NPS -> 100 EE -> 100 These outcomes are of course desired trends rather than hard targets. The idea is to reduce 1:1 contacts by disseminating and amplifying 1:N content via self-help (scaling goal). To increase response and answer time velocity (efficiency and flow). To increase customer satisfaction (brand perception goal). And to increase employees social engagement (cultural goal). We then apply these to social metrics. On the 1:1 contact deflection/self-help, we measure the effectiveness of our publishing efforts, CTRs, reach, post views, etc. via link tracking and Facebook insights (we use Bit.ly and Omniture). The support knowledge content folks also measure solution “quality”, stickiness, and bounce rates. Then we know how effective our publish/promote tactics are for a given set of support content and community links. And based on that week over week we can track 1:N effectiveness against normal and campaign-driven content pushes. On the TTA (time to answers) side, we measure how quickly we respond on social channels. We do this by pulling thread deltas from Radian6 data using their API.  We then compare weekly to our channel-specific SLAs and adjust if and as needed. It’s a well-known fact that velocity in social service directly affects customer satisfaction. Not only that, but consider that average social service resolution (non-technical issues) is measured in minutes versus days for traditional channels. On the sentiment side, the company is aligned around NPS but NPS is neither sufficient nor clearly applicable to social service channels. I prefer to measure efficiency and friction (how easy was it to deal with us), accuracy of information, and resolution time — all of which move the needle on overall satisfaction. Another sentiment index I strongly believe in is what I call the #GI (gratitude index) of a channel. Namely, what percentage of your traffic contains posts expressing any form of “thank you” gratitude? We hit 20% in 2012 at AutodeskCare. Only one other brand surpassed this with 24%. Can you guess? It’s Citibank run by Frank Eliason :) On the EE (employee engagement) side we measure staffing levels and engagement frequencies. Load bearing, and a bunch of other interesting behavioral aspects for each geo. One interesting metric is the size of what we call our “network map” — a dynamic internal system we created to tally social service “contact points” throughout the company as we encounter them. The thicker, wider that network graph gets, the more efficient your social business gets. So at the end of the day we look at these metrics and ask the following questions: Have we made an impact on traditional support pipelines (phones, email, chat, etc)? Have we increased our response velocity? Have we improved customer satisfaction and gratitude? Have we pulled in more colleagues and groups into the corporate social service graph? A positive on all of these justifies our existence and, to the executives, the social and community investment they made. And that’s how we get to stay social my friends! :)
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Really interesting article from Eric Pratum rounding up social ROI opinions from several industry experts. Could have used more concrete examples IMHO, but good stuff nonetheless.

For many still, social ROI is little more than voodoo. And I think one of the best ways to demystify it is to share experience with peers. I don’t claim to know more than the next social strategist about ROI, but I’m sure happy to share what we’ve done with ROI at my work place to gauge our SocialService@Scale efforts.

At Autodesk we measure against several “center of mass” KPI across the entire support and service division. Social is no different. These KPIs and associated desired outcomes are as follows:

  • 1:1 contacts -> 0
  • TTA -> 0
  • NPS -> 100
  • EE -> 100

These outcomes are of course desired trends rather than hard targets. The idea is to reduce 1:1 contacts by disseminating and amplifying 1:N content via self-help (scaling goal). To increase response and answer time velocity (efficiency and flow). To increase customer satisfaction (brand perception goal). And to increase employees social engagement (cultural goal).

We then apply these to social metrics. On the 1:1 contact deflection/self-help, we measure the effectiveness of our publishing efforts, CTRs, reach, post views, etc. via link tracking and Facebook insights (we use Bit.ly and Omniture).

The support knowledge content folks also measure solution “quality”, stickiness, and bounce rates. Then we know how effective our publish/promote tactics are for a given set of support content and community links. And based on that week over week we can track 1:N effectiveness against normal and campaign-driven content pushes.

On the TTA (time to answers) side, we measure how quickly we respond on social channels. We do this by pulling thread deltas from Radian6 data using their API. 

We then compare weekly to our channel-specific SLAs and adjust if and as needed. It’s a well-known fact that velocity in social service directly affects customer satisfaction. Not only that, but consider that average social service resolution (non-technical issues) is measured in minutes versus days for traditional channels.

On the sentiment side, the company is aligned around NPS but NPS is neither sufficient nor clearly applicable to social service channels. I prefer to measure efficiency and friction (how easy was it to deal with us), accuracy of information, and resolution time — all of which move the needle on overall satisfaction.

Another sentiment index I strongly believe in is what I call the #GI (gratitude index) of a channel. Namely, what percentage of your traffic contains posts expressing any form of “thank you” gratitude? We hit 20% in 2012 at AutodeskCare. Only one other brand surpassed this with 24%. Can you guess? It’s Citibank run by Frank Eliason :)

On the EE (employee engagement) side we measure staffing levels and engagement frequencies. Load bearing, and a bunch of other interesting behavioral aspects for each geo. One interesting metric is the size of what we call our “network map” — a dynamic internal system we created to tally social service “contact points” throughout the company as we encounter them. The thicker, wider that network graph gets, the more efficient your social business gets.

So at the end of the day we look at these metrics and ask the following questions: Have we made an impact on traditional support pipelines (phones, email, chat, etc)? Have we increased our response velocity? Have we improved customer satisfaction and gratitude? Have we pulled in more colleagues and groups into the corporate social service graph? A positive on all of these justifies our existence and, to the executives, the social and community investment they made.

And that’s how we get to stay social my friends! :)

Jeremiah Owyang penned yet another home-run post recently mapping differences between strategy and tactics. This is a topic dear to my heart because too often, when people ask me what I do for a living, and I try to explain it to them, they look at me with a blank stare and conclude “oh, so you basically manage Facebook and Twitter accounts…” — Humm, well not exactly, no :) The problem with “strategy” and understanding it, is that quite often, when done right, it is indeed, as Charlene Li points out, “often what you don’t do”. To me, social strategy needs to meet several criteria. First, it has to be expressible in a single sentence. If it’s complicated enough to require two or more sentences, there’s your red flag.  Second, it has to be understandable by your peers, kids, parents, or grandparents. If it’s too complicated to explain to a lay person or a kid, that’s an alarm bell.  Third, it has to be measurable. If you cant attach metrics to strategic objectives, they’re likely not tied to real-life business objectives. Then you have a problem. Once (and only if) these conditions are met, then you have another advantage: the ability to create and lead “vision” around the strategy. Because that’s a huge part of success. You can have the noblest strategic goals. But if no one buys into them, you’re up shit creek. Strategy is what you should use to gauge against every action you take or mandate. Is this action, or tactic, or communication, or directive in line with one or more of our strategic “buckets”? If not, don’t do it. Do no harm is the first rule of social. The etymology of the term “strategy” is clearly militaristic:  strategy (n.): “art of a general,” from Fr. stratégie, from Gk. strategia “office or command of a general,” from strategos “general,” from stratos “multitude, army, expedition,” lit. “that which is spread out” (see structure) + agos “leader,” from agein “to lead” (see act (n.)). The leadership part is important to a strategic role. Which makes it more than a pure intellectual undertaking in my opinion. It’s about stewardship of a brand, of customers, of internal teams as well. Never take anything for granted, trust but verify, and always be willing to question one’s certainties. Pawn to King 1 - That’s how this board game is played. One move at a time :) Stay social my friends!
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Jeremiah Owyang penned yet another home-run post recently mapping differences between strategy and tactics.

This is a topic dear to my heart because too often, when people ask me what I do for a living, and I try to explain it to them, they look at me with a blank stare and conclude “oh, so you basically manage Facebook and Twitter accounts…” — Humm, well not exactly, no :)

The problem with “strategy” and understanding it, is that quite often, when done right, it is indeed, as Charlene Li points out, “often what you don’t do”. To me, social strategy needs to meet several criteria.

First, it has to be expressible in a single sentence. If it’s complicated enough to require two or more sentences, there’s your red flag. 

Second, it has to be understandable by your peers, kids, parents, or grandparents. If it’s too complicated to explain to a lay person or a kid, that’s an alarm bell. 

Third, it has to be measurable. If you cant attach metrics to strategic objectives, they’re likely not tied to real-life business objectives. Then you have a problem.

Once (and only if) these conditions are met, then you have another advantage: the ability to create and lead “vision” around the strategy. Because that’s a huge part of success. You can have the noblest strategic goals. But if no one buys into them, you’re up shit creek.

Strategy is what you should use to gauge against every action you take or mandate. Is this action, or tactic, or communication, or directive in line with one or more of our strategic “buckets”? If not, don’t do it. Do no harm is the first rule of social.

The etymology of the term “strategy” is clearly militaristic: 

strategy (n.): “art of a general,” from Fr. stratégie, from Gk. strategia “office or command of a general,” from strategos “general,” from stratos “multitude, army, expedition,” lit. “that which is spread out” (see structure) + agos “leader,” from agein “to lead” (see act (n.)).

The leadership part is important to a strategic role. Which makes it more than a pure intellectual undertaking in my opinion. It’s about stewardship of a brand, of customers, of internal teams as well.

Never take anything for granted, trust but verify, and always be willing to question one’s certainties. Pawn to King 1 - That’s how this board game is played. One move at a time :)

Stay social my friends!

As my grandfather used to say “In life, you will have crap days, and you will have good days. Today happens to be a crap one”. As usual, it sounds better in French :) Some work days go better than others. And during the rough patches, I always like to remember one of the biggest advantages to working here. Namely, the people who surround me on a daily basis - both on and offsite. Specifically, my two partners in crime who, together with me, form what we refer to as “the 3 legs of the stool”. You see, we have a three-pronged social service strategy fueling our Strategic Content and Community Team at work. In one phase, we fan out on external social channels to listen to and engage customers in need. When needed, we route them to our support communities. On the community side, we drive peer-to-peer expert community support with a healthy mix of employee-driven engagement. Finally, we produce, curate, and disseminate content judiciously so customers can get pertinent information at the point of need.  Chris Mottla, our dancing guy on the left, is our digital content strategist. In the middle is my friend and community strategist Brian Kling (of Mr. Forums fame). And I’m standing on the right very happy to apparently have started a new fashion trend at work - black is beautiful man! It’s rare in one’s professional life to be lucky enough to work with one superstar on a daily basis. Much less two of them!  Makes the occasional crappy day quite a bit more bearable! And I feel very grateful about those and the numerous other superstars I’ve been working with globally at Autodesk in the past 18 months! As we like to say here, stay social my friends!
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As my grandfather used to say “In life, you will have crap days, and you will have good days. Today happens to be a crap one”. As usual, it sounds better in French :)

Some work days go better than others. And during the rough patches, I always like to remember one of the biggest advantages to working here. Namely, the people who surround me on a daily basis - both on and offsite. Specifically, my two partners in crime who, together with me, form what we refer to as “the 3 legs of the stool”.

You see, we have a three-pronged social service strategy fueling our Strategic Content and Community Team at work. In one phase, we fan out on external social channels to listen to and engage customers in need. When needed, we route them to our support communities.

On the community side, we drive peer-to-peer expert community support with a healthy mix of employee-driven engagement.

Finally, we produce, curate, and disseminate content judiciously so customers can get pertinent information at the point of need. 

Chris Mottla, our dancing guy on the left, is our digital content strategist. In the middle is my friend and community strategist Brian Kling (of Mr. Forums fame). And I’m standing on the right very happy to apparently have started a new fashion trend at work - black is beautiful man!

It’s rare in one’s professional life to be lucky enough to work with one superstar on a daily basis. Much less two of them! 

Makes the occasional crappy day quite a bit more bearable! And I feel very grateful about those and the numerous other superstars I’ve been working with globally at Autodesk in the past 18 months!

As we like to say here, stay social my friends!

Today I thought it would be interesting to put up a presentation detailing 13 points I feel are truly important to building and managing social service teams. Partly because I’ve been doing so at work both directly and indirectly for a year now. I’d managed engineering teams in the past, but this experience is quite a bit different actually — I think it’s the customer proximity. The fact you’re really “On” and live all the time adds a layer of complexity - and thrill. Although a lot of this is really common sense and management 101, there are some subtleties involved in running such dynamic, real-time teams. And it takes special people to thrive in these environments. What kind of people? Click here and find out! And if you think I missed something, catch me on Twitter and let me know about it ok?Thanks!J. 
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Today I thought it would be interesting to put up a presentation detailing 13 points I feel are truly important to building and managing social service teams. Partly because I’ve been doing so at work both directly and indirectly for a year now. I’d managed engineering teams in the past, but this experience is quite a bit different actually — I think it’s the customer proximity. The fact you’re really “On” and live all the time adds a layer of complexity - and thrill.

Although a lot of this is really common sense and management 101, there are some subtleties involved in running such dynamic, real-time teams.

And it takes special people to thrive in these environments. What kind of people? Click here and find out!

And if you think I missed something, catch me on Twitter and let me know about it ok?

Thanks!
J. 

I’m starting a new #socialstrategy series in SlideShare mode. My first one is about picking appropriate social media channels to “occupy” in large enterprise settings. Naturally, I look at it with a customer service angle but it still applies to non service departments I think. As I’ve had to ask myself (and answer) these questions over the past 12 months  while bootstraping my company’s social service department. I figured others probably wonder the same things. And then, people often ask me stuff like this. I figured why not share it more widely. Who knows, someone might find it useful some day. And if you’re one of those folks, please spread the love and let me know okay?Thanks! 
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I’m starting a new #socialstrategy series in SlideShare mode. My first one is about picking appropriate social media channels to “occupy” in large enterprise settings. Naturally, I look at it with a customer service angle but it still applies to non service departments I think.

As I’ve had to ask myself (and answer) these questions over the past 12 months  while bootstraping my company’s social service department. I figured others probably wonder the same things. And then, people often ask me stuff like this. I figured why not share it more widely. Who knows, someone might find it useful some day.

And if you’re one of those folks, please spread the love and let me know okay?
Thanks! 

I felt a lot of borderline nonsense in the #socialmedia force last week. For starters, this article here. Admittedly, Doron makes a lot of good points but I have to hold up a hand on #1 and say “check please!” Because firing customer service reps is not an intelligent cost-saving measure. Hiring the right people, in the right numbers, with the right training is a better approach in my experience. Support folks aren’t some commodity you can trade like soy beans. Yes a large proportion of incoming support questions are repetitive. That’s because your processes and policies are flawed. So fix them, and then you don’t have to deal with repetitive crap year in year out. Neither do your customers! And “artificial intelligence” is a great concept. Been hearing about it for 25 years. But I have yet to meet signs of active intelligence in 99.99% of the software I see out there. For English press one. For Spanish press two. Get real.  Next, there’s been a lot of noise lately from a recent Altimeter report as echoed here (and a dozen other sites). They surveyed a bunch of companies. And it turns out 67% of them feel that “social media is a significant or critical risk to their brand reputation”. Well DUH. If you hire the wrong people, nickel and dime budgets, start off with no strategy and no ROI goals, no vision, no crisis plan, and no internal culture needed to support social media programs, well yeah, you’re taking a significant risk I’d say. So hint: don’t do any of that and you’ll be just fine. Because not engaging customers via social means assured irrelevance soon. And that’s a risk 100% of companies must fear today. Okay. I feel much better now ;) May the Force be with you!
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I felt a lot of borderline nonsense in the #socialmedia force last week. For starters, this article here. Admittedly, Doron makes a lot of good points but I have to hold up a hand on #1 and say “check please!”

Because firing customer service reps is not an intelligent cost-saving measure. Hiring the right people, in the right numbers, with the right training is a better approach in my experience. Support folks aren’t some commodity you can trade like soy beans. Yes a large proportion of incoming support questions are repetitive. That’s because your processes and policies are flawed. So fix them, and then you don’t have to deal with repetitive crap year in year out. Neither do your customers!

And “artificial intelligence” is a great concept. Been hearing about it for 25 years. But I have yet to meet signs of active intelligence in 99.99% of the software I see out there. For English press one. For Spanish press two. Get real. 

Next, there’s been a lot of noise lately from a recent Altimeter report as echoed here (and a dozen other sites). They surveyed a bunch of companies. And it turns out 67% of them feel that “social media is a significant or critical risk to their brand reputation”. Well DUH.

If you hire the wrong people, nickel and dime budgets, start off with no strategy and no ROI goals, no vision, no crisis plan, and no internal culture needed to support social media programs, well yeah, you’re taking a significant risk I’d say.

So hint: don’t do any of that and you’ll be just fine. Because not engaging customers via social means assured irrelevance soon. And that’s a risk 100% of companies must fear today.

Okay. I feel much better now ;) May the Force be with you!