experts Archives

What is Conversation Research? An Infographic Explainer

May 15, 2017 By Jim Storer

Recently, Jason Falls, the Co-Founder of the Conversation Research Institute (CRI) joined members of TheCR Network for an exploration of conversation research. With years of experience in social technology, both on the agency side and brand side Jason developed the concept of conversation research. Even though people may think that this is a new concept, Jason believes community management professionals will be familiar with the premise of his work. He’s simply put a new label on it.

Based on the great discussion inside the Network we put together an infographic highlighting what Jason taught our members. Jason stress to the participants that they should not expect to replace traditional research with conversation research. Conversation research is more of a supplement to traditional research, and a great way to augment what you might already be doing.

Members can access the full roundtable report, including three case studies that Jason shared, as well as best practices for applying conversation research and lessons learned here.

Not a member of TheCR Network? Learn more and join today to have exclusive access to expert practitioners like Jason Falls – and our complete archive of over 350 roundtable reports on community management, community strategy, metrics and measurement, and more! Join TheCR Network.

Privacy, Free Speech, and ‘Blurry-Edged’ Social Networks

October 24, 2016 By Jim Storer

By Amy Turner, The Community Roundtable

The right to privacy online is not so clear-cut when debated with the right to free speech. There is much more citizen journalism happening, but laws have been created with traditional publishing institutions in mind. These laws favor the right to free speech, which puts the right to privacy in an uncertain balance. TheCR Network had a sobering discussion about this with Lauren Gelman, Principal & Founder at BlurryEdge Strategies.

The center of the debate is privacy vs. free speech. At its very basic level, an individual’s right to protect his/her privacy interferes with another individual’s right to talk about another person. For example, any right an individual has to stop another individual from publishing a picture that had the first individual in it also stops the second individual from expressing him/herself through that picture. The same holds true in a blog scenario that publishes information about another person. To not publish for privacy reasons infringes on the bloggers right to free speech. The result is a strong tension in the advocacy community about how to balance these interests because the same people who are working on these issues are the chief advocates for both of these conflicting sides. 

Below are three best practices that emerged from our discussion with Lauren:

TheCR Network Guest Expert: Lauren Gelman

Recognize that all Actions are Public

People do not realize that they are publishing to the world. Perhaps it is because they do not see faces and eyes staring back at them. It gives them a false feeling of anonymity that allows their guard to be lowered. Lauren believes that social network technology tools are designed to keep us ignorant and are designed to incent us to over-share our private information without understanding the full ramifications. These tools benefit from the fact that people do not understand the extent of their audience. The more you tell Facebook about yourself, the more you can get in touch with people who match your criteria. The more you tell LinkedIn, the more accurate their suggested contacts will be. So, all of these platforms are built in a way to incent you to disclose more. The problem is, however, that the law does not see it that way. Always be aware that everybody and anybody can see what it is that you are publishing. 

Tagging Content

Lauren suggests a tagging regime. In this way, people would be able to tag their published content with certain privacy expectations, such as: “Please do not archive this or cut and paste or publish it in another forum.” The idea behind this is to express a level of privacy sensitivity. That is one of the reasons that the law is so hard-lined in this space. In the real world it is very hard to understand an individual’s privacy sensitivity about something being repeated. So, the same would then hold true for the Internet. The law basically uses what is termed an “objective test.” It assumes that everybody’s privacy sensitivity is the same in that if you tell somebody, you do not have an expectation of privacy. This way, everybody in the world knows what to expect of the law. However, if you are able to tag your Internet content with your privacy sensitivity, then the law has something to work with in order to try and protect people.

Establish a Complaint Mechanism

Currently, there is a “notice and take down regime” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This has established a means for individuals to contact companies if they think their copyright is being violated. Perhaps a similar institution could be established for privacy concerns.

How do you balance the right to free speech and the right to privacy across social media and communities?

To hear more from Lauren Gelman, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

10 Best Practices for Gaming in Your Community

October 11, 2016 By Jim Storer

By Amy Turner, The Community Roundtable

Incorporating gaming elements into communities not only adds value, but also enhances a member’s experience and gives them an enjoyable moment that would not have otherwise existed. Definitely, a key community must-have for staying ahead of the competition.

TheCR Network spoke with Latitude, a research and consulting firm with deep expertise in media and technology, to discuss the many benefits of introducing game theory in communities.

First things first. What is a game? According to Latitude’s The Future of Gaming Study: “A game is play with some goal, and some rules or parameters affecting how the player can achieve that goal. Play means the player gets pleasure from the whole moment-to-moment process, not just when she achieves the goal. If it’s a long, hard, tedious and boring slog that needs to be finished so you can get some reward, it’s called ‘work.’”

10 Best Practices For Incorporating Gaming Into Community:

Follow a Framework that Employs Certain Game Elements. Examples include:
1. Appointment dynamic (win by showing up at a specified time)
2. Level up for reputation’s sake (leader boards)
3. Track progress (shows how well the participant is doing against a goal)
4. Cooperate to compete (people provide an invaluable service to the brand in the form of a  game)

Tie Extrinsic Motivators to Something Meaningful: Extrinsic motivators such as badges,  points, leader boards or even money are on the periphery of the gaming experience. However, they hinge on being rooted in something deeper, like intrinsic motivation (such as a sense of community or doing something socially beneficial).  
Understand the Game Elements and Features that are Working and Why: Games that are really social and/or built on existing communities (such as Facebook’s Farmville) work well. Another way is by extending the game into the offline world, incorporating the idea of online and offline social challenges with things that are shared and local for the participant.  
Realize the Importance of Environment, Economics and a Social Sense as Motivators.  Brands that incorporate these elements within their gaming theory will have an advantage over their competitors if they can tap into as many of these motivational sweet spots as possible.
Combine Personalization of a Goal with Socialization: Games that help people reach their aspirations are elements of gaming that will offer success for companies that incorporate them. However, keep in mind that if you want to offer rewards to a community, then they should have real value. Scarcity should not be manufactured.  
Consider Game Mechanics for Peer-to-Peer Trust-Building with Real-World Relevance: This includes game-like mechanisms such as share ratios and rating systems, which provide the infrastructure for individuals to prove and make transparent their trustworthiness over time (such as reputation scores in eBay).  
Be Organic: Follow your community member’s lead, see what they value and build game elements around the tradeoffs/negotiations/exchanges they may naturally be initiating with each other. Be mindful of not creating inherent motivation schemes that go against the natural rewards that exist within the community
Remember that for Ads, Context Matters: Advertising can work in a variety of ways within games (sponsorships, placements, interactive ads, etc.), but the key is that they must relate (and ideally add value) to the experience game players intend to have in the first place.  
Ensure that your Game Elements Add Value: The key thought is not to create game elements that add work. Have fun while creating a positive overall experience for the players.  
Understand the Possibilities that Exist for Mobile: There are countless opportunities for mobile to integrate games into traditionally offline experiences. Furthermore, it can create real value when integrating with offline spaces.

How do you incorporate gaming in your community?

Exploring Engagement: The Dance Floor Theory

October 20, 2014 By Jim Storer

By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.

Note: This post is based on a TheCR Network expert-led Roundtable Call titled “Exploring Engagement: The Dance Floor Theory.” The full Roundtable report for this call, and over 200 other community-focused Roundtable reports, is available exclusively to members of TheCR Network.

Since last week’s #ESNchat was focused on driving engagement in enterprise social networks I thought it would be fun to share some excerpts from a popular Roundtable call inside TheCR Network. We were lucky enough to host Kevin Prentiss, the CEO of Red Rover, as he gave an overview of his Dance Floor Theory and how it related to community management.

Pretend You’re Back in 8th Grade

Kevin asked everyone to visualize themselves hovering above a dance floor. What they would likely observe is the development of an engagement pattern. Let’s say that the most engaged people are a “five” and the least engaged people are “neutrals”. Those people who are the most engaged will aggregate towards the center. They will move closer together and will radiate the most energy. Conversely, those people on the edge will stand apart from each other with their arms likely crossed; they will not participate at the same level, nor will they emit the same level of energy. This will form a curve of participation. This same pattern of engagement and this same curve can also be seen in community engagement.

How To Increase Engagement

In order to increase engagement, the idea is to move the neutrals up to the ones, the ones up to the twos, the twos to the threes, etc. There are cautions to this, however. Do not try to drag a neutral out into the middle of the dance floor with a bunch of fives. What will happen is that the fives unwittingly, but literally, attack the neutrals. The fives and the neutrals literally repel each other. This is an important insight for community management. The community manager must get to know who their fives are, as well as the rest of the people dynamics, in order to help effectively spur engagement.

The Good Kind of (Community) Contagious

Feelings are contagious through peer behavior. When people get in that conductive dance floor place, it is the actual movement of other people that triggers the mirror self. People feel enthusiasm and it spurs action in others. The key concept here is peer. People are far more influenced by those that they consider to be their peers.

After Kevin shared a (much more!) in-depth look at the theory, members shared their best engagement tips, including:

Pick five members of their community at random and send them each a personalized post card as a means of reaching out to touch base.
Run community-based programs that coincide with real-life events (i.e. the World Series or the Oscars) and pit the your members against each other – in a fun way!
Incorporate video into the forums to increase engagement.

How do you drive engagement in your community? We’d love to hear your best ideas!

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