Taking the Show On The Road

My blog will be taking a vacation during the month of July and I don’t plan on making many (or any) posts.

Our family will be doing a house exchange with a family from Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria for the month of July.  You can see from the pinprick on the map where we’ll be staying.

Ötztal-Bahnhof is in the Tyrol region of western Austria about 30 minutes west of Innsbruck.  In addition, we will be spending a couple of days in Munich, Germany and Vienna, Austria.  And of course, we will be visiting Salzburg so we can get our Sound of Music fix.

See you all when I return refreshed and relaxed in August.

Map of Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria

Insights On The Tribalization of Business

from the Tribalization of Business website

At the Community Roundtable weekly chat on Wednesday,  Francois Gossieaux of Beeline Labs led a discussion about community participation and shared the results of the Tribalization of Business community survey that he is working on in conjunction with Deloitte and The Society for New Media Research.

One quote in particular stands out from his presentation which is presented below:

Social media is not about a new media channel, it’s about the social taking root in all aspects of business

The other interesting part of the discussion were the four insights that he shared with us about the traits of companies who are successful with their community efforts.

According to Francois’ research, successful companies:

• Think about “tribes” and not market segments
• Treat their community as a network and not a channel
• Are customer-centric instead of company or product-centric
• Understand what it means to be social

The “tribes” comment resonated a lot with me.  With tribes, group behavior is key -  where in segments, personal characteristics are in charge.  Essentially, it’s about finding groups of people who have something in common based on their behavior and not their market characteristics.

Some of the preliminary results shared by Francois include:

• Most communities are still owned by marketing (which is a good thing)
• 35% of the companies are leveraging communities for customer support (which is the one place where customers expect their vendor to participate)
• 32% of communities do not have a full time employee or manager (which begs the question of how can you engage without participating?)
• More than 75% of communities are hosting time-based (like webinars) or offline activities (like conferences or meet-ups)

For more insights and information, here is the entire “Early Peak at Tribalization of Business 2009″ presentation:

And for social media ‘historians’, here is the presentation which summarizes the 2008 findings and are still very applicable:

You can also find out more information on the Tribalization of Business website.

Sizing Up the Social Media Software Market

As part of a recent interview process, I was asked to perform a series of projects as ‘homework’ to demonstrate my thinking, writing and presentation skills.  One of the projects was to create an estimate on the size of the social media software market.  While I didn’t get the job, the good news is that I am not going to let my research efforts gather dust or sit on my laptop in perpetuity.

I analyzed the social media software market size along two dimensions – types of buyers and types of software providers.  For buyers, I used the categories of large business (> 500 employees), medium business (100-500 employees), small business (< 100 employees), non-profits, hobbyists and special interest, and individual home market.  For types of software providers, I used White Label (average solution cost of $30,000), Budget (average solution cost of $500), Open Source and Free.  As far as the providers, here are representative companies in each category:

• White Label – the usual suspects including Awareness, HiveLive, Jive, KickApps, Leverage, Lithium, Mzinga, Pluck, Telligent, etc.
• Budget – vBulletin, Boonex, Ning, etc.
• Open Source – Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, etc.
• Free – Ning, PBWiki and a whole host of other providers

Conclusion – the total US social media software space is estimated at $600 million in revenue and 1.26 million potential customers.  The Global market likely adds 50% to totals – $900 million in revenue and 2.0 million prospects, and I estimated that 15-20% of overall market is currently penetrated.

Here are a couple of the graphs I created to visually display the results:

Social Media Software - Revenue By Segment ( per Tom Humbarger)

Total Social Media Software Market by Buyer Category

Approach - here is a summary of the approach I used to develop the sizing analysis:

• Statistics – Obtained business stats from US census and nonprofits stats from National Center for Charitable Statistics; used  best guestimates for hobbyists and home market
• Category interest – Estimated % interest in each category between large, medium and small business, nonprofits, special interest and hobbyists, and individuals
• Segment interest – Estimated segment % breakdown between White Label, Budget, Open Source and Free

I was not able to locate any published market sizing numbers for the Social Media software market – so I was unable to determine if I was in the ball park according to other numbers.  Plus, my analysis takes a quick-n-dirty approach and I would definitely validate it further if I were ‘getting paid’ for the assignment.

So, does anyone agree or disagree with the numbers or my approach?  I welcome any and all comments, suggestions and rebuttals.

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BTW, if you are really interested in the detailed approach, a picture of my detailed spreadsheet is copied below.  If you send me an email, I would be more than happy to send you a copy of the Excel file.

Social Media Software - Market Sizing Details

Back From the Online Community Unconference

Forum One Communications

I’m back from Forum One’s Online Community Unconference held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and I have a great deal of information to digest.  I’ll be summarizing my thoughts in a series of blog posts later this month, but I wanted to start by jotting some notes down now.

This is my second Unconference and I really enjoy the format.  The Unconference is a one-day conference so it is very efficient in terms of the people you meet and the content provided.  The craziness and free form nature of the proceedings is also quite refreshing.  For example, here are the 4 principles followed for this “openspace” conference:

1. whoever comes are the right people
2. whatever happens is the only thing that could have
3. whenever it starts is the right time
4. whenever it is over it is over

The Unconference also starts off with all 250 participants giving a brief introduction of who they are and the question they are seeking to get answered.  While this takes almost an hour to complete, it is interesting to hear what people are doing and it is a great icebreaker to get a brief introduction so you can follow up with people later in the conference.  The day’s agenda is also set up in a free form, crowdsourced manner with individuals suggesting topics that they would like to lead and when they would like to lead them.  There are 5 timeslots during the day with up to 13 possible topics for each session.  And since you cannot attend all 65 sessions, note takers are assigned for each session and the notes are compiled in the conference wiki.  Bill Johnston and the rest of the Forum One team did a great job moderating the proceedings.

I almost forgot to mention the ‘retro’  Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs provided for the afternoon snack.   Fresh cherries, apricots and apples were also part of the afternoon fare for any ‘health-conscious’ or virtuous conference participants.

Many participants were twittering during the day (including me) and you should definitely check out the OCU2009 Twitter feed as there are lots of great nuggets and people to discover.  I had the feed open on my laptop during the day and started following at least 15 new people on Twitter.  The Twitter and Flickr hashtag for the conference is OCU2009 in case you want to follow it on your own.  It was also decided at the close of the conference that the follow-on Twitter hashtag will be #OCTRIBE.  The day ended with the traditional gifting of bottles of Sonoma wine to attendees who made a difference in either a big or little way during the day as determined by the audience.

Finally, here is a picture of the conference agenda provided by Marc Smith:

Forum One Online Community Conference 2009 Agenda

Stay tuned for my upcoming OCU2009 posts.

BTW, check out these blog posts on OCU2009 – I am sure there will be more:

• Open Business
• TheGroupery
• Forum One Communications – Online Community Report

Review of ReadWriteWeb’s Guide to Online Community Management

I received a copy of the new ReadWriteWeb’s Guide to Online Community Management last month and it is definitely worth looking at if you want to raise the level of your community management and social media game.  It is a collection of tips, talking points, data points and other collective knowledge from many different experts.  RRW editors looked through hundreds of articles and resources, and choose the best ones to be included in the report.

According to editor Marshall Kirkpatrick, this is why companies should look at the report:

Businesses seeking to engage with online communities on their own websites or all around the social web will find the guide invaluable in getting up to speed on the state of the art and making sure their employees have the foundation they need to be effective.

The guide starts off by answering the following questions:

• Does our company need a blog? (probably)
• Do we need a forum section on our website? (maybe)
• Should our company spend time on Twitter? (definitely)
• Should our company have a presence on Facebook? (the jury is out)

Then, the guide covers the need for community managers, ROI, job descriptions, marketing/engagement balance and dealing with challenging community members.  The guide ends with several interviews, a list of the 3 best podcasts on community management and additional resources.

The best part is the online companion (Community Management Aggregator) to the official guide.  This password protected website provides a dynamic and updated selection of articles and blog posts related to social media and community, links to featured blogs and Twitter addresses for leading experts.  The Guide and access to the Community Management Aggregator costs $299 and it is a bargain for the information and access provided.

Did I forget to mention that my blog post on “The Importance of Active Community Management” is listed on page 30 of the report and I’m included in the list of experts on the Aggregator site?

ROI of Social Media in Customer Service

The ROI of Social Media: Customer Servce Communities

Forrester’s Natalie Petouhoff spoke at the Social Media Club of Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and she discussed the importance of using social media in customer service communities.  Using social media is more than implementing the tools, it’s “building a community that  interacts with each other on an ongoing basis.“   Natalie noted that a ‘perfect storm’ exists today with the collision of increasing customer dissatisfaction with companies wanting to do more with customer service and the growing use and influence of social media tools.

Here are the 2 most important things you need to know about what she discussed:

• Social media activities have a big impact on customer service
• The conservative ROI on customer service communities  is 100% with a payback of less than 12 months

She also shared some of the revenue improvements and cost savings that are direct benefits of customer service communities:

Revenue Improvements	Cost Savings
Increase lifetime customer value Increase product ideation Increase lead conversion rates	Reduce calls Reduce emails Increase agent productivity Increase FCR (first call resolution) Reduce SEO costs

Finally, she talked about how companies need to track a customer’s social value along with their lifetime value.  Customer advocates need to be recognized, acknowledged and thanked.  Even customers who are saying negative things about your brand or product can be turned by acknowledging their concerns and reaching out to them.

You can access Natalie’s complete presentation from this link (requires free registration) – www.forrester.com/socialmediaclubla.  Natalie is also available on Twitter at @drnatalie.

Memorial Day Flag Planting

My Son Henry Planting Flags at Los Angeles National Cemetary

Memorial Day is a day to remember men and women who have served in our Armed Forces.  It was initially started in 1868 to honor Union soldiers from the Civil War and was known as Decoration Day.  After World War I, the holiday was expanded to include American casualities of any war.

Our Cub Scout Pack were among several thousand Los Angeles Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts who helped place flags at LA’s National Cemetary on Saturday, May 23rd.  LA’s Cemetary has been in operation since 1887 and includes more than 70,000 graves sites including 13 graves of Medal of Honor recipients.

In a span of 30 minutes on Saturday, all of the grave sites were decorated with an American flag.  Our boys would place a flag near the grave marker, say the soldier’s name and unit out loud, solemnly salute the flag and say “thank you for your service”.   This drill was repeated by our 35 Cub Scouts until we covered our assigned area with American flags.

It was a moving sight and a great way to spend part of our Memorial Day weekend.  I am sure it is a memory that my son will have for the rest of his life.  If you ever have a chance to participate in this great ceremony, do not hestitate to join – you will be glad that you experienced this touching reminder to those who have served our country.

In the Beginning – My First Tweets

I ‘discovered’ a new website via Twitter yesterday (naturally) and found it to be quite interesting. The site is called My Tweet Sixteen and it uses the Twitter ‘wayback machine’ to display the first 16 tweets for any user.

My first Tweet was on October 31, 2007 and a lot has changed in the last 18 months.  Jim Storer from Shared Insights (now Mzinga) introduced me to Twitter and several of my initial tweets were with or about him.  When I first started with Twitter, I didn’t get it and it was a totally different experience than it is today.  With the explosion of people on Twitter and with a stable of interesting people to follow, Twitter is now my go to destination to learn and explore new ideas.

Here’s how I use Twitter differently now:

• Daily use – it took me a month to get my first 10 tweets and now I am probably tweeting 5 to 10 times per day.  My browser always has at least one tab opened up to Twitter all day too.  I now follow more than 1,100 people and use it to keep in touch with friends.  Since my tweets dump into Facebook automatically, my Facebook friends are also able to keep up with what’s going on with me.
• Twitter Search – I use Twitter search to explore what people are saying about certain companies or topics – and I will generally start on Twitter first before going to Goole.  It’s also a great way to learn more about someone by scanning their Twitter stream to discover their interests and ability to condense their thoughts into 140 characters.
• Shared Links – Most of my tweets now include links to interesting articles or blog posts that I have encountered during the day.  Using tools like HootSuite makes it easy to share and tweet the links.  And HootSuite also lets me track the clicks on my tweeted links 122 times in the last week, so my sharing is making a difference.

So take a walk back in history and check out your first tweets.  Unfortunately, MyTweet16 can only go back 3,200 tweets – so for super active Twitterers like my friend Jim, you will not able to see all the way back to the beginning of your Twitter history.

And for those of you who are interested, here are my first 10 tweets:

1st 10 Tweets from MyTweet 16

Work-Beach Conundrum

This sign is on a fence near my house in Manhattan Beach, and it’s a great thought to share on a beautiful and lazy Spring Friday.

A Philosophical Quandary from Manhattan Beach

Is it really a choice?  See you at the beach!

Getting on the Social Media Bus

If company x does not tell its own story, someone else will.

While it may be hard to believe, company x in the above quote is actually the US Air Force.

In their recently released “New Media and the Air Force” guide, this quote was published at the end of the introduction.  Further, the Guide states that this new policy is not a major shift of resources from traditional media to new media.  Rather it is the recognition that digital communications provides a new toolset that can be leveraged by the Air Force and it’s more than 300,000 Airmen.  If organizations like the Air Force and other military groups which have traditionally exercised tight control in their media relations are adding social media to their PR arsenal, then it’s about time for Corporate America to get on the “Social Media Bus” too – and follow the Air Force’s lead.

Social Media Bus

Yet many companies, especially in the b2b space, are ignoring social media channels.  I don’t get it and furthermore, there is no excuse today for not participating.

First, participating is social media is generally a cost effective way to find out what people are saying about your brand or product.  The leading social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are free to use and the only expense is the time it takes to start learning and participating in interactive dialogues with your customers, prospects and partners.

Second, participating in social media allows you to find out all sorts of interesting tidbits that can improve your brand, support and sales.  For example, just by searching for your company name in Twitter would yield results for most companies that are selling a product or service.   You can quickly identify product champions and passionate users, address unknown support issues before they get out of hand and uncover potential sales leads.

Here are few things that companies can do to get on the “Social Media Bus”:

Start listening now – The first step is to find out what is being said about your company.  You can start by setting up some alerts on your company name and competitors using Google Alerts, view Twitter feeds using Tweetizen and find Facebook groups that are related to your industry or prodict.

Test the waters - Companies do not have to “jump in feet first”, but need to get started now by experimenting with various social media tools.  For example, set up a Twitter account and start building up followers by seeing who is talking about you or your industry.  (see my Simple Advice for Brands on Twitter blog post from April for more info.)  Start writing a corporate blog to share interesting information about what is going on in your company.  Or you could set up a LinkedIn group or Facebook fan page to augment your brand.

Be open – One of my constant reminders to people getting started in social media activities is the importance of being open and transparent.   You are never going to be able to control the conversation – however, participation shows that you are a caring and concerned company who is actively trying and listening.  Customers will appreciate and reward the effort.

Engage your troops – While you may want to control and set directives from a centralized location, the companies that will succeed in social media are companies that encourage their employees to participate too.  In the US Air Force Policy Letter from September 2006 on engaging all 330,000 Airmen in public relations efforts, the Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne noted that “success of this effort will rely on making every Airman an ambassador for our Air Force, at home and abroad.”  Ultimately, social media is all about telling and sharing stories and employees are in the best position to share those stories better than anyone else.

So, who do you want telling your story?