Digital Insights

Now that social media has redefined our social lives and the way in which we communicate with each other, it’s time for us to recognize that social business is the next realm of global change. At first unsure of what the social revolution had to offer them, businesses have still only engaged with social media as primarily a new set of marketing tools. But this use is only a small piece of the potential for improving the way businesses act and interact with internal and external stakeholders

Ethan McCarty, Senior Manager of Digital and Social Strategy at IBM, described this brave new world in a recent blog post on Fast Company. “Social media is about media and people, which is one dimension of the overall world of business,” he writes. “With social business you start to look at the way people are interacting in digital experiences and apply the insights derived to a wide variety of different business processes.”

One example of how social innovations are affecting business is in the way employees communicate with each other. Email was a very powerful innovation and completely changed internal communication in business environments over the last 15 years or so. But the problem with email is that it tends to create silos of information – conversations are limited to only the individuals directly addressed and important knowledge isn’t shared with other parties that could make use of it. Social technology opens up the possibility of online collaborative communication portals that the company can learn from, with powerful filtering and analysis mechanisms to share key information with anyone who might be able to make use of it. Such a solution would also allow management to more quickly identify problems as or before they arise and address them sooner rather than later.

Social business practices and technologies, focused as they are on collaboration and sharing, will allow companies to gain a better and faster understanding of their customers, employees and partners, using that understanding to better drive the way they do business.

In our business, we get a lot of inquiries about search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of increasing website visibility in search engine results. Traditionally, this has been accomplished through a variety of tactics including editing content and HTML source code to incorporate keywords meant to capture a wide range of search terms. But the ascendance of social media channels and the popularity of social media interaction offer another great way to boost your website’s visibility. A well thought-out social media marketing campaign can provide the following benefits for SEO:

1. Increases your inbound links – people coming to your site through a social media campaign provide numerous new inbound links to your site, which is key to influencing search engine rankings.
2. Increases online interactions featuring your company – when people discuss your site or company on social media channels, it increases your web presence and the number of results featuring your company’s name.
3. Improves ranking as a secondary effect – Search engines pay close attention to social media rankings and sometimes it is easier to get noticed through social media outlets than search engines, which then pick up on social media activity as a secondary effect. Piggyback on this effect by focusing first on social media and be sure that everything you do through social media features clear links to your primary site.

To take advantage of these benefits you need to be strategic, creating a road map to guide your social media and SEO efforts. Start by identifying and learning about the audience you are hoping to reach. Research their interests, behaviors, and preferences through their interactions on social media channels. One way to do this is through social CRM, which monitors social engagements and can help you identify conversational themes and key opinion makers that can boost your efforts. Read more about social CRM in my blog posts here and here.

Next, identify your objectives for the campaign based on what you have learned about your intended audience. Your primary goal in a campaign of this type is not necessarily sales – rather, it is to reach out to and gain a foothold in the audience communities that you have identified, with increased sales to follow.

Create a plan based on those objectives that includes tactics also based on the research you have done. Address your audience through the channels that they prefer, offer them interactions that provide the types of value they prefer and you will see positive results that boost your overall SEO while creating a new group of loyal fans for your brand.

Finally, be sure to measure the results of your efforts against your objectives. Without measurement, it is impossible to make sure that your efforts are as tightly focused as they should be or that you are having the greatest impact you can have. The research phase described above should never really end. Throughout any campaign you should be continually learning about your audience – how are they responding so far to your efforts? How can you sharpen those efforts to produce even better results?

These are the basic benefits of using social media to boost SEO and a simple outline for completing such a campaign. At Solar Velocity, we excel in working closely with you to develop detailed plans with demonstrable results. Contact us to find out more about how your company can dramatically increase its search engine results and become a more prominent player in today’s marketplace.

As smartphones swiftly take over the world, we’ve all come to expect constant information access at our fingertips. Lead Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker famously predicted last year that mobile internet access in the U.S. will exceed fixed internet access sometime in the next couple of years. This change has shifted mobile websites from a nice luxury that a business can offer to a necessity.

What impact does this have on website design? Well, it takes us back a few steps down the evolutionary ladder to working within a much smaller window. In recent years, computer screens have grown, giving designers a lot of real estate to work with. Mobile development reverses that trend, meaning that intelligent choices have to be made regarding formatting and content to maximize benefit to the end consumer while maintaining good design.

Fortunately, mobile access can be detected and users can be redirected from your company’s primary site to a mobile-specific site, so all sites aren’t limited to the lowest common denominator of mobile design. The most effective mobile sites only contain about 25% of the content of a company’s primary website because visitors are usually looking for quick and easy for information. Think phone numbers and not in-depth company histories, prices and not lengthy product descriptions. When developing your mobile website, ask yourself the following interrelated questions:

• What is the purpose of the mobile website? Honing the central purpose you’re seeking to accomplish is even more important with mobile sites than primary sites. Do you want the site to simply serve as a basic signpost letting consumers know where your store is and how they can visit? Do you want to sell products directly through the site? Do you want to provide access to information and commentary that users might find useful? Do you want to allow consumers to interact with each other and with the company? Decide what you want to accomplish and build the site around that central purpose, trimming details that don’t contribute.
• Why would users come to your mobile website? What you want to accomplish with a site is all well and good but if it doesn’t match potential consumer need it won’t be effective. Answering this question can be very complicated or very simple – think about how you access mobile websites. Put yourself in the potential user’s shoes and think about what they want from your site. If you’re a product manufacturer, your primary purpose in a mobile site is undoubtedly to encourage sales of your products. But how best to do that? You could offer long, in-depth details about your products and the manufacturing process. But mobile users are much more likely to prefer access to very basic product details, contact info if they have questions and a dealer locator.

These are just two key questions that need to be asked in the mobile development process. Because you never want to duplicate your primary site on your mobile site, questions like these help you to start thinking about how to pare down your assets to a more streamlined and effective site.

In my last few posts I’ve tried to demonstrate the importance of discovering what your target consumer wants in an increasingly consumer-driven market. Today I want to turn away from social CRM as a tool for uncovering that information to how we can better develop brand engagement channels, and especially websites, to improve the user experience. Just as it’s important to know what consumers want and tailor your products to their desires, it’s also important to ensure that every form of interaction they have with your brand is driven from their perspective and shaped to appeal to them.

With most creative assets, and especially websites, you have a limited time to get your message across to your audience and, by following these steps, you can ensure you are headed in the right direction. When developing a website, the entire process should be undertaken with a deep understanding of overall business goals, project-specific business goals and the perspective of the end user. Perform an initial assessment focused on discovering and understanding these aspects, including who the intended audience is and what their challenges are. This is the only way to create design that is truly for the people.

Ask yourself these key questions:

• What is the ultimate goal of the project?
• What will be the call to action?
• How will you define project success?
• What do you know about who you are marketing to?
• What are all the current marketing actions being taken or planned for the future?
• Who are the competitors and what are they doing?
• What are the probable preferences/goals/intentions of our intended consumers?
• How can we help our consumers achieve those preferences/goals/intentions?

These questions will help you begin to discover your company’s strengths and determine consumer needs. From there you can start to define a clear road map of what kind of architecture, look and feel will have the best usability and produce the best results.

Although the questions above are not the only important questions you’ll need to answer, they will give you a great jump start on designing for the people. This type of process might seem like common sense as you’re reading this but many companies ignore these basic steps in the development process, designing only based on their own internal perspective. That type of design results in user engagement that feels awfully one-sided and is likely to be unrelated to what the user is seeking through the site. Instead, strive to develop an experience that recognizes and gives value to user needs and you’ll really be designing for the people.

In Kirby's last two posts on our blog and in his new white paper (download here), he's been covering what colleges and universities can do to improve communication through the use of new technologies. In this post, I want to suggest another tool that institutions of higher education, or any institution that relies on donor or engagement, can use to improve that engagement - social CRM.

You might think at first that social CRM seems like a strange fit for higher ed, especially given CRM's origin in the corporate world. But social CRM is really just about improving engagement with any audience and gaining a deeper understanding of that audience's makeup, opinions and desires, all of which are critical to maintaining good student, alumni and donor relations. The tools that are available today can provide incredible value and greatly streamline your institution's communications engine.

If you're new to social CRM and still trying to get your head around what the term means, see my white paper or earlier posts on this blog. Basically social CRM refers to a strategy, a process and various forms of technology all aimed at gathering data from online conversations among a consumer group (i.e., students, alumni) and delivering that data in meaningful ways to shape strategy and tactics on a variety of fronts - from recruiting to student retention to donor cultivation.

A typical social CRM strategy for a university might feature a hosted community allowing students, alumni, faculty and staff to interact with each other, exchanging insight, impressions and opinions and forging stronger bonds with the university community. Data from community interactions, both through the hosted community as well as various external channels - posts, tweets and mentions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels - would be collected. This data can be sorted and analyzed to discover opinion trends, such as how your alumni feel about the new sports mascot, and communications preferences, such as a preference for online communication over print or a widespread desire to receive fewer fundraising calls. This information can be easily shared with key decision makers across the university to shape overall strategy for the institution as well as greatly sharpen the effectiveness of your marketing communication. Social CRM technology thus leads to better information and an improved information flow, reducing data silos and lowering costs.

As you know, your students and alumni are willing to share their ideas and everyone wants to feel that their voice is heard. Through social media and other channels, your constituent populations are already making their opinions known, but are you gathering that information and making the most of it? Are you offering a central point for sharing that also contributes to improved engagement and participation among your students and alumni? A social CRM solution can do all of the above and at the same time provide you with the best and most up-to-date information about the people you are trying to reach.

In my last post, I discussed tools for managing communications effectively at institutions of higher education. Today I want to talk about one of the newest means of communication and how it relates to your college or university.

Mobile applications are all the rage right now, with new apps coming out every day to entertain you as well as solve problems you never knew you had. They’re also being used actively by businesses and public institutions to establish a new touch point for strengthening consumer relationships with the brand and building loyalty. But should mobile applications be part of a university’s communications strategy?  Is there a place for apps in higher education?

Answering these questions should begin with an understanding of the target audience. The younger generations have moved away from laptops and computers as their primary digital communications tools, using SMS and mobile social media apps as more convenient ways to keep in constant contact.  Academic professionals and researchers are also becoming increasingly comfortable with online collaboration tools and remote learning applications, all of which are either available on, or quickly migrating to, mobile devices.  These trends among key audiences work together to bring mobile applications to the forefront of higher ed communications.

Apps allow you to build greater connectivity between your institution and its audience by enriching the community experience. By creating a common point of access through an application to existing communication systems – CMS, news, forms, events, remote learning tools, etc. – you’ll be drawing prospective students, students, faculty, staff and alumni closer together and promote a sense of personal involvement.

One complaint often raised against apps is that the various mobile platforms require each require the development of a completely new app and represent an enormous expenditure of time and money. However, app publishing programs, like web-based Whoop, enable you to create one general version of an app and then automatically format it for use on each of the major mobile platforms.

Here are just a few of the many types of apps that you can use to build greater connectivity between your institution and its audience through an enriched experience:

• Location-based apps – you can offer GPS-guided campus tours, keyed recruitment messages, or activity updates.
• Interactive features not available through mobile versions of a website – with an app you can allow users to easily take and share images or point their mobile device’s built-in camera at a landmark and receive real-time information, two examples of things mobile websites just can’t accomplish.
• Augment and support other campus activities – allow students and faculty to access research databases, schedule or RSVP for campus events, sign up for classes, communicate through class discussion forums or access in-class discussion materials and presentations.

As you can see, apps represent a world of possibilities for making your college or university a better place to be as well as marketing your school to prospective students and alumni donors.

For more insight on higher education communications and marketing, download my new white paper, “Improving Alumni Engagement”.

Today, higher education institutions are pumping out huge amounts of information to their students, faculty and staff, alumni and other audiences. Such a flood of communication is difficult to manage consistently and in many situations is out of control. A constant stream of emails is sent to anonymous lists that are almost never reviewed and trimmed, devaluing the impact of email messaging and causing annoyance in the recipients. Often, these emails are not tracked and no metrics are being captured on how effectively they are being received. 

The good news is that tools exist to solve most of these issues – you just have to know what they are and how to best put them to use. By putting into place a robust news management system, making full use of your email system and utilizing a subscription management service, your institution can exponentially increase the effectiveness and efficiency of its news communication flow. Each of these systems serves a particular purpose to streamline how news is managed but the use of each should be part of an overall communications strategy to ensure greatest effectiveness.

News management system

A news management system allows you to direct the collection and distribution of all newsworthy information coming out of your institution through a central point. These web-based systems allow each department to add their own news to a central queue. This allows you to manage consistency of messaging, control the timing of news releases and announcements, eliminate redundant communication and decide on the appropriate medium for delivery of each news item.

Email system 

Although all higher education institutions already have their own email systems, many are not making use of the full range of capabilities. Most institutions are not harnessing their tracking capabilities to note click-throughs, bouncebacks and other pieces of information that can help you know which messages are effective and which are not. Rather than sending all outgoing communications to all constituent emails, segment recipients into particular groups and target your messaging to those groups. You might have one email newsletter that focuses on your institution’s athletic teams, others that focus on the awards and achievements within particular departments, another that reports on the study abroad programs, etc. This will allow you to limit the amount of emails going to each inbox and produce more engaged recipients.

Subscription management service

Don’t just decide yourself how to segment your constituents because you might be wrong about what they want.  It is critically important, and clearly more valuable, to find out from the end consumers of the information exactly what interests them – let them tell you what types of content they want to receive by utilizing a subscription management service. These services, which can either be customized for your institution or be purchased as a one-size-fits-all solution, allow users to sign up through your website for email lists that fit their interests. By allowing their choices to drive your messaging, your constituents will feel that the institution is paying attention to them and their needs and improve their overall outlook.

Making use of these simple but effective tools can take your communications process from one that is chaotic, overwhelming and aimless to one that delivers information in a consistent, targeted and meaningful way.

In my last few blog posts I’ve focused on the business-to-customer (B2C) aspects of online social engagement through social CRM. Today I want to talk about how great benefits can be achieved by applying these processes in the business-to-business (B2B) realm and or even to the internal business environment.

Many larger companies now employ protected portals to engage and share information with their partners, vendors and employees, either through one-on-one engagements or through community interaction. A vendor might post a question seeking clarification on particular capabilities of a new product and receive an answer from a company rep, or multiple partners of a software developer might share tips with each other about how best to integrate that company’s software with other elements. If your definition of social CRM depends on Twitter and Facebook, these portals might not seem to fit. But if you recognize that social CRM is about improved social engagement, whatever the method, you’re already starting to see the possibilities.

Because these engagements are not shaped from the top down but rather from the bottom up, driven by those seeking information rather than those giving it out, the portals offer many of the same positive opportunities of B2C social CRM systems. More tailored, direct and helpful engagement is possible, increasing perception of the company as responsive and helpful and improving the experience of those ultimately selling, implementing or using a company’s products or services. This type of engagement can go a long way in boosting overall satisfaction and brand loyalty. Some of these portals and internal networks are already taking advantage of these opportunities, with Microsoft’s Partner Network standing out as a particularly good example. However, many others could stand for real improvement through the integration of communities that foster collaborative engagement and reward those who are more active in the community as thought leaders.

The biggest room for improvement, however, is in the area of gathering and using data from portal engagement to drive business strategy. Just like in the B2C social CRM realm, a large amount of helpful information is out there if you know how to gather and analyze it, information that can help you figure out what’s working well and what’s not working at all. Tracking questions by keywords can demonstrate who is asking the most questions and what they’re most frequently asking about – information which can help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your sales and support communication or help your product development team identify helpful design improvements. You can identify regional issues that might point to a problem in the product supply chain or identify particularly active participants as being good candidates for a partner advisory panel. This type of information-gathering can be more active as well, by running surveys or voting on particular product features and perhaps offering incentives for participation. All of this information can enable a company to make better-informed decisions based on actual evidence.

Similar benefits can be gained even through the internal networks for information-sharing in larger companies. By paying attention to how employees are making use of these networks, businesses can identify where needs exist for improved training materials, internal processes, etc.

Making the most of B2C engagement, like any social CRM engagement, requires good strategy and a bit of effort but the payoff can be great.

Recently I’ve been working closely with a client, an automobile company, to develop and implement a social CRM strategy. The company wants to utilize the technology to gain a deeper understanding of their potential customers, their tastes and desires, information that will be used to drive product development and marketing strategy.

Social CRM offers businesses a real opportunity to develop what traditional CRM has been attempting for years – a truly dynamic and contextual understanding of the customer community with all of its internal segmentation. The importance of this type of understanding is clear – customer communities are not made up of clones but of a broad range of individuals. However, individuals with common interests can be identified and grouped into segments, with typical personas developed to represent each segment. Once these personas are identified, incentives and product elements can be more closely tailored to speak directly to the needs of each segment.

Moving at the speed of online communication, a well-designed social CRM system will utilize not just passive monitoring of customer interaction but also active engagement tools such as a branded community, surveys, contests, and informational opportunities to find out what customers are thinking. These many touchpoints can provide a much more well-rounded understanding of customer segments and what factors shape each segment’s decision-making. Feedback from these channels can then be used to develop well-defined personas that represent customer types. Because customers are real people with shifting ideas and desires, for these personas to be effective they should also shift to reflect these changes. Social CRM, with its many touchpoints of customer engagement and constant access to customer information, is the greatest tool we have to date to identify these shifts as they occur.

Although we’ll never be able to fully automate such a process, the capabilities of social CRM represent a huge leap in our ability to understand our customers and to allow customer interests to drive the way we do business. Through it, we can make better informed decisions on how to develop a marketing campaign, interact with customers, build customer loyalty and develop improved products and services.

I recently attended TechMedia's Digital Summit conference in Atlanta and heard Gary Vaynerchuk speak on the topic of ROI and social media. He told a story about an executive who kept pestering him with questions, wanting to know what the "real ROI" of social media is, and Gary finally responded by asking, "What's the ROI of your mother?"

Gary's point was that there are just some things that are hard to describe in terms of ROI because there are too many factors in play, it's too hard to locate the value. And there are other instances where the value is so clear you might not feel like it's necessary to determine ROI. Although it's true that social media, and the value of social engagement, involve a lot of complex factors that are difficult to track, if you have a clearly defined objective and key deliverables you can always determine ROI. And even in the cases where it might seem somewhat unnecessary (what's the ROI of a piano when Elton John plays it?), determining which elements are effective and which are not can help you derive even greater benefit next time.

In his talk, Gary also went on to emphasize that the most valuable way for a business to distinguish itself in the present context is through one-to-one engagement. Royal Dutch Airlines KLM's ongoing KLM Surprise campaign is a terrific example - the airline monitors passengers on Foursquare and Twitter to find special ways of engaging with them to thank them for their business. When one customer tweeted that she was flying home for Mother's Day a KLM rep found her in the airport and gave her flowers to take home for Mom. This type of one-to-one engagement develops an emotional connection, a life-long customer and brand advocate who is going to tell everyone she knows about what KLM did for her. If businesses focus on paying it forward, the positive effects will come back bigger each time.

Using social CRM tools and branded communities ensures that you have more opportunities for similar engagement and that you can track the ROI of campaigns like KLM's, where the value can be difficult to determine. Who will the woman tell about what happened to her? How can we know that new customers came to KLM because they heard about the flowers? With a well-designed social CRM strategy, businesses can track online customer engagement and comments about these types of interaction and have a better sense of their impact. They can also better tailor future efforts, continually honing based on customer response to find the best possible methods.

In my last post on social CRM, I talked about how, when we engage customers through social channels, we need to make sure intelligence from these engagements is being gathered and used to shape business strategy. In this post, I want to talk about a very different but related mistake – gathering intelligence without engaging customers. Each of these mistakes results from striking the wrong balance between engagement and intelligence-gathering in social CRM strategy, and either form of imbalance means you’re not getting the most out of your social CRM investment.

When different companies seek to develop their social CRM strategies, they start the process with different strengths and weaknesses. One company might have a strong history of interacting with the public through social media and needs to focus more on developing strong CRM practices. Another might have an excellent CRM process in place and tends to lean on that strength rather than taking full advantage of the ‘social’ side of social CRM. This company, which I’ll call Acme Corp., closely monitors Twitter and Facebook comments about their products, effectively analyzing and distributing that information to shape overall strategy in their marketing, customer service and product development departments. They are effectively carrying out their social CRM strategy, but because the strategy itself is imbalanced they’re not reaping the full benefit of social CRM.

Reaching out to your target market through the channels that they prefer creates great benefits. Consumers today are overwhelmingly turning to online social channels of engagement and expect their voices to be heard and even the most basic evidence that someone at Acme is listening to the concerns of customers is valuable. By engaging directly Acme could better shape brand identity, bolster customer loyalty, and develop brand advocates and thought leaders.

Besides the ability to improve loyalty and customer relationships, Acme is also missing the opportunity to generate more, and more useful, intelligence about their customers and their desires. The company might do a good job of grabbing 100 percent of the useful information that’s currently circulating about their brand and products. If a customer’s tweet about Acme’s flagship product simply states that he is disappointed in the product, the only useful information Acme has is that the product could be improved. That’s not much for the product development team to go on. But by engaging customers, starting conversations and asking questions, Acme can get better information, such as being able to precisely identfy what specific improvements to their flagship product would have the greatest impact.

Although at times the rules might seem to have changed, the basic principles are still the same – the company that does the best job of identifying the desires of the consumer and meeting those needs is the company that comes out ahead. Consumer engagement and intelligence-gathering, when effectively integrated, can help you identify and meet needs in a continually-improving process, resulting in ongoing success.

Although the value of a consistent digital communications strategy is well known, many institutions have yet to put one into place. This is usually due to the fact that the resources required to develop such a strategy seems daunting – how will we organize the appropriate committees, who should be involved, where do we focus our initial efforts? Like a capital campaign for a new building or other long-term projects, a communications strategy should be designed based on long-term goals, with a detailed plan that will be relevant for two to five years. Building such a plan, especially for the first time, is a lengthy endeavor that requires dedication and continual oversight, and your institution will need a focused advocate willing to go the extra mile in driving the process.  The process itself, however, is not rocket science. In this post I will tell you how to go about designing and implementing a strategy that will heighten impact while limiting cost.

The first step is to assemble a communications committee made up of staff members from the department that own the communications process as well as other engaged participants from within the institution and without. Communication committees are a key component of both driving content and building thought leadership from within.  Universities contain a wealth of expertise and subject matter that needs to be harnessed.  Drawing on the experience and perspective of constituents from both inside and outside of the institution will allow you to identify your institution’s full range of needs and capabilities.

Let’s imagine that fictional X State University (XSU) seeks a more integrated communications process, hiring an experienced consulting team to assist the communications committee to evaluate existing systems and accomplish this goal. XSU’s information technology group has been utilizing less-than-ideal systems for website content management and email as well as a global Microsoft agreement to provide desktop, server and productivity applications to the institution.  The school’s institutional advancement team has purchased software from Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity to manage their constituents and alumni communications.  The finance group was using SunGard HigherEd’s Banner solution with the Luminis Portal Module to provide employee self-service and serve as a central location for departmental portals. 

There are many alternatives to these vendors and systems but most universities have invested in similar systems over the years.  These systems can be divided into the following types based on function:

• Productivity Tools – No large university can get by without some Microsoft software.  Most consolidate their purchasing through the IT group.  Linux and Apple have competing solutions but the premise of the solutions remain the same.
• Constituent Management System – Competition is fierce amongst universities for talent, resources and students.  Blackbaud, Intelliworks and others have produced robust software systems for streamlining communications with donors, alumni, faculty, staff and other constituents.  Their tools allow for a central point of event management, campaign tracking and digital communications.
• Portal Programs – Universities are looking for systems that will provide them with a single point of access to institutional information. Many providers offer constituent information management, with the best solutions unifying multiple systems in one.

Now that the stage is set, let’s look at how these separate systems, utilized by different internal groups, can be stitched together to provide a cohesive experience to varying audiences. 

It was quickly apparent to the consulting team that the school’s various systems included significant overlaps. The communications committee worked closely with the consultants to clearly define the needs for each functional area and divided them into these sections: email marketing, website (external), website (internal), event calendar, alumni, and news.  Each of the existing systems in place could be used for overall management of these needs but each had its own strengths and weaknesses.  These were also identified and each of the institutions required capabilities were matched with the optimal tools to fulfill them:

• Content management system (web external) – Sitefinity was chosen as a robust yet easy to manage system for handling content.
• Content management system (web internal) – SunGard’s Luminis portal provided the most integrated self-service system for faculty/staff/students.
• Alumni communications – NetCommunity provided the needed communication tools and tracking systems.
• Calendar – NetCommunity’s robust event management and registration system suited the overall needs best.
• News management – a custom combination of SharePoint, NetCommunity and integration with Luminis and Sitefinty provided a comprehensive solution.

Although the systems available to universities differ by organizational need, budget and other factors, the important point is that by using the right process you can optimize the use of the tools available to you. For XSU, the key to successful strategy development and implementation was the effective use of internal and external stakeholders to identify needs, capabilities and match the two in an overall strategy.  XSU realized cost savings and process improvements by bringing the best people together to be a part of the process.

This example demonstrates how different tools can be used to provide a comprehensive solution once the advocates in the institution are brought in as part of the process.  Too often in the sprawling departments of  a university, duplicate and even competing initiatives waste resources and actually limit the effectiveness of the robust systems available to the university.  It is critical to bring together the right participants to ensure the best tools are being used for a given digital communications need.

In future blog posts, I will explore how mobile applications and location-based tools can be used by a university to extend existing digital communications systems to a larger audience.

Pat Perdue’s recent piece, “Social Media and Customer Engagement”, offered great examples of how, and how not, to provide customer service through social media. They also got me thinking about the ways good social CRM strategy could be effectively applied to similar situations.

A social CRM system works to improve overall customer experience by gathering data from customer conversations and delivering that data in meaningful ways to shape strategy and tactics on a variety of fronts – from customer service to sales strategy to product development. In the examples Paul provided, customers were complaining to Comcast and Expedia via Twitter about service outages or dropped calls to customer service. A well-designed social CRM system would improve such customer experiences in four ways:

1. Identifying problem trends. Through a keyword system, complaints about similar problems could be aggregated into reports that are used to identify and improve systemic shortcomings. For example, instead of viewing a random tweet about a dropped customer service call and assuming it was a one-time occurrence, customer service leadership could see in a single report that 50 similar tweets were made in a single month, pointing to an ongoing issue in the contact center that must be rectified. Another example might be frequent use of the term “wait time” in customer tweets. This might lead to the inclusion of a wait time counter on the company’s contact page or an automated message on calls to customer service that informs customers of the expected wait time and what they can do to get a faster response.
2. Improving response time. Because many businesses have only a small team of customer service representatives, scalability can be a problem in times of increased demand. Rather than making customers wait a long time for a meaningful response, automated responses can be keyed to tweets about particular problems, again based on a keyword system. If a telecom company knows that its systems are down in a particular area due to storms, they could set up an automated tweet response to complaints about service outages that explains the problem and tells customers when they can expect service to resume. In the example Paul offered in which a Comcast customer tweeted that they “need a call back ASAP” because they were told it would be ten days before their problem would be addressed, the social CRM workflow could recognize the key words “call back” and “ASAP”, moving this customer to the top of a queue and alerting a customer service rep to reach out right away.
3. Retain current customers, gain new ones. By automatically prioritizing tweets that indicate a potential lost customer, such as tweets that contain the words “cancel” and “Comcast”, social CRM can help companies such as Comcast act faster to help customers that are within minutes of severing the relationship. Similarly, whenever someone tweets that “AT&T sucks”, Comcast has an opportunity to gain a customer if they have processes in place to recognize it. Through a social CRM system, identification of tweets like this could be automated and a queue devised for sales outreach. The ROI of such efforts would be easily trackable, defusing a common complaint about the uncertain value of social media efforts.
4. Increase successful outcomes. By tracking successful against less-than-successful engagement processes and aggregating data, a social CRM system can help companies identify the types of responses customers prefer and improve their methods accordingly.

These represent only some of the ways that social CRM can be used to meaningfully improve customer experiences. I’ll be writing more soon about how data gathered through social CRM can be used outside of the customer service department to better enable companies to satisfy customers and distinguish themselves from the competition.

Recently I was asked by Microsoft to present a session on social CRM at their Convergence conference. Social CRM is a very hot topic right now as companies are realizing what a paradigm shift it represents in the realm of customer interaction. Through social CRM, we're moving away from the old model of merely pushing information to the customer without interacting or listening to them to one in which we're constantly gathering helpful feedback through collaborative engagement.

Microsoft distributed a video a few years ago that does a great job of demonstrating the weaknesses of the old model. In it, the relationship between a business and its customer is compared to a failed romantic relationship. The lack of meaningful interaction between the two results in a laughably bad level of insight, misplaced efforts and eventually the loss of the customer. >> Video

The reason for social CRM is generating so much noise right now is that we can finally get the information we need to avoid this type of result. A robust social CRM strategy is crucial to gaining market share and maintaining satisfied customers.

It's important to remember that social CRM is first and foremost a strategy rather than a particular product, process or simple replacement of an existing CRM system. Like any other business process, social CRM will be of greatest value if you closely tailor it to your needs, ensuring you make the most out of improved customer engagement. Rather than simply using it to inform marketing and sales strategy, take the insight deeper to shape pricing, product development, customer service, and the supply chain.

Through social CRM, businesses are finally able to listen to the consumer in the way we've always wished, allowing them to react, respond and deliver an improved customer experience.

A lot of discussion is starting to pop up around the concept of social CRM as people seek to understand the concept and how it can be put to use. The discussion reveals that a fair amount of confusion still remains about the definition of social CRM and its components. Some believe that a social CRM system is merely a corporate website with links to Twitter and Facebook feeds, others that it’s a conventional CRM system plus social media tools. Social CRM is where the customer is engaged in a collaborative conversation in order to provide a mutually beneficial value in a transparent and trusted business environment.

A true social CRM system is made up of several components:

1. Customer community
2. Social networks
3. CRM system
4. Business systems
5. Business intelligence

My description of a Social CRM is a business strategy that integrates technologies, business rules and processes with social media in order to interact and engage with the customer in a transparent environment. The output enables a business or institution to observe audience engagement, and then respond to varying audience experiences with targeted strategies to provide value to both the business/institution and its audience.

Consumer interaction is shifting towards a more self-sufficient state as the social networking sphere continues to develop and trends towards digital application. The new digital interface has really thrived within social media channels and is positioning itself as a key marketing, branding and communication tool. One important aspect of this switch is the ability for consumers to speak to other consumers and share information regarding products, services, and, really, any other related topic in one forum. Not only are they able to ask for troubleshooting help, they are also getting recommendations and product suggestions. Businesses are moving from the distribution of company-related updates through their own chosen mediums to those that are strictly consumer-based – a move that is changing company-client interactions at an intrinsic level.

The removal of a business from the information-provider role is creating many opportunities to reassess and adapt to Web 2.0 schematics. A part of any successful marketing implementation is to ensure that proper tools are in place to ensure scalability. Social CRM (SCRM) is the most recent of these digital tools that can help a business gather, analyze, manage and respond to data their consumers, or potential consumers, create via social networks. The ability to use this data in real time is, quite naturally, lowering customer service and marketing costs. Social communities, the relationships created through these new networks, have facilitated the continual exchange of information and created a legitimacy often compromised in the digital marketplace.

As social communities have established themselves as a sort of ad hoc customer tool, traditional customer service departments are experiencing diminished pressure to satisfy unhappy or questioning consumers. Rather, the consumer is helping the consumer and SCRM systems are helping businesses to connect and create that particular support network. This close-knit relationship results in competitive differentiation. Additionally, the amped-up management offered by SCRM is also providing insight into marketing behavior and customer demands.

Unfortunately, not all customers are adept at, or prefer, social networking and community interaction. Late adopters and hesitant demographics balk at the use of new or unconventional methods. This means that the integration of social networking and SCRM into overall marketing and support departments will remain vital for future development. The ability to monitor data through SCRM will help companies cater to both social media network users and traditional clientele.

Throughout this SCRM explosion, companies have been presented with an expanding array of tools to serve consumers who are faced with equally-expanding SCRM implementation options. This is why an overall SCRM strategy is needed to ensure effectiveness. Grasping the potential of social communities allows a company to create a dialogue for purchase assistance or seek out related conversational topics. The bottom line is creating strategies to strengthen brand and increase market share. The holistic approach offered through SCRM strategy offers a more complete and in-depth look at what is driving their consumers.

Development of a SCRM strategy puts businesses in position for greater competitive advantages, resulting in improved investments, profitability and internal resource allocation. At the very core of successful integration is an understanding of the technology and the most beneficial approaches to invite, engage, and retain new business. The shift in the role of consumers towards becoming more active information seekers means shifting the business model from that of information provider to facilitator and creating a flexible and transparent system in which to fully utilize social networking and subsequent communication behavior.

Internet use has so greatly taken over our everyday lives and business it may be hard to even remember what running a business took without the speed and ease of the online world. However, the fact that the internet and its’ take over has changed the way we live is already well known. It’s what to do next that is important in 2011 business. The first ten years or so have been spent playing catch up to a now ever-evolving virtual market place where consumers make the rules and businesses work tirelessly to create interpersonal relationships. As 2011 has begun, there has been a settling into this new frontier and it is now time to move past the amazing concept of its rise to power and focus on how to optimize, capitalize and thrive. The following are the top 4 internet related or integrated technologies and tools that are necessary for 2011 business success.

1. Content Management System. A company needs to maintain an online presence in order to create the relationships that drive consumers to action, aka, they need a website; but what else is new? They need to create a brand-centered experience. There may be the idea, the message, the target audience all designed, but how will a new website and consumer experience be managed? Simple; through a content management system (CMS). A CMS is not only a tool that will help manage a website, but also continually create this mentioned-experience through updates, edits, additions, and tailoring depending on market fluctuations. We recommend Sitefinity 4.0 for a comprehensive and user-friendly CMS.
2. Social Media. This approach to consumer relationship management and development has been praised and reviewed many times, but for good reason: it works. Facebook in and of itself has changed the digital relationship landscape. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.- they are the biggest and most affordable tools existing today; just make sure your business has a website to follow through on the relationships built. Check out our social media trend projections for 2011 here, Digital Insights.
3. Analytics- You may have heard how easy Google Analytics are to use are or are anxiously awaiting the official announcement of Microsoft Analytics; either way, an analytic tool is a must for website monitoring and upkeep. The benefits of implementing these tools and utilizing them is that they provide an in-depth look at who is arriving at your site, what is capturing their attention most and least, and segment them out by demographics. This information is priceless in its ability to help move business and marketing forward. Think ROI and continual feedback on any chosen campaign.
4. A Blog. A blog is basically industry credentials and a must for that consumer relationship you’ve been working towards. Let’s face it, the internet is an overwhelming amount of information which means sometimes a well conceived and crafted message may not resonate with the right people. People are also smarter- they know that clicking a banner ad doesn’t guarantee the right details, or even the right product! Further, in a digital playing field, even the most obvious scams have the ability to create a website that oozes legitimacy. Blogging is a way to prove you’re as a solid part of an industry. Personally written insights and analysis of current industry trends not only establish credibility but also enable create conversation and personalize a company or brand.

Online retailer, eBay is creating an interesting look at the future of e-commerce and m-commerce through its recent release of its’ financial summary from 2010. With over $9 billion in revenue, it should come as no surprise that eBay’s approach to m-commerce is being recognized as a model for approaching mobile and application retail. eBay has their traditional online format for access but also a custom designed application for users to access, shop and buy from their smart phone. Hopping on one of the latest mobile trends, eBay also recently acquired RedLaser which provides a barcode scan for comparison shopping between brick and mortar stores and the online marketplace (or in eBay’s case, from their marketplace).

Further adding to the increasing revenue gained by eBay are transaction fees from third party vendors like PayPal. From $91 billion worth of PayPal transactions, eBay made $3.4 billion. Both companies are noted for their progressive technology adaptations and PayPal’s ability to take check deposits via mobile pictures and using Bump technology to transfer money is speeding up the pace at which users can research, shop, and ultimately, spend money while on the go.

M-commerce is making substantial gains in the retail arena and if eBay, PayPal and other big name companies, like Amazon and Starbucks, continue to provide ways in which mobile phones can replace the majority of traditional shopping it won’t be long before these new approaches become the most common. With the recent allowance of using mobile phones for payment in retail stores, Starbucks is helping further along the smart phone take over. Although progressing rapidly, mobile phones and their ever expanding capabilities are shaping the future of both traditional and ecommerce and revolutionizing how financial transactions take place.

With the ever-increasing number of mobile device users and growing sales of smart phones and tablet computers, the need to design and develop websites with the mobile user in mind is shifting from an advanced benefit to a business necessity. Designing or re-designing websites for mobile accessibility is becoming a more in-depth and technically advanced process as the mobile market expands and businesses fight to keep with a faster demand for informative user experience. However, with the expanded capabilities of smartphones and other wireless devices, some wonder what the point of mobile web design is when most mobile browsers are capable of showing any, regular site? At the core of the answer to these concerns is User Experience. Faster loading times and compatibility are what create a successful mobile site and despite the demands and quick pace, there are several approaches that have proven, since the beginning of the mobile revolution, to engage consumers and create on-demand accessible mobile sites.

Designing for Mobile
The emerging design choices for 2011 are focused on simple color schemes. Picking one color for your site and using the related shades or easy-to-read contrasting font colors are in line with the simplicity needed to make impacting mobile sites. Basic color choices and intuitive designs focused on responsiveness are what will help shape future UX. Whether the website is being altered for mobile access or a new mobile site is being developed, businesses should work closely with their design team or agency to help create the ‘feel’ and tone of their site through smart and simple design choices that represent their brand and help their audience.

Content
It’s a well-known fact that in 2011, content is king. But how does well written and engaging content translate to the mobile experience? Websites have the space and ability to produce a variety of content and access points, but the mobile content should be designed for those on the go. Strip wording down to the necessities. What do my consumers need to know about this product or service to encourage action? Even short sentences can be well tailored to not be boring.

Organization and Navigation
Organization of content is important too. Screens are smaller and harder to read which makes scrolling cumbersome for the viewer. It’s important to note that navigation on a mobile device is done by fingertip. The ability to shift or transition to related information is a must and many sites would benefit by simplified layout using horizontal scrolling or a flip-like ability- how one would read through a magazine. Also note that sites will have altered viewing orientations and the site should be able to maintain organization and navigation regardless of being viewed horizontally or vertically.

Images
To include or not to include? When it comes to images within mobile websites, it is dependent upon placement, size, etc. Logos and other brand related images should, of course, be included, ideally near the top of the pages. There are other tools like the QR, or Quick Response, uses barcodes to be scanned by smart phones and the related products pulled up. Tools like these are keeping mobile sites simple while allowing more detailed product or service information to pop up when wanted.

Mobile internet access is projected to surpass access via traditional computers. As this shift begins and mobility becomes the common denominator, remember that easy-to-use mobile websites with the option to view the traditional site are developed with the user in mind.

The latest digital marketing buzz has been strongly focused on social media and how to effectively communicate with potential consumers. Although a vital part of digital marketing, Facebook and Twitter aren’t representative of a company - they are their own sites with their own brands, and they’re goal is to help communicate. The face of any company is their website. They may bring in visitors from search engines or a Groupon promotion, but at the end of the day, the user experience your current and potential customers have when they eventually click over to your site is solely representative of you, your brand, and your competitive advantage. Many times the User Experience (often referred to as UX) is a concept that gets lost when careful planning and execution are lacking. UX isn’t something that can be installed or bought as part of a package; rather, it must be incorporated into every phase of the building process, in each step that enhances a site.

UX creates the conception of who a company is and whether that brand is useful, efficient and applicable. The biggest issue is that UX is subjective in nature. Even with the best design and the most enhanced and interactive features, some people may not have as great of a time as others. But the point is to create the best experience for as many people as possible. There are features, applications and navigation schematics to help customize experiences per the user’s wants and goals. In order to create an intuitive Website, here are a few things to keep in mind.

UX Trends and Tips for 2010-2011:

• Break up Content…smaller blocks of text are easier to read. Use headings, colors, sections, concise wording, anything to avoid large groupings of text with no visual break
• Create easy and Clear Navigational Tools. Even the most technically advanced, tiered, drop down, etc. navigation tools are useless unless they flow and are clear and easy to use.
• Point out What’s Important. Eyes need visual direction so avoid information equality in ranking and placement. Rather, point out the obvious hierarchy and visually cue the person to look where you want.
• Know your audience. Who is visiting, what they will be looking for and who you serve are important to know ahead of time, throughout the website design process.
• Large pictures are popular right now and are predicted to continue through 2011. They are, make a statement, and eliminate clicking with scrolling content.
• Slider and Hover boxes are simple, interactive and attractive navigation tools that are increasingly being seen in both large, retail sites and independent boutique web pages.
• One-Page sites and Typography can be used independently. Fonts are creative twists on the provided content while one page sites are the ultimate business card. Often typography is used to make them out than more than just “one page”.
• Sketching for designs adds a personal touch. Websites are already a distant concept, but adding something similar to a sketch pad drawing or scribble gives it a feeling of proximity often missing from site design.

There are many different ways to create an experience- the people who drive your business should be at the core of any design, technology or layout changes. It is they who use the site, they who ultimately drive revenue and they who will spread the word about good products, services, and experiences.