social technology quarterly 08

Social TechnologyQuarterly08

April to June 2013

08© 2013 Kuliza Technologies Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

In this Issue

Carpe Datum! Who knows who

you are?

Divide and Rule: Tactics to grow conversion rates

Mining the Facebook Fanbase

2 3

Carpe Datum! Who knows who you are?Diarmaid Byrne

Functionality vs. Aesthetics in DesignAnindya Kundu

The Power of Advocate MarketingAnn Burgraff

The End of Gadget ClutterAmit Mirchandani and Nithin Anthony

06

11

16

18

Divide and Rule: Tactics to grow conversion ratesPavan Sudarshan

Learn to Imitate; Imitate to LearnVandana U.

Can do. Will do. Still do.Saurabh Gupta

Commerce with a TapKaushal Sarda

24

29

32

38

Mining the Facebook FanbaseAchintya Gupta

Fostering Communities through GeolocationVandana U.

Technology and the Changing Creative CultureMrinalini Sardar

Clocking Time on Social NetworksDiarmaid Byrne

40

46

50

56

Campaigns

Commerce

Communities

NUMBER08

4 5

Social Technology Quarterly and the STQ logo are trademarks of Kuliza

Technologies Ltd. Their reproducion without the proper permissions is unlawful.

© Copyright 2013 Kuliza Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

You are free to share and make derivative works of this publication only for non-

commercial purposes and under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it,

and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

Contributors

Achintya GuptaProduct Evangelist at Kuliza

Amit MirchandaniChief Creative Officer at Kuliza & MD at Lucid Design

Anindya KunduVisual Designer at Kuliza

Ann BurgraffChief Marketing Officer at Kuliza

Diarmaid Byrne Chief People Officer at Kuliza

Kaushal SardaChief Product Officer at Kuliza

Mrinalini SardarCommunication Designer, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

Nithin AnthonyProduct Designer at Lucid Design

Pavan SudarshanCo-founder at NudgeSpot

Saurabh GuptaManaging Director at Human Factors International, India

Vandana U. Marketing & Communications Specialist at Kuliza

Social Technology Quarterly 08

April to June 2013

Published by Kuliza Technologies Ltd.

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Subscribeto Social Technology Quarterly at:

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Diarmaid Byrne Editor

[email protected]

Vandana U. Editor

[email protected]

Amit Mirchandani Design

Lucid Design India Pvt. Ltd.www.lucid.co.in

The Social Technology Quarterly is a

research publication that distills the

signal from the noise in the fluid social

and mobile web domain. From multiple

perspectives it analyzes commerce,

campaigns, and communities through

the lenses of business, technology,

design, and behaviour.

Editorial

Social data has begun to fuel intelligent selling. A deluge of data is created every day. Giant retailers and start-ups alike proliferate large amounts of data as a routine, because a fundamental interest for any commerce platform is to understand how social networks are used and how these are

instrumental in affecting purchase decisions.

In social data’s filtered and sifted state, there is a realization of its potential capabilities. Through analytics we can study population trends, predict the magnitude of a disease’s outbreak, optimize resources and even save lives. On a fundamental level the number and kinds of interactions and conversations open opportunities to understand people and their patterns. Researching on influencers, this data has enabled brands to go beyond identifying fans alone and engaging them. This trend then reveals to us the power of concerted actions implemented through social data. On this note STQ 08 looks at some of these actions which have stimulated brands to connect with fans and advocates in relevant ways by mining their databases. Addressing significant trends in today’s market scenarios such as segmenting conversion rates and using technology to transform experiences, this issue looks at concentrated actions of big data from the perspective of design, psychology

and technology.

However, along with this relevance, the issue of privacy surfaces. Multiple networks and channels have their own persuasive ways to make people share information. If Obama could use big data to target his political messages better and if Facebook Home can easily track my activities and that of my friends and family through a phone’s accelerometer, privacy concerns will continue to rise. The STQ aims to bring this issue to the forefront. As brands realize the monetary value of social data, so should they respect its ownership

and accessibility.

Diarmaid ByrneVandana U.

Editors

Kuliza Social Technology Quarterly Issue 08 76

Campaigns

CarpeDaTum! WhoKNoWSWho Youare?IN The faCe of rISINg DemaND for DaTa, prIvaCY aND oWNerShIp beCome a CrITICal CoNCerN aS vaST amouNTS of DaTa are aCCeSSeD aND barTereD WIThouT The KNoWleDge of people. IN SuCh SCeNarIoS, IT IS CruCIal To DeTermINe praCTICeS ToWarDS maINTaININg prIvaCY. bY DIarmaID bYrNe


ThereISalaCKofCoNTexualINTegrITYINhoWSoCIal NeTWorKSuTIlIzeTheDaTaWegIveThem

IBM estimates that every day the world produces 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data. That is a billion, billion. While it is incredibly frustrating for businesses to wade through, manage and make sense of this ocean of ever-expanding data, there is also a tremendous opportunity for individuals and companies. A 2011 report by the McKinsey Global Institute projected that the United States requires 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with deep analytical expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers to work in fields such as politics, sports, advertising, healthcare and science as businesses move towards data-driven discovery and decision making.

There are several examples of companies making decisions based on sophisticated data analyses. A retailer such as Wal-Mart analyzes sales, pricing, economic, demographic and weather data to determine the range of products that should be availalbe at a particular store and when to offer discounts. In the case of public safety, police departments use various data points on weather, payday, sporting events and arrest patterns to predict crime hot spots and deploy police in advance. In healthcare, increases in Google search requests for ‘flu symptoms’ and ‘flu treatments’ indicate an increase in flu patients that will visit hospitals. In economics, house-related searches on Google are a more accurate predictor of house sales for the upcoming quarter than forecasts of real estate economists.

There is, however, a troubling aspect to all this: who owns my data? What rights do I have over it? Can I determine how it is used? Do I have a right to earn money from my data if other companies can earn money from it?

People have very little information on how their information is shared. Of course there are user agreements, but how opaque or transparent are these? Also, how many people read each line and understand the consequences of what they agree to? Privacy policies and fairer information practices are inadequate because these assume that users understand all the details and implications. Public reactions to changes in Facebook’s privacy policies are a realization of what we as users have signed away. But how many other social networks and websites receive full rights and access to use their users’ data? Facebook is merely the most common one that gets the most coverage.

The biggest concern, from my perspective, is the lack of contextual integrity, an argument postulated by Helen Nissenbaum. She argues that online services share information in ways that violate social norms. In the case of Facebook, I cannot control where the information I share with a friend or a specific group ends up. In the case of Google searches, I do not know whom that information is sold to or how they choose to utilize it, except when I have furniture advertisements following me for weeks after

I google ‘furniture’.One area recently where this has been a cause of concern is

the discussions within the US Democrat party about whether to sell voters’ political opinions. Obama’s two presidential election victories have partly been due to a deep understanding of voter information and the utilization of various media. His election team relied not just on publicly available voter data – name, address, party affiliation – but party volunteers also collected information on their views and preferences. This enabled the Democrat party to estimate how likely a voter is to vote Democrat, support Obama, or what opinions they have on gun control or tax rates.

It is possible for the Democrat party to contemplate this because individual states have different laws about how voter data is used; some mandate that it can only be used for political purposes and others ban using it for commercial purposes. However, information that is freely provided by the voter is not subject to any mandate,


of data flows and bartering practices by companies they share their information with, opt-ins as part of privacy agreements, or the ability for users to sell their data to advertisers. There are a number of companies offering this service already, such as Eliken, BlueKai and eXelate. The evolution of such services may be the most likely method of solving privacy concerns while maintaining contextual integrity of a user’s data.

ReferencesBeckett, Lois. “Will Democrats Sell Your Political Opinions to Credit Card

Companies?” Salon, 06 Feb 2013.

“Big data: The Next Frontier for Competition.” McKinsey & Company.

Bruder, Jessica. “What if Web Users Could Sell Their Own Data?” The New

York Times, 02 Oct 2012.

Lohr, Steve. “The Age of Big Data.” The New York Times Sunday Review. The

New York Times, 11 Feb 2012.

Milian, Mark. “Data Bartering Is Everywhere.” Bloomberg Businessweek

Bloomberg, 15 Nov 2012.

McKee, Steve. “Big Data Can Make a Big Difference in Marketing.”

Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, 14 Sep 2012.

Nissenbaum, Helen. “A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online.” Dædalus,

the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. (2011): 32-48.

Functionality vs. Aesthetics in DesignWhen analysing the

importance of functionality

and aesthetics in design,

we notice that it is the

context that determines

which of the two takes

a dominant role in a

particular instance. But

in the larger picture both

need to complement and

balance each other.

by Anindya KunduPhoto Credit: Made in Design

the undercurrents of society. However, art can also have a hidden function, as it often helps to educate people about nature or philosophy, and fulfils the emotional and spiritual needs of human beings.

Form plays a key role in both art and design. In design, form complements usability by adding aesthetic appeal, which helps to motivate the user to use the product. Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of Frog Design, sates that form should follow emotion rather than function or we can end up with products or architecture that neither relate to people nor the context. Hence we meet a paradox of form and function. Aesthetics and functionality become intertwined and interdependent of each other as in the case of the Buddhist Yin-Yang symbol.

In the debate of form versus function, the latter can be equated with the aggressive

Broadly, design can be defined as a process in which form meets function. It is about planning or configuring from the initial stages of an idea ultimately leading to a solution to a problem. Problems can range from simple ones such as communicating about an event through the design of an event poster to ones as complex as designing a concept to solve urban transportation problems and pollution.

By its very definition, design is geared towards functionality. It is always meant to serve a purpose. On the other hand, art is predominantly defined by aesthetics and by notions of beauty. Some schools of thought have even branded art to serve no other purpose.

Various pure forms of art such as painting, poetry or music are significantly devoted to self expression and to mirror

suggesting that the Democrat party can sell it to retailers, marketing agencies and credit card companies.

This shows how little information people have about how their data is used. It is an issue of contextual integrity. I share my political opinions as a means of supporting a political party. I do not expect that six months later I will receive marketing material and offers for a specific retailer based on the type of political views I hold. Irrespective of legal impediments, there is a breach of trust that has deeper implications for collecting such politically crucial information in the future.

The flow of data from one organization to another makes it incredibly difficult to determine, restrict or limit where it will end up. A new trend called data bartering will make this even more troublesome. Companies exchange their databases, often at no cost. Businessweek discussed the case of Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app in which drivers share real-time traffic and road information. In order to break quickly into the Brazilian market, they traded traffic, roadwork and collision data they would collect via their app for geographical mapping information from Multispectral.

A similar case is that of Factual, a company that maintains a database of restaurants and retailers in the US. Businessweek notes that Facebook, Groupon and Yelp provide user-contributed information on retailers to Factual’s database. Any company that wants to access this information typically has to pay, but they can receive discounts by trading relevant information with Factual. For larger companies access to the database can even be free.

Another major trend emerging is wearable technology that measures different aspects of a user’s health and fitness. The Basis watch measures sleep patterns, heart rate, distance walked and calories burned, amongst other things. For exercise enthusiasts these figures are very informative, but once the watch or wristband, in the case of Amiigo, is connected to a computer and the data is transferred to your account for you to view a record of your exercise, health and sleep, who owns that data? Who else would be interested in that data? What can a company similar to Basis do with the information? With whom can it be bartered? As someone who is very physically active, were they to trade or sell my data there would be many interested sports manufacturers and insurance companies to buy it. While this may benefit me, it breaches my trust with the provider as there is no contextual integrity about where my data flows.

If data bartering is restricted to location data, there may be little harm. However, if it includes bartering thousands of users’ personal data, opinions and medical information it becomes problematic. There is no way of ensuring the contextual integrity of a person’s data. One’s perspective may change if users have control over how their data is used. This could be partly through greater clarity

Campaigns


Soviet Architecture

Automated Teller Machines

Packaged Drinking Water

SatelliteDishes

Individual Banana Packaging

Indian Rail Website

Indian Highway Trucks

Eames Chair and Ottoman

Christian Bird’sCeramic knife

Thonet wooden bicycle

High Speed Trains

iPad

Ancient Greek Vase

Ferrari

Book of Kells

Aesthetics

Egyptian Jewellery

Philippe Starck Juicer

Functionality


Typography has become more defined and functional


Typography has become more defined and functionalTypography has become more defined and functional

Typography has become more defined and functionalTypography has become more defined and functional



notable example is the ‘Book of Kells’ produced in the late 6th to 9th centuries, which was adorned with intricately detailed artwork.

With the development of techniques such as wood block printing, new designs evolved. Typography became more defined and functional. Limited by the technique, minimalistic black and white wood-cut prints and the limited colour but exquisitely detailed Japanese wood block prints evolved. With modern laser printing, highly sophisticated printing methods, high resolution digital photography, and computer based image processing software such as Photoshop, CorelDraw, Illustrator or InDesign, almost anything can be achieved by modern print designers. So while technology has made many aspects of the design process more standardized and methodical, designers are also completely liberated by the freedom offered from the incredible amount of parameters in their control: colours, textures and accuracy.

Interactive screen devices are becoming increasingly popular and print has become more personalized and exclusive. Hence, there is an explosion in the field of user-interface design because of their interactive nature, dynamism and responsiveness. Also, it is highly likely that even the screen will disappear as we enter the new era of holographic augmented reality. Currently, UI design is restricted by the display and interaction capabilities of devices. While designing a web based app for a tablet, a designer is limited by the resolution, aspect ratios and limitations of the touch functionalities. Hence functionality geared towards a smoother user experience is fundamental to the design process. But in the future when such limitations will disappear, it is highly likely that aesthetics will be at the forefront.

Moreover, this is not unexpected. A look into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clears the picture. The lower order needs

masculine energy or the starting point of design. The former, however, is related to aesthetics and is similar to feminine energy which is accepting and imparts beauty and grace. While we aim to strike a fine balance between the two, there are contexts in which either can play a more dominant role. Graphic design, for instance, is related more to commercial art and has tremendous scope for aesthetics to take the lead when space is not a constraint. However, in user-interface design, while developing an interface for a computer or handheld device, functionality becomes a priority because of the limitations posed by the interface. Similarly in case of automotive design, functionality is dominant when creating affordable public transport, while designing luxury sports cars aesthetics can be at the forefront.

History grants us evidence and existing patterns in relation to this. In ancient civilizations wealth and power were limited to a privileged few. Aesthetics played a major role in design. The architecture of palaces, the furniture and other implements designed for the royalty, priests or temple idols were often elaborately decorative. A look at the ornately carved Indian temples, artefacts found with Egyptian mummies or the remnants of Mayan civilization indicate this. With the advent modern thinking and more equitable society, there was a shift towards more functional objects. Most mass produced items consumed by people today can be called more ‘functional’ than ‘aesthetic’.

Technology aids this mass production, and design is intimately related to technology. With every step ahead in technology, corresponding design in that particular medium has furthered it to move ahead in leaps and bounds. The evolution of books illustrates this. Before the advent of printing, every manuscript had to be tediously handwritten and required elaborate hand-drawn illustrations. A

can be loosely correlated to functionality, the higher order needs are associated to aesthetics. The world is battling it out for basic needs such as food, shelter, health and basic human rights, there is also the need for status, esteem and luxury. Similarly, both aesthetics and functionality are ingrained in design. Both remain prevalent, but for the future we can only hope for a more harmonious balance.

ReferencesEsslinger, Hartmut. Advice For Designers. 2013

Video.

“Yin and Yang,” Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia.

Cherry, Kendra. “Hierarch of Needs.” About.com

Psychology.

Poster Credit: Jancso Aron


Social media has realized the power of advocate marketing. Most brands have a huge untapped resource in the form of delighted customers. These are advocates, the tireless promoters that believe in your company, evangelize your products and share their positive experiences. No one sells your products better than they do. But are you tapping their potential?

Smart marketers invite their best customers to join advocate communities and participate in marketing and sales campaigns around social media, generate demands, conduct events and provide sales references.

Brand advocates bring in more than just word of mouth. They will recommend your company and products because they have had a fantastic experience and want to help others. However, the key challenges for a brand trying to leverage advocates include

The Powerof Advocate Marketing

Advocacy has become an

increasingly important

pursuit and objective for

marketing as it becomes

imperative for marketers

to understand how brands

are being discussed by

consumers.

by Ann BurgraffPhoto Credit: idovermani

recognising advocates, encouraging them to promote your brand, and sustaining this relationship.

In my opinion, Jim Williams, VP Marketing at Influitive denotes the significant impact of brand advocacy in his article “Capital, not Cash: How to Appropriately Recognize Your Advocates.”

Brand advocates become enthusiasts for a few innate reasons, one of them being the rule of reciprocity. At the start it’s pretty simple: advocates are fulfilled by the appreciation they have for something a brand does or makes. In return, they provide unsolicited support for that brand.But the exchange doesn’t stop there – the rule of reciprocity evolves. Over time, support turns into loyalty. Loyalty turns into advocacy. And as customers increase their level of commitment, they expect a corresponding increase in recognition

Fred Bals is the Media and Customer Relations Manager at Ektron, an Enterprise Digital Content Experience Management software company. The Challenge Fred needed a new level of energy and excitement at Ektron’s annual SYNERGY Customer Conference. He wanted to tap into his customers’ love for Ektron.The Plan Fred created a community using Influitive’s Advocate Hub through which customers and partners could easily advocate for Ektron.

The Result Fred built a program that:• Crowdsourced 40+ customer-generated videos for the opening keynote address• Captured dozens of hours of customer interviews during the conference• Generated a tidal wave of speaker submissions for conference tracks - 90% of tracks were customer-generated content• Gained a 500 percent increase in award submissions

Customers were highly involved. Many became stronger advocates and the conference was a huge success. A

Ektron Embraces Advocate Marketing Case Study

from the brand.Here’s where it gets a little tricky,

because appropriate recognition requires a bit of finesse. In other words: you can’t just pay people for liking you.

As Biggie Says: Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems Most of us do things for one of two reasons: business or pleasure–a.k.a. money or fun. Yet in the world of advocate marketing, combining the two is problematic; getting paid to do something fun takes all the fun out of it.Consequently, incentivizing has become a bit of a taboo when it comes to advocate marketing because it can result in some unintended and unsavory consequences:

Great Expectations Exchanging monetary value for promotion conditions consumers to expect something in return for their advocacy. If and when you fail to meet those expectations, their level of

appreciation can suddenly drop.Inauthenticity Paying for a

recommendation immediately compromises the value of the recommendation and the reputation of the recommender. Advocates aren’t shills. They pride themselves on their independence and authenticity.

Greedy Spammers When consumers talk up a company because they have their eye on a prize, it becomes pretty obvious to third parties. They overfill Facebook feeds, Twitter feeds and product review sites, effectively cheapening their recommendations and likely peeving a follower or two.

Recognize and Thank Reciprocity is about giving back, so make sure you’re recognizing the people who have already displayed solid support for your brand and not those who simply like you on social platforms, for example. Understand the

difference between recognition and reward. Advocates should not be made to feel like they’re being paid for their support; rather, they should feel like the brand is genuinely and personally thanking them.

ReferencesWilliams, Jim. “Capital, not Cash: How to

Appropriately Recognize Your Advocates.”

Influitive. 29 Mar 2013.

“Advocate Marketing Case Study: Ektron.” 22

Jan 2013. Influitive, Online Posting to SlideShare.

video montage, “I am Ektron,” was shown during the opening of the conference. No recruiting was needed. Over Forty customer-generated videos were easily put into a compelling montage.

Fred was able to mobilize attendees at the conference to create “one great song” to be played during conference breaks. He also captured hours of customer insights on a video that can be leveraged for future marketing, sales and product development purposes.

Campaigns


LIFEHUBTHE END

OF GADGET CLUTTER

Say goodbye to eight space and resource

consuming devices that have to be

individually purchased, used, managed,

and cared for. Say goodbye to syncing, wires,

chargers and misplacing important things.

Say hello to LifeHub by Lucid Design.

by Amit Mirchandani & Nithin AnthonyPhoto Credits: Lucid Design India Pvt. Ltd. www.lucid.co.in

Model: Lock Weng Po

Product Feature


LifeHub is a Watch:You wear it on your wrist. Memory polymer and a bendable O-led screen create a stylish and secure bracelet that lets you tell the time, read important messages, see the weather and listen to your music.

LifeHub is a Smartphone:You can bend the bracelet into a candy bar where the simplest of interfaces, built with clear icons and bold colors, gives you all the functionality you expect from a Smartphone. You can make and take calls. You can also make video calls by bending just the bottom half of the device and setting it on a surface. Your apps, contacts, messages, email, games, media, and feeds greet you in high definition and with stereo sound.

LifeHub is a Headset:Two discreet Bluetooth earpieces with microphones are secured in the device and have to be snapped off to use as a headset. While snapped in, they function as an earpiece + microphone or external stereo speakers when activated.

LifeHub is a Key:A password protected programmable key pops out the side of the device. Physical locks enabled with LifeHub access, can be locked or unlocked. The key also acts as a data transfer device.

LifeHub is a Wallet:Credit card and debit card data from several cards can be stored on the device with password protection, and used as desired by instantly programming the key when making a purchase or withdrawing money.

LifeHub is a Speaker:Docking the device into the base opens a host of additional features such as portable audio speakers with rich bass. The

device is also automatically backed up when docked.

LifeHub is a Projector:Motion controlled in both flat and tilted positions, all your videos can be projected on an open wall or

ceiling. You can also use it to make a presentation at work, or have an extremely large video call!

LifeHub is a Companion:On your bedside or on your desk, LifeHub is recharged on a charging pad (featuring the only wire it’ll need to draw power from the mains). It can be your alarm clock, notepad, game center, message panel and weather station. It can even play you Internet radio.

EIGHT THINGS ROLLED INTO ONE


LIFEHUBTHE END

OF GADGET CLUTTER

Design: Lucid Design India Pvt. Ltd.

www.lucid.co.in

Design Director: Amit Mirchandani

Product Designer: Nithin Anthony

Model: Lock Weng Po

1: Key

4: Docked in Base3: Video Call Mode

2: Portable Base & Charging Pad

5: Base angled up & Projector Open

7: Projector Mode6: Rotating Projector


Divide and Rule: Tactics to grow conversion rates

Segmenting conversion rates enables

e-commerce sites to track their most

valuable visitors and can enhance the type

of conversion that is most relevant and

important to their businesses.

by Pavan SudarshanPhoto Credit: Digg.com

Commerce

24


3

2

1

neither representative nor actionable. On this basis, seven conversion rates have been identified that

are a lot more granular. Each of these uncovers a specific problem and allows you to come up with solutions.

Checkout ConversionThis conversion focuses on monitoring the “checkout initiated”

to “checkout completed” conversion. Visitors who initiate the checkout process have most likely found

what they want to buy and have already made a decision to buy. Losing a visitor who has initiated a checkout is the closest you come to losing a real customer. It is necessary to understand what influences abandoning a checkout. Typically visitors abandon a checkout because of hidden shipping charges, fear of being cheated in delivery, payment gateways that they do not trust, the site is slow while talking to third party systems, etc. Assuring your visitors along the way about payments, having secure modes and channels and efficient shipping help alleviate this fear and get them to convert.

Cart Recovery ConversionThis conversion focuses on how many abandoned carts were

recovered. Adding an item to the cart is a form of expressing interest in a

product. If a visitor leaves the site with a cart and never returns, or comes back but does not complete the checkout process, it is important to try and recover the visitor’s cart. Offering better prices and deals, availability, shipping charges and selection range contribute to effective recovery of carts and decrease the cart abandonment rate your site has been experiencing. Reminding returning visitors about an existing cart or offering people an incentive such as a coupon or free shipping to start their checkout process can be very useful. For SDS Market in the US, targeted promotion has been instrumental in recovering and in fact preventing cart abandonments.

Brand ConversionThis conversion focuses on how many visitors who searched for

your brand resulted in buying from your site. Improving this rate helps you reduce the cost to acquire customers.

Visitors who land on your page after searching for your brand are valuable. They are the ones who are aware of your brand. Once you have a steady stream of traffic it is important for you to start establishing your brand identity. Improving credibility is one way to retain these shoppers. It is for these sets of shopper that you must take up brand building exercises in order to give them a sense of being a great platform to buy from and where they are highly unlikely to have a bad experience. A great design, an

MMost leading e-commerce stores generate a steady stream of traffic from paid as well as organic sources. Search Engine Optimization, content marketing, affiliates, online marketplaces are few among the many tried and tested solutions to generate traffic to one’s store. However, one problem that remains is the number of visitors who end up buying is still very low. Conversion rate, one of the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of e-commerce businesses, is too low. According to the Internet Retailer, the overall conversion rate lingers depressingly somewhere between 2 percent to 3 percent.

Given that conversion is vital to e-commerce sites, this article explores the causes of low conversion rates, the possible factors responsible, and what are the different ways in which conversion rates can be improved.

An overall conversion rate implicitly treats all visitors identical, i.e. each visitor has the same likelihood of buying from your store on every visit. Even common sense suggests that this is most likely not true. Most people do not buy something the first time they see it.

Alex Brown, who has been teaching internet marketing since 1997, talks about six phases in the buying cycle: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, purchase and post-purchase evaluation.

These phases are indicative of the fact that visitors are on your site for different reasons. Each time they visit, they may be in a different phase of buying. By not catering to these visitors’ needs and only optimizing the selling phase affects conversions. Along the different buying phases several measures and steps to engage visitors ensure conversion.

Overall conversion rate is an aggregate data point. It is a single number that represents all the visitors and customers on your store. Web analytics expert, Avinash Kaushik, elaborates on the problems with aggregate data, what to avoid in KPIs and the need for segmenting. He opines that measuring conversion rate without a goal is not very effective. For example, if a store’s current conversion rate is 1.5 percent and is aiming to double it and make it 3 percent. The number alone does not indicate anything. 1.5 percent can be great or pathetic. Increasing it to 3 percent can be a piece of cake or a walk in the desert. There is just no way to tell without understanding a lot of other things, such as merchandize issues, offers, lengthy process, shipping costs, etc. Improving conversion rates thus begins by identifying a specific problem and fixing a goal you want to reach. It is segments of data that need to be monitored in terms of the different problems faced and the different sets of actions required for each one. Approaching an overall conversion rate improvement without understanding important details is definitely not actionable. It is the most important metric that every serious store monitors, but is

54

easy and noteworthy experience on the site and being consumer-friendly are factors that influence buying. By keeping a track of sources through which you receive the highest amount of traffic will help you determine what your next step should be.

Organic ConversionThis conversion focuses on how many visitors who arrive on you

site from organic sources convert to consumers. Organic traffic is great. It is the indicator that show that your

attempts at SEO, brand building, content marketing, referrals and social media are all working for you. Catering to this traffic helps reinforce the brand and spread the word about your store. While organic visitors should be treated like any other new visitor on your store, they are important in spreading word about your store.

Exalt them with a great service, on-time delivery and handling their returns well. Leverage social media effectively to get these visitors to talk about you and in turn increase your organic traffic. Data analytic tools are the most effective method to acquire the data you need in order to estimate the sources of organic traffic on your site. This helps to determine how to evolve your site and focus on the sources that brought you highest amount of traffic.

New Visitor ConversionThis conversion focuses on how many new visitors buy on your

site. Improving this helps determine how relevant the landing pages are and how good the traffic sources are in providing qualified leads.

Photo CreditsTop: JohanLBottom: Seattle’s Big Blog


7

6

New visitors represent new opportunities. These visitors may not know what your store has to offer, but figuring out what you want to show based on the channel, keyword, source and campaign may result in converting your first time visitors into customers. Relevance is the key to improve new visitor conversion. Landing page optimization, A/B testing and content are the tools to grab attention of new visitors. An extra layer of personalization can come in the form of good product suggestions and ads. For example, IndianStage shows ads for plays that are running in theaters in the city that a visitor is landing from. Not only has this made their site more relevant, their visitors now do not have to do an extra step of searching for plays from their cities. It is a simple step, but very effective.

Repeat Customer ConversionThis conversion focuses on figuring out how many returning

customers purchase again from the site. The goal is to increase the lifetime value of a customer and for

any serious e-commerce business this remains a primary goal. To increase lifetime value one needs to understand that it is not about conversion alone on the first purchase, but getting repeat orders from a customer. To do that, you need to meaningfully engage with them. Instead of sending a lot of emails to engage with the customer, sending what could be useful information will help nurture your customers. Email campaigns reminding customers about accessories for a product they bought, such as batteries or lenses after a camera purchase, suggesting a pair of red earrings to go with that red dress a customer bought recently, understanding the age of a baby based on the size of the diaper purchases and then doing age-based email campaigns - there are many ways to engage with returning customers and giving them relevant information. To identify who is a returning customer you need to use tools that analyze profiles at granular levels, such as KissMetrics, MixPanel and NudgeSpot rather than aggregate analytics tools.

Unique Visitor to Customer ConversionThis conversion focuses on figuring out how many unique

visitors become customers.Visitors may visit your store multiple times before buying

something. Instead of focusing on visits, determining how many unique visitors buy is useful in understanding the quality of your traffic sources.

One problem with focusing on granular, micro conversions is that you may lose sight of why you are doing any of this. It is still important to understand what your overall conversion rates are and compare them to previous rates. Using focused conversion

does not mean you throw away overall conversion rate. Instead, you should use these granular conversions as an implementation detail to improving your overall conversion. This means that if you want to go from an overall conversion of 1.5 percent to 3 percent, you use these other conversion rates so that you can pinpoint where you are not performing well and start improving.

ReferencesKaushik, Avinash. “Web Analytics Segmentation: Do Or Die, There Is No

Try!” Occam’s Razor. 18 May 2010.

Demery, Paul. “Retailers plan to spend more on text ads this year.” Internet

Retailer. 12 May 2011.

Rueter, Thad. “A conversion boost for online retailers.” Internet Retailer. 13

Sep 2011.

Brown, Alex. “Stages of the Consumer Buying Process.” udel.edu.

Redbord, Michael. “How to Leverage the 5 Stages of the Customer Buying

Cycle for More Sales.”HubSpot. HubSpot, Inc., 06 Jul 2011.

Convenience, availability and value for money are the key reasons the e-commerce industry is thriving. The business model of e-commerce firms, especially leading ones such as Amazon, Ebay, Walmart and Sears Holding Corp., come with potential advantages in their operations. Although digital capabilities have grown strongly, the e-commerce industry can identify and learn strategies from other industries that fit best. Sometimes (and sometimes not) online stores need to mirror offline stores. So while we have considered that for both online and offline different business models and approaches are required, trends indicate that both have been learning from each other and implementing these learnings in their own contexts to maximise profits. As Gianfranco Casati puts it, “E-commerce is an evolution, not a revolution.” Strategies of offline

industries can be implemented to help the e-commerce industry overcome its virtual challenges by integrating new concepts with conventional business ideas.

SupermarketsIt is no hidden fact that the layout of a

supermarket is structured to maximise profit through the way a customer moves, stops, sees, smells and thinks. Giving optimal positions to products with the highest profit margins and grouping complimentary products together to persuade users to buy more are all a part of the up-selling strategies a supermarket offers. In supermarkets up-selling at the cash counter is one way of getting people to buy more and e-commerce majors can adopt this. The limitation in the supermarket is the seller does not have as much data to sell something that the

Learn to Imitiate; Imitate to Learn

consumer will eventually buy, but this is a possibility in virtual stores where there is plenty of data and suggestions to purchase a related product can work wonders. Another principle that works is the “feel-good” factor. While completing a purchase we feel good about ourselves and buying something for oneself makes one feel good. Since shopping makes people feel good, this happiness is furthered by up-selling. It makes one feel good to have “bought more and thus saved more.” This is why supermarkets keep candies, chocolates, chewing-gums, and other small items at the cash counter. Amazon’s up-selling strategy has been lauded by most marketing experts. It would be a profitable move for other online shopping platforms to up-sell. As Fiona Low puts it, “The concept of positioning complimentary items next to each other can work incredibly

E-commerce may have

evolved into a more radical

industry. However, the

type of transformation that

the e-commerce industry

requires today to an extent

lies in the strategies of

business models of other

industries.

by Vandana U.Photo Credit: Artificialproduction

Commerce


well for e-commerce sites. In the same way a supermarket shopper buying flour to bake a cake needs eggs and sugar, an online customer buying a dress can also be cross sold the shoes and accessories they need to make a complete outfit.” There is a lot that e-commerce can take from a supermarket’s persuasive manner of making shoppers not only buy, but make them as regular online shoppers.

AirlinesIn his January 2013 article in

FastCompany, Jeff Katz explicates how the future functioning of e-commerce will be similar to that of the airlines industry. Shannon Warner and Samrat Sen point out the common factors that influence

people in online retail and an airline program. In both people look for the best deal. Comparisons, coupons, inputs from friends and frequent shoppers and flyers contribute towards decisions. Price remains the most significant factor and perhaps no other industry has realised this better than the airline industry. It is common for people to switch different airlines to save money despite robust loyalty programs of airlines are so robust. Realizing this, over nearly three decades, the industry has managed to keep track, manage and thereby provide great prices coupled with great services. Katz brings to our notice that such unflinching efforts have contributed to their revenues for thirty years and this is the cue e-retailers

must take. In social commerce an entire experience is what helps sell best. Therefore people are likely to remember the name of the site they purchased from only if they have found value for money. He suggests retailers go customer-centric and similarly use data the way airlines do, to provide people richer experiences. By applying predictive analytics, retailers can understand varying needs of customers, determine the impact of factors such as price, product positioning or staff skills, economic indicators, competition and customer demographics. This transforms mass social commerce into personalized commerce that is targeted and relevant. Adopting customer-centric methods is the best lesson from the airline industry that

online marketers can incorporate.

GamingThe gaming industry provids another

relevant guide for e-commerce to learn from. There are several reasons people get engrossed in games. What if e-commerce sites began to get such attention? This also means thinking beyond game theory, game elements and gamification. What if e-commerce were to think as gamers? By asking this question analytics expert Brian Smith opens the possibilities of using metrics just the way the gaming industry does in order to understand fans. He opines that gamers’ use of cohorts, engagement and retention, and event timelines, are what drive the success of

games such as Farmville, The Godfather and The Sims Social, and predicts that these will start to blend into general web metrics. The gaming industry is purely fan based and it designs games that are going to be targeted not at the lowest common factor but fans who really play the game. It has cutting edge analytics to track all actions. Every action in a game is an event. He describes how gaming companies keep a track of every action and based on that they log and analyze these actions to determine how to improve engagement, retention, and monetization. His view is that these metrics will drive ecommerce growth in the coming years. However, for that to happen e-commerce companies will need to move beyond

their obsession with driving traffic and improving conversion and begin to rely on cohorts and other metrics to find what important actions result in other actions.

Strategies of offline industries can be implemented to help the e-commerce

industry overcome its virtual challenges by integrating new concepts with conventional

business ideas. Photo Credits: Top: Julizan H

Bottom: Vox Efx

ReferencesSmith, Brian. “The New Ecommerce Metrics:

What Etailers Can Learn from Gaming

Companies.” Kontagent. 29 Nov 2012.

Carmichael, Stephanie. “Video game

e-commerce: It’s about serving the fans

venturebeat.com, 19 Nov 2012.

Casati, Gianfranco. Interview by Rohit Nautiyal.

“E-commerce is an evolution, not a revolution.”

Business Standard. 24 Mar 2013.

Warner, Shannon, and Samrat Sen. “How

Predictive Analytics Elevate Airlines’ Customer

Centricity, Driving Competitive Advantage.”

Cognizant.

Heath, Dianne. “Panda Changed Affiliate

Marketing, What eCommerce Websites Can

Learn From Stores to Recover.” Analyst District,

28 Mar 2012.

K, Carol. “What Your Local Supermarket Knows

About Upselling That You Don’t.” Small Biz

Diamonds. 12 Jun 2012.

Katz, Jeff. “Fasten Your Seatbelts: The Future Of

Shopping Looks A Lot Like Airline Travel.” Fast

Company. 31 Jan 2013.


Can do. Will do. Still do.

Persuasion, Emotion and Trust take designing

beyond usability to building deeper relationships

with customers. They enable brands to understand

what triggers customers to respond and make

purchase decisions.

by Saurabh GuptaPhoto Credit: Apdk

India is witnessing an e-commerce boom. Undoubtedly, adapting to several platforms, whether it is the web, Android, iOS or other mobile platforms, has resulted in increased sales. But the question remains whether the usability of web and mobile channels are going to be enough to win the battle for elevated customer attention, acquisition, interaction, and loyalty? The answer is definitely in the negative unless it is realized that design in the information and digital age is all about designing for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust (PET design™). E-commerce stores used to be clones of brick and mortar stores. However, issues of usability and navigation have been tackled by the most primitive of e-commerce platforms. But beyond usability, the need of the hour is to spruce up the overall user experience. The online experience must be enticing, besides being easy and satisfying. It has to be the kind that makes consumers feel engaged and ultimately committed.

Commerce

32


Rule of Reciprocity

In the 1970s, the Disabled American Veterans, while soliciting donations, decided to send potential donors personalized labels in a mail. They told people to keep the labels even if they did not make a donation. The result of this strategy indicated an increase in the number of people who made contributions, which nearly doubled—jumping from 18 percent to 35 percent. Made popular by Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” the rule of reciprocity is about the deeply ingrained human instinct to repay a debt. If someone gives something to us, we feel obliged to repay that debt. This rule operates not only with familiar people, but also with strangers. Be it refreshments served in a store while shopping or an offer, the underlying assumption with this rule is that it nudges people to purchase.

Once it has been made usable, a web or mobile channel needs to persuade clients to transact or convert.

It is this step of persuasion that PET design is primarily concerned with. A usability engineer can make it easy for a person to purchase insurance online. But the need for insurance is not the lone reason for a person to buy the policy; a dominating factor is the persuasive nature of the site. Several methods and tools for persuasion are implemented ranging from selling a value, making an emotional statement to the extent of making one feel frightened and insecure about what could happen to their family if they did not buy insurance.

There is an exhaustive list of persuasive techniques to choose from when designing for PET, but here are seven principles that can make web and mobile channels more engaging and influential. These principles can not only answer what solutions can be implemented immediately, but also lay foundation for future strategies that will work in the long run. Also, significance has to be given to the context of the products and services, the objective and the emotional drives and blocks of your target audience. There are key questions every e-commerce platform should answer to understand the contexts before any of these principles are implemented: 1. Can do

• Can users find the information they’re looking for?

• Can they find the button they need to press?

2. Will do• They can find the button, but will they

press it?• They can find the information, but will

they act on it?3. Still do

• Will they come back?• Will they be loyal?

These principles work on the assumption that high level of engagement 1

is necessary for people to associate with a brand. It must be taken into consideration that although people can do something does not mean they are bound to do those actions. The future of design is about creating engagement and commitment to meet measurable business goals. It is therefore a necessity to understand in depth the subtle and emotional triggers through different sets of practices.

ReferencesSchaffer, Eric. Dr, perf. “Beyond Usability:

Usability is No Longer Enough.” Human Factors

International, Inc. 2008.

Weinschenk, Susan. Dr, perf. “7 principles that

make your website more engaging.” Human

Factors International, Inc., 2011.

Amabile, Teresa M, and Steven J Kramer. The

Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite

Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work. USA:

Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.

2

We Love to get More of Anything

In a coffee shop there were two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offered thirty-three percent extra in the regular cup of coffee. The second took thirty-three percent off the regular price. If we were to analyze which deal was better, both would seemingly be equal. However, it is not so. People would tend to go for the first deal because we do not use math to arrive at the decision, but use emotional math. In this case getting something extra “for free” feels better than getting the same for less.

Scarcity

As a corollary to the previous principle of wanting more, if something is unavailable or is scarce, it is perceived as more valuable. Therefore, on a website when notifications are provided such as “only four more days to order your plane tickets,” or “only three items left,” these notification act as triggers and signals to the brain to fasten the process of buying and induces a fear of losing out on something. The human brain is sensitive to messages that have to do with losing. Fear of loss is a trigger that causes people to take action.

It is not Always Best to be First

Research shows that people are less likely to choose the highest rated option in a quality ranking when it appears first on the list. People tend to gravitate toward choices in the middle. When given an array of five options, they tend to choose the fourth one, especially when the choices are presented side by side. The middle position has something inherently attractive to the human mind. As social creatures, the middle seems a good and safe place to be in comparison to being at the edge, towards the end or at the very beginning.


Conscious Minds are Very Sensitive to Food, Sex, Danger and Protection of Offspring

To get and hold the attention of humans and get them to act, you need to engage with their old brains. A major job of the brain is to keep us from harm. A threatening situation, even if unreal or happening to someone else, can cause the brain to set off an alarm, putting our information and emotional processing systems on high alert. This implies that anything that happens while we are on high alert will be processed through emotions and thereby will be deeply ingrained in memory. Marketers thus use images, references and related content of food, sex or danger in order to stimulate actions. This helps a viewer connect deeply and therefore one is bound to remember the product because of strong emotions attached to it.

765

Use the Power of Small Wins

According to Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer in the book The Progress Principle, of all things that can boost emotions, motivations, and perceptions, the single most important thing is the perception of making progress. The more frequently people experience a sense of progress, the more likely they are to be motivated in the long run. Whether it is an attempt to solve a major scientific mystery or simply fill out a form, even a small win can make a difference to how people feel and their next set of actions. Designers can use this to principle to leverage progress and motivate people to perform more actions. Popular networking site, LinkedIn efficiently uses the concept of progress to motivate people towards profile completeness. The design consists of a graph that indicates completeness of one’s profile, which would result in better opportunities. This ensures that every piece of information that is added to the profile is perceived as a small win.

Social Validation

When people are uncertain of what to buy or whether an offer is good enough, they look to others to decide what to do. This is why ratings, reviews and testimonials are powerful. The more information available through ratings and reviews, the more powerful and the more influential that rating and review is. Research even shows that reviews from other people, especially ones from peers are the most influential. Peer reviews are more influential than reviews or testimonials from experts or recommendations from the website itself. According to a survey of US internet users by online video review site EXPO, consumer reviews are significantly more trusted - nearly twelve times more than descriptions that come from manufacturers.

It is necessary to understand in depth the subtle and emotional

triggers that motivate

customers to buy.

Photo Credit: Kuba Bozanowski


Commerce with a Tap

It is estimated that around 300 million NFC enabled devices would be sold in 2013 and by 2015 this number would reach a whopping one billion.

Near Field Communication is the technology responsible for devices such as smartphones and tablets to communicate with nearby devices and objects with a simple tap.

Most new smart phones contain a chip that is capable of sending a radio wave that gets picked up by another NFC device or any object with an RFID tag. The tag, which is small enough to be attached to a product or an ad poster with a sticker, when tapped by a device like an NFC enabled phone can ask the device to open a link, download an app or a file make a payment. The best part about this communication is that it is secure.

Businesses have employed Near Field

Communication to bolster better experiences

and engagement, leading to a revolution in

commerce. NFC as a technology can make

real world commerce engagement more

sophisticated and personalized by making the

tap act as the equivalent of an online “click”.

by Kaushal Sarda

ReferencesBoden, Rian. “Hointer adds NFC to next generation store concept.” NFC

World. 06 Mar 2013.

Clark, Sarah. “London pub picks NFC for social media marketing.” NFC

World. 13 Feb 2013.

Deffree, Suzanne. “Near-field communications to go far in 2013.” EDN

Network. 07 Dec 2012.

Dyer, Karl. “Adspace to roll out NFC advertising in 140 US shopping

malls.” NFC World. 11 Mar 2013.

Tode, Chantal. “Kraft NFC pilot delivers 12 times the engagement level of

QR codes.” Mobile Commerce Daily. 18 Oct 2012.

Wheeler, Judd. “2013 Mobile Trends and Predictions.” The Mobilists. 22

Jan 2013.

There are three key advantages using of NFC for commerce and customer engagement: 1. NFC removes the friction that exists in engagement with the help of QR codes, as it requires one to load the app and scan the code before triggering the desired action 2. NFC enables businesses to leverage seamless connectivity of online to offline engagements 3. A tap is equivalent to a consumer’s expression of intent. This technology allows brands to serve a pre-crafted personal brand experience based on intent.

4. Adspace

Adspace Digital Mall Network added NFC capabilities to its video advertising displays in 140 US shopping malls. The new Adspace’s Smart Screens enabled advertisers to offer consumers an access to content downloads, web-based games, promotions and coupons, maps and social media integration by tapping or scanning the attached mTag placard on the side of the unit with their mobile phones.

1. Kraft

Kraft recently piloted an NFC program at select grocery stores. RFID chips that could be read by NFC-enabled smart phones were placed in signage on the shelves right in front of Kraft cheese and Nabisco cookie brands. The goal was to encourage consumers to tap their smart phones to access fun recipes, download the i-Food Assistant app or share their experiences on Facebook. The pilot campaign results showed that NFC “tap” engagement level was twelve times higher than for QR codes, which also appeared on the signs.

3. Hointer

The Seattle-based fashion retailer used NFC to move away from a traditional sales assistant-driven customer experience to a more rich, scalable, personal and engaging experience. Customers visiting the store tap a tag or scan a QR code on an item they wish to try, and then select the size using the Hointer application on their smartphones. They then wait for their items to automatically drop into a chute in the changing room from a robot-operated stockroom in under thirty seconds.

2. Public Houses

The Cavendish Arms pub in Stockwell, London, installed an NFC and QR codes based platform to promote the venue via social media. Customers could scan the QR codes or tap their NFC phones to tags located in the pub and connect through Facebook to pick up a special offer like a free drink. In turn, a message would be sent to their friends on Facebook and Twitter stating they are at the pub along with details on current events that night.

Commerce


Mining the FacebookFanbase

With vast amounts of data available

about shoppers and their networks

through Facebook, retailers are turning

towards a better understanding and

implementation of this data to create

opportunities for profit.

by Achintya GuptaIllustration inspiration: Bob Noorda for Pirelli, 1959

Communities


S long run you are engaging a very small set of fans today that you paid for.

The need of the hour is a tool that can extract information based on understanding and analyzing fans’ Facebook profiles, activities and relationships, with their permissions. The tool can be used to derive various forms of intelligence: interest, activities and social influence. This understanding of target market and consumers will have an outstanding impact on a social media campaign.

If a football club wants to leverage its one million Facebook fans, with such tools it can recognize its most diehard fans, gauge highest activity levels, sentiments and participations. They can reach these fans for their local, offline promotions and even give them inventories to host parties to boost ticket sales. Thus, the simple task of identifying the biggest brand evangelists from the crowd will help the brand generate immense word of mouth at low cost marketing. Similarly a business-to-business software brand can understand who their potential customers and buyers are based on the professional interests and workplaces of their Facebook fans.

Although the value that the aforementioned consumer intelligence layer adds to your online marketing efforts is huge, it is often intriguing how this customer intelligence layer should be built and on what level it should analyze or segment the community members.

There are many Facebook marketing tools in the market, such as 8th Bridge, Votigo, Crowdtwist, Booshaka and Kuliza’s Elevate, that provide customer analytics and Facebook fan intelligence. It is encouraging to see that many marketers and brands are willing to pay for such intelligence. Here is a list of six essentials your consumer intelligence tool should have for you to get a

Social media marketers invest significant sums of money to acquire thousands of fans to build their online community or Facebook fan base. Traditional social media marketing strategies dictate two common modes of gaining returns from such investments. One is having meaningful conversations with customers using status updates and comments. These, however, often go unnoticed by customers. If the edge rank of a post is not very high, which often depends on how relevant a post is to a fan, a big chunk of the fan base might never read these updates, leaving the very large fan base of no use.

The other tactic is to conduct Facebook contests and campaigns such as sweepstakes, photo contests and ideas contests. The problem with using such tactics is that they are relevant to certain sets of fans but are pure noise for the rest. An example of this is ‘#mcDStories’ campaign, in which a hashtag was created for fans to share their experiences at McDonald’s, but only resulted in negative chatter from sceptics.

The root cause of both the issues is that brands do not know or understand fans at all. Fans can be die-hard brand promoters, users, potential customers and even sceptics. They might have different levels of social influence within the community. Fans belong to different cultures, have different interests, opinions and preferences towards brands. Although you have targeted fans of certain interests and geographic location on your fanpage, they have different ways of tolerance to issues, have different levels of online or offline influence and have different social media behaviours. Treating customers uniformly with the same message or campaigns on a media that gives immense power to the customer is a waste of marketing efforts. You might be satisfied with the number of ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ you get today but in the

comprehensive picture of your Facebook fanbase.Loyalty Discovering your most loyal fans has huge payoffs.

Think of the many ways you can leverage an army of brand fanatics. Brand Ambassador Programs, offline word of mouth marketing events, meet-ups and franchising are just a few of them. It is important to ensure how your tool is deciding who is a loyal fan and who is not. One way is by understanding his engagement and activity level on the fan page. The most loyal fans will be the ones with heavy participation in form of content creation (forum posts, comments, photos or video uploads) or content curation (sharing, recommending or voting on the posts) and in general will have positive sentiments towards the brand.Influence Influencers play a major role in the virality of brand

messages. There are brands such as Dell that have made the mistakes of angering influencers like Jeff Jarvis, while Old Spice leveraged influential Twitter celebrities in their ‘Smell like a man’ campaign. Knowing influencers in your online community is hence very critical. Klout is one tool that does this. The other, but less effective, way is to understand their influence from their Facebook network data, which includes number of friends, shares, comments and likes on posts.Profile The profile data of your fan base is a small but important

part of your consumer analysis. Understanding location, hobbies and personal or professional interests of your fans can help a lot in your marketing. For example, if an online retail store is aware that a set of customers is interested in snow jackets or Metallica music, they can immediately target them on Facebook.

Themes Listening and understanding what your community is talking about is a great insight for any branded Facebook page or online community. Understanding ‘who’ is talking ‘what’ can help

Discovering your most loyal fans has huge

payoffs

Influencers play a huge role in the virality of brand

messages

Profile data of your fan base is

an important part of your consumer

analysis

Listening to and understanding from

your community provide great

insights

Your consumer intelligence tool should analyse relationships

among your fans

A CRM tool is essential to convert fans into customers or brand advocates

The Six Essentials of a Consumer Intelligence

Tool


intelligence tool is CRM, in which, intelligence gained on relevant fans can be fed into a database so that they can be effectively converted into customers or brand advocates.

All of the above activities are easier said than done. Collecting such information about consumers is subjective to their permissions, creation of appropriate applications to pull data, and plug-ins with other applications. Such a consumer intelligence tool can give a whole new direction to social media marketing efforts and help managers make more sense of their investments into acquiring Facebook fans or community members.

Data analytics is a very powerful field and advantages generated from the aforementioned capabilities are just the tip of the iceberg. A lot more can be achieved through analyses of information about consumer demographics, psychographics and past purchase patterns. For example, using data mining tools, an online retail store that knows its Facebook fans’ purchases from its store can predict purchase patterns using the available data. Target was able to predict the chances of its shoppers being pregnant based on their demographic and past purchases, although Target did not use Facebook.

With Facebook marketing efforts, marketers are sitting on a gold mine of data. It is only a matter of time that they start digging it too.

References“What is EdgeRank?” What is EdgeRank.com.

Duhigg, Charles. “How Companies Learn Your Secrets.” New York Times. 16

Feb 2012.

Hill, Kashmir. “#McDStories: When A Hashtag Becomes A Bashtag.” Forbes.

24 Jan 2012.

What should you know about your fans’ loyalty?

1. LoyaltyHow loyal is the Facebook fan to the brand?

2. InfluenceHow influential is the fan?

3. ProfileLocation, ethnicity, religion, interests

4. ThemesConversation topics

5. RelationsHow are people connected in the network?

6. CRMAdding relevants fans into a CRM database

How do you measure their activities and influence?

Activity levels on the page divided among degree of content creation and content curation

Central position on the brand page network; Klout score

Create customer segments

Sentiment analysis or keyword analysis

Analysis of the brand page network

Segmenting customers according to their personas: fan, critic, customer, lead, super user, etc.

brands identify potential leads, happy customers who will be willing to give testimonials, and unhappy customers who need attention or conversation topics your brand should address.

Relationships A lot of dynamics happen on a brand’s Facebook page. Many page members become Facebook friends due to interactions on the brand’s Facebook page and become a brand page’s fan because they saw their friends becoming a part of the community. It is imperative for your consumer intelligence tool to analyze these relationships since these determine who is more

likely to have an influence on the community. Members or fans who have social ties with a large number of other members or who bridge the gap between two different network groups are likely to play an important role. Many social network analysis tools such as NodeXL, Gephi, UCINET have the capability of analyzing ties in complex social networks

Customer Relationship Management Ultimately your social media marketing efforts should result in sales or brand building efforts. Hence the last capability I recommend for such a consumer


Fostering Communities

through Geolocation

Geolocation posits newer ways for people to network,

engage people beyond offering discounts and deals

based on check-ins. Location-based technologies have

the incredible potential to form and sustain meaningful

communities.

by Vandana U.

We are always looking out for places. Be

it the ones that are happening, the ones for a quiet holiday or the ones to buy. An immediate action is to check places friends have

been to, have given great reviews, have checked-in upon visiting a place and are raving about it.

The understanding of location based behaviour is simple: Every action is local! Shopping, hanging out and even taking part in community services: all actions happen within a certain radius. Brands and marketers have

already begun to work around their campaigns, their promotions and strategies based on such information broadcasting. They are maximizing the effectiveness of their social outreach by tailoring and targeting messages based on location. It would

not be exaggeration to state that almost every app and every site has embedded location. This spells an interesting convergence and divergence of spaces at the same time. While we wonder the world is only getting smaller, geolocation is widening spaces.

As marketers leverage location data to learn more about customers’ needs and offer highly personalized experiences that is where it gets limited to. The question is, “What after a tweet, a status update and a check-in?”

Considering actions tend to be mostly local, geolocation can be used beyond offering discounts and coupons. Apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla have incorporated game mechanics have recognized and continue to incentivize their most loyal brand advocates; all these are key

components of the experience. However, building a strong community is perhaps the next best thing to offer after recommending more places for people to visit based on the analyses of their profiles. After all developing any application or providing newer experiences all target the same thing- loyalty. Building a strong community presence is directly proportionate to having a loyal community of buyers who love to talk about their brands and willingly spread word of mouth. If there can be apps to find love then how far can it be to foster development of communities?Translating geolocation presence into community-building presenceThere is a value proposition to a person checking-in at a location of a particular brand. One is looking for great deal, expecting some form of social interaction or further information. Brands need to offer targeted value propositions to their customers, complemented by a meaningful and engaged community that people are attracted to being part of. Nextdoor is a geolocation service based on networking within neighbourhoods. What is appealing is Nextdoor’s attempt at making a self-

sufficient neighbourhood and promoting peaceful living. The app enables people to connect with nearby neighbourhoods, includes focus on creating a virtual neighbourhood watch to help fight crime in an area. Posts about a local break-in and other crime and safety issues

are among the top two categories of things the app does. One great thing about the app is that neighbourhoods are encouraged to create their own social networks. These are private and restricted to only those who live in the designated areas. There is a

verification process for users. Nextdoor CEO, Nirav Tolia talks about emerging behaviours, ones that go beyond finding great deals. These range from finding people to carpool, setting up a neighbourhood watch, borrowing something, finding

babysitters, creating classified ads, and discussing community issues amongst those umpteen things one can do within a neighbourhood. The app is now available in 8,000 neighbourhoods in all 50 states of USA. The

app goes on to prove the effectiveness of building a community of supporters and a clear benefit: the kind of relevance and support we seek when building or joining groups.

From this perspective what sounds cool and at the same time is realistic is a community of life-saving super heroes.

Turning intent into action,

Communities


PulsePoint app looks at creating a location based community of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and are willing to assist in case of an emergency. People are notified if someone nearby in a public place is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR. The most significant aspect of the app is encouraging more people to be trained in CPR and thereby be of assistance and aid in cases of medical emergencies. The free app also notifies about the exact location of the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED). The app was originally developed and tested by the San Ramon Valley, California, Fire Protection District. Reported cases and incidents go on to illustrate the usefulness of merging location and technologies. Mobile users have real-time access to emergency activity as it is occurring. By providing locations on an interactive map, the app also notifies whether the emergency has

caused a traffic tie-up so that people can plan an alternate route. The app hosts other sets of features and reported cases illustrate how this app has been successful so far in its public outreach. The app certainly changes perceptions about location-based apps being all about adding value to shopping alone. A mix of content, skills and location ultimately builds better connections than shallow endorsement based check-ins.

What is required in the current scenario is the reinforcement of a belief that adding location into a social network is not only for enhance social connections but also to leverage the power of these connections to achieve greater goals.

Engagement is the key word that drives social technologies. Building a community is perhaps the easier part. The real challenge is engaging the members of a community. More often people discuss problems in their areas and what better if

an app can help people fix these problems. SeedSpeak built an iPhone app that helps engage people to be more civic-minded. Residents can call attention the areas that need fixing by creating “seeds” and post photos and locate other seeds and users. The motivating bit about building this app is the vision of it. It looks at being of use to nonprofits, advocacy groups and even to test how viable the chosen community projects are. Retha Hil, co-founder of SeedSpeak asserted, “If you can show there are people behind an idea or momentum and show it to officials in power you can make a difference.”

There is a mix of virtual space and physical space. Geolocation platforms and apps are bridging social media and the physical world. No wonder the hype about geolocation a few years back still remains justified. Allowing a number of possibilities, geolocation technologies hold the potential to strengthen and

sustain communities. As developments in data, mining existing networks for insights into customer behaviours and needs can give meaningful and useful information in order to generate ideas for appropriate location-based experiences. The words of Alistair Goodman, CEO, Placecast (location-based marketing company) sum up the purpose of this article, “Location and granular geo-targeting are actually strong predictors of consumer intent – because where someone is and when they are there says a lot about what they might be interested in.” Therefore while many location-based apps still rely on check-ins, others have gone on to utilize geolocation to spur more powerful actions.

ReferencesChaey, Christina. “Can Nextdoor Turn

Your Neighbors Into A Billion-Dollar Social

Network?” Fast Company. 13 Feb 2013.

“Enabling Citizen Superheroes.” PulsePoint.

Ellis, Justin. “SeedSpeak: A geolocation app for

better civic engagement.” Nieman

Journalism Lab. 24 Jan 2011.

Butcher, Dan. “Location-based marketing

can increase average order value, frequency,

loyalty.” Mobile Marketer. 29 Mar 2011.

Photo Credit: Erik Daniel Drost


Technology and the Changing Creative Culture

Digital technologies

have significant effects

on creative domains,

especially impacting

the relationship among

designers, designs and

tools, creating a whole new

creative culture.

by Mrinalini SardarPhoto Credit: Wacom

The power of digital design is spreading like wild fire. The possibilities of creativity have magnified. From the days of carving and spreading inks on wooden blocks, creating letterpress lovelies to using the web as a medium for social expression and sharing creativity, the world is moving rapidly.

Technology is changing perceptions and thinking. But it is not changing ideas. As Kevin Kelly, Founder Executive Editor of Wired magazine proclaims, “Technology is only a tool driven by human energy” and “it needs an identity.” In the creative domain, the identity of technology lies with us, the designers. As designers, there is a huge responsibility on us to shape not only the future of technology, but also the future of the microcosm as it progresses to face more challenges and complexities.

For cultures to flourish, they need to re-invent themselves and keep up with the times. Similarly, designers have to update themselves with trends in technology to

develop their designs.The purpose of design is to solve a

problem. With technology intercepting the design process at the right phase, it will help in creating more functional solutions.An example of this would be the adaptation by creatives to new age drawing tools and gestural capabilities of such devices. The Wacom tablet, foremost in digital drawing tools, is experimenting with newer ways to reduce time required to create a piece of artwork. Integrating the hand touch with the stylus doubles its capabilities. The attempt is to bridge the gap between the physical and digital disconnect which indicates a paradox between how the physical drawing tool will be replicated in a digital way to last longer and be more functional. With the introduction of the Wacom Inkling, physical drawings in notebooks can be instantly converted into vector art. Touch tablets and smartphones have enabled gadgets to become sketchpads for creatives. As drawing tools evolve, so have designers

who are adapting to these tools. Open-source economics is changing

creative cultures. Open platforms, such as Open IDEO, ideate on design challenges. Open IDEO is a global community that draws concepts from one’s optimism, inspiration, ideas and opinions in order to solve problems together for the collective social good. More and more companies have begun to tackle issues through this global network wherein good ideas are generated to come to the best possible solution instead of a pre-conceived solution. Organizations such as Amnesty International and Barclays have sponsored challenges to help technology aid people to uphold human rights against the face of unlawful detention.

Another important insight is the information and usage of open source tools like “processing” for creating unique visual solutions and new generative art. It is art that interacts with humans and has the ability to change the concept of branding.

Photo credit: Knovel

Communities

50


Time is a sort of river of passing events, and

strong is its current; no sooner is a thing

brought to sight than it is swept by and

another takes its place, and this too will be

swept awayMarcus Aurelius


Projection mapping is another innovative method of representing ideas. In this, the substrate or base for projection changes to a daily object instead of a screen. In the future, product projections themselves will be editable and shared easily for feedback. Open-source will be a key trend to cluster creatives to experiment and innovate.

Projection motion is the current trend in the creative circuit especially among advertising and branding professionals. A motion graphic communicates an improved way of communicating with cultures and transforming a brand experience. Building motion typography is also the way through which designers have adapted themselves to technology, as they are not only creating stagnant, decorative or legible fonts but also are creating radical ways of interactions through typography and motion.

Digital and more interactive publications are changing the publishing culture. Almost every print magazine has an online presence and information is being stored at many levels in these publications. Patrick Burgoyne, Chief Creative Editor of The Creative Review recounts about the time when major design print publications were shutting down in the U.K. and he managed to save his own company by having a web, mobile and touch surface present. Adobe Digital Publishing suite is a good start to understand the potential of interactive publishing wherein ads come alive and pages turn. Wired Magazine, along with Adobe, is trying to generate novel ways of how magazines and publications will be read in the future. Print will become more exclusive, limited and customized.

With the addition of HTML 5, the web culture is undergoing a massive change. Technology is being used in creating tools in order to provide designers simpler and more functional tools. Designers can best assert their merit and potential through the way they share their work on the web. Online portfolio sites and

Photo CreditsTop: WiredMiddle: GizmodoBottom: Emma’s Design Blog

a metamorphosis, from print to digital and from research to prototyping. But it is important to understand that design and technology are both powered by human energy. The functionality of design to solve a problem will remain, but what will transform are the tools and methods through which problems will be solved in simple ways. Technology will help transform social structures and cultures because we have allowed them to. The more adaptive designers are to technology the more it will mould their designs and creations for a more creative and better tomorrow.

ReferencesKelly, Kevin. Kevin Kelly tells technology’s epic

story. 2010.

Benkler, Yochai. Yochai Benkler on the new open-

source economics. 2008.

“HTML,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Sommer, Ryan. “Q&A: Patrick Burgoyne of

Creative Review on what makes a great

designer.” Econsultancy. 22 Jan 2013.

creative communities are thriving through sites such as Deviant Art and Behance. Portfolio sharing sites are making huge business out of customizing and making the construction of a website simpler, less time consuming and devoid of code. Behance Pro Site and Cargo Collective can be considered as potential platforms that allow more designers to engage and showcase their work to the world.

Another transformation in process is in the way we design and purchase design. With the advent of three-dimensional printing, the power to design lies in the hands of consumers. Trends lean heavily towards customization and personalization. Maker Bot brought the 3D Printer to homes and have not only changed the way designers construct prototypes but also paved way for people to customize designs and detail their experiences with products.

When looking at the way design itself has changed, one perspective is that of how technology has brought designers closer to nature. There are several studies being conducted in the field of biomimicry. Designers are coming close to emulating models closer to nature and building more sustainable human models.

Another perspective is that of how big data has influenced design. 2012 was the year of big data. But 2013 is the year of nano data: data that has been intelligently filtered according to recorded profile information. Analytics and data have helped businesses grow and understand user patterns. In the future nano data will help creatives to make smarter choices by filtering and focusing on content. Reliability ratings will help artworks sell. Cloud services will flourish in the future where all creative personnel will be digital nomads working across multiple locations around the globe.

With the sands shifting in technology, creative cultures are bound to change. Every domain of design will undergo


Social Networks Women spend their time on

Clocking Time on Social Networks

People spend an ever-

increasing amount of time

on social networks, but

where are they spending

their time?

by Diarmaid ByrneIllustrations: Amit Mirchandani

As new social networks grow quickly, and their new member rates increase exponentially, they generate a tremendous amount of hype. Part of this is of course PR-created and part is ‘word-of-mouth’ and referrals, as more of one’s social group joins a new social network, people are compelled to join as well so as to feel involved. For all the hype these generate, how much of their time do people actually spend on social networks? While the vast majority of time is unsurprisingly spent on Facebook, people spend very little time relatively on other social networks. In fact, looking at recent research by Pew Research Centre, 38% of 18-29 year olds plan to spend less time on Facebook in 2013. It would be interesting if Pew had been able to break this down further and identify what activities in particular people spend their time on, and which activities are encouraging them to take a break from Facebook.

Referencesvan Grove, Jennifer. “Facebook grabs most

attention among social sites.” CNET. 14 Feb

2013.

Popkin, Helen. “We spent 230,060 years on

social media in one month.” CNBC. 4 Dec 2012.

Communities Social Networks men spend their time on


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