How Do You Measure Member Engagement?

Member engagement is a popular term these days, applied to everything from customer loyalty programs to Facebook games to political campaigns.  There are tools that purport to track every “like” or tweet as evidence that your members, or customers, or just visitors, are listening and “engaged”. 

I’m skeptical. I think this very useful and important term is being misused, applied to a wide range of online activities in today’s engagement-obsessed social media world. Too often, a moment of fleeting attention is classified as an engagement event. In our online community-focused world, such transitory winks of attention might be flirtatious, but they certainly don’t constitute engagement!

As a researcher by training and inclination, I’m taking a closer look at “engagement,” what it means and how it applies to our online social business activities. The dictionary definition is quite clear, and conveys a serious level of attention and commitment. 

en·gage  [en-geyj] Show IPA verb, -gaged, -gag·ing.  verb (used with object)

• to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons): He engaged her in conversation.
• to secure for aid, employment, use, etc.; hire: to engage a worker; to engage a room
• to attract and hold fast: The novel engaged her attention and interest.
• to attract or please: His good nature engages everyone. 
• to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make liable: He engaged himself to repay his debt within a month.

None of these definitions suggest a passing glance or a single, isolated click would qualify as “engagement.” On the contrary, a key aspect of engagement is that it occurs over a span of time, not just for an instant. As with all aspects of human behavior, engagement is not a fixed quantity. It is dynamic and variable. It’s intensity ranges from mild interest to active attention to deep and compelling fascination.

So, armed with a definition and a lot of experience with online communities, here’s a framework for measuring member engagement. We use a calendar quarter (three months) as the measurement period for this example:

Leader Networks Engagement Score for Private Online Communities
Engagement Level -------------------- Engagement Score	None ----------- Score = 0	Low --------- Score =1	Medium ---------- Score = 3	High ----------- Score = 6
Log-ins per quarter	0	0-2	3-5	more than 5
Beta group participation	none	joins, logs in once or twice	joins, logs in more than once, participates	makes active suggestions
Create a profile	visitor only	username and basic info	profile plus photo	profile, photo and connections
Post a message or take a quickpoll	0	1	2-3	4+
Responds to another member’s question	0	1	2-3	4+
Peer referral joins the community	0	1	2	3+
Response to newsletter	0	rarely opens; no clicks	opens 20%+; clicks 20%	opens 40%+; clicks 33%; 1-2 fwds
Responds to personal outreach emails and calls from community manager	0	once	sometimes	often
Asks for help: How do I find this? Can you post that for me?	0	once	sometimes	often
Submits content or responds to a request for an article about them	0	once	sometimes	often
Share unsolicited ideas for improvement, future features, new product concepts		once	sometimes	often
Attends a hosted live event	0	once	sometimes	often
Has brought content or an idea from the community into a meeting	0	once	sometimes	often
Score	0	13	39	78

What do the scores mean?

•  A member with a score below 10 is not engaged
•  A score in the 13-26 range signals a member who exploring the community but not fully engaged with other members
• Scores in the high 20s to around 50 indicate a member who is grown comfortable sharing with fellow members, and is becoming more fully engaged
•  A score over 50 points to a member who is highly engaged and involved in the life of the community and someone who is probably considered a leader by other members of the community

How can these scores help you measure and grow your community? 

Consider this: if those scores represented the revenue value of a member, which kind of members would most want in your community? Right – the most engaged ones! In this model, a small number of engaged members is worth much more than large number of members with little or no actual engagement.

And this is why defining member engagement more precisely is so important. A visit does not constitute engagement; a newsletter open is not engagement; a “like” or a re-tweet are not, in themselves, an engaged activity. Engagement means continuing attention and activity from the member over time.  

Part two of this post discusses the key factors that can create, grow and sustain member engagement.

Eureka! A Strong Social Business Model by AMEX

Just a few days ago I revised an old social  friend named Foursquare.  I hadn't been there for a while, as I am a digital nomad, often trying new tools to formulate an opinion, and then move on to a new toy as fast as they come unless they really offer something of value.  Lately I have been busy pinning images while watching the copy write storm brew.

By my real life friends have called me back to Foursquare through persistent invitations and check-ins. (It seems to have reached mainstream - perhaps a reason why it is no longer the little darling of the Digerati?) So off I went to reacquaint myself with the application.  This was on a Saturday morning that was devoted to mundane chores.  With my shopping bags forgotten (again) in the backseat of my car, I rolled into Wholefoods and remembered to "checkin."  I was thrilled to learn that that my worldwide digital check-in made while perusing the cereal isle was rewarded with a discount.

In order to participate in the rewards program, I needed to link my AMEX to my Foursquare account and would subsequently see a $5.00 refund on my charge card bill.   While the act of submitting my credit card number to FourSquare did give me pause, it was the outstanding business model design that really stopped me in my tracks.

By motivating people through discounts and coupons, AMEX - in partnership with key vendors- has enabled a win-win situation that creates viral buzz for the vendor, enables AMEX to gather key data about consumer spending habits and whereabouts, while requiring them to increase their use of their card in places where people are less likely to charge. All this for the price of a digital check-in.

AMEX is also building business linkages on Twitter too. Today, GigaOM covered the AMEX / Twitter partnership in an article and explains how people can leverage the newly formed twitter account to enable people to tap into coupons, but I personally think the FourSquare program has a stronger approach. 

Have you seen any remarkable or resilient social business models out there? What did you like about them? What actions did they inspire you to take outside of your norm, and why?
  

Don't Ask Community Managers To Be Strategists

The enterprise community manager position is sometimes termed a "jack of all trades" role. I know -- I've said it myself. But I think we're starting to take it a bit too far.

Over the past few weeks I have participated in a suite of webinars and talks about online communities and their growing role in functional areas such as customer care. I have listened to, and debated with, countless community management specialists about community management best practices. I've heard a lot about keeping business strategy and community management aligned. There's no question this is a critical success factor for social business -- but the issue is whether or not this responsibility is part of the charter for the online community manager role.

Pity the poor community manager who has been handed a whole range of new and complex tasks, responsibilities, and accountability measures related to managing and monitoring business strategy -- in addition to the normal work of running a community! It won't work. Placing responsibility for business strategy on the community manager will ruin many a promising online community, with lasting negative consequences for the business, the brand and, most of all, community members and customers. Online strategy and online community management are emerging as two distinct roles in the rapidly evolving world of online communities.

Let's look at the role of online community strategy. It starts at the highest level, based on the organization's mission and vision, and then proceeds to the business goals and business processes for the community itself. It is a line-of-business function led by an executive stakeholder responsible for strategic alignment based on the goals, metrics, measures and ROI.

This means the leadership from customer care, the office of strategy management or even product development -- depending on the mission of the online community -- have the charter to ensure that the online community is tracking in support of their organization's strategy.

The second role is that of online community management. The crucial task for this role is delivering value to the community participants - the members. Full stop. If the community serves member needs and builds high-value customer/supplier/prospect relationships, it can achieve the strategic goals established by the business organization.

Adding business strategy leadership to the community manager's role renders them ineffective, unable to succeed at either task. Keep in mind the community manager is the voice of the members back into the organization, and is charged with serving member needs. Asking the community manager to view her community through the lenses of both the business and the members is a prescription for blurred insights, mixed messages and reduced trust on both sides. Community managers can and should take into account the firm's business goals in the programs and engagement models they develop and produce. But determination of which best fit with the overall strategy is best left to those in charge of business leadership.

The reasons for this separation of roles is primarily around skill sets. A seasoned community manager typically grew up through the ranks of communication specialties, and has the unique and invaluable ability to facilitate ideas, grow thought leadership content and listen well. What they do, and the ways they have honed their methodologies and insights, constitute hard-to-find skills based on extensive hands-on experience. In contrast, the skilled strategist has a keen appreciation for the nuances of goal-setting, planning, and measuring results, involving technical, financial and organizational design skills.

Just as HR executives typically aren’t tapped to run adjacent lines of business like finance, the community manager may not be best at driving the business of community. While there should be a dotted line between the business and the community operations, asking online community managers to manage functions that are out of their realm of expertise jeopardizes both the community and the business. The corollary is that for your online community to succeed and deliver business returns, the roles of online community strategy and community management should be treated with the business respect they deserve.

Does Your Company Inspire Trust? How Online Communities Can Help!

Just the other day, I said to my 10 year old daughter ‘trust is hard to win and easy to lose.’ She was having a tough time with a good friend who had done something jerky, and she wanted to know if she should trust her friend again just because she was being nice. Once trust is broken, it takes time and evidence to repair the damage. That’s why it’s always best to behave in an honest and trustworthy manner, rather than endeavor to rebuild bridges. While school girl antics usually come and go, life lessons about the formation and maintenance of trust are the foundations on which relationships are built in friendship … and in business.

The dynamics of trust is a topic carefully tracked by Edelman’s TrustBarometer. The 2012 edition measures attitudes about the state of trust in business, government, NGOs, and media across 25 countries. This hot-off-the-press report identifies a number of critical shifts in trust. While government officials are deemed the least credible spokespersons, CEOs also saw a rapid decline in trust.

The chief executive’s voice is no longer the trusted source for information about the company, the industry or service trends. Customers no longer look to executive leadership for vision and facts. Instead, thanks to the information now readily available through social media, peer-peer information and expert points of view have soared to the top of the trust pyramid like a kite in a windstorm!

As these data clearly demonstrate, expert opinions and peers are the drivers of trust. They are where the buyers of both consumer and B2B products and services gather the information they need to make informed decisions. And through the proliferation of user-generated content via self-publishing channels such as blogs, YouTube, microsharing, content curation and reviews, there are ample sources of information.

Current wisdom suggests trust can managed using the role of the Influencer to shape public opinion. These are experts with credentials which demonstrate credibility, are unencumbered by financial bias and, armed with data and experience, can offer feedback, advice and vision to help guide the buyers’ opinions and actions. So for greatest business impact, the obvious answer is to invest heavily in developing thought leadership content and securing strong influencer programs, right? Not really... It’s not that simple where trust is concerned.

The Edelman report takes a hard look at the operational and societal attributes that build trust over time. The study discovered that there are a few key elements that facilitate organizational trust. The ones that stood out to me include:

• Listens to customer needs and feedback
• Places customers ahead of profits
• Takes actions to address issues or crisis
• Is transparent
• Communicates frequently and honestly

Do these sound familiar? They are the basic tenets for building trust within communities online.

In a 2007 article entitled “What is trust worth?,” published in Qn, the Yale School of Management journal, author Steve LaVoie discusses his company’s experience with the role and value of trust. The founder of Arrowstream, a start-up focused on improving supply-chain management in the restaurant business, LaVoie discovered his firm’s ability to deliver savings for customers and profits to the business required rethinking the relationships between all the parties involved. Establishing and maintaining trusted relationships – and avoiding self-interested behaviors that jeopardized trust -- were the key to unlocking savings for everyone and making the business a success. Arrowstream became, in essence, a community of customers for the benefit of each and for the company as well.

Customer communities have been around for a long time. But the advent of new tools and technologies has greatly expanded their scale and scope. Online communities are now recognized as a key channel for building trusted relationships and engaging with customers, employee and other stakeholders. The ingredients are transparency, active listening, and taking action on expressed issues and needs.

Data points:

• 49% of businesses report having a customer community. [Business.com Business Social Media Benchmarking study, 2009]
• 34% said they planned to create a customer community in 2011-12. [Leader Networks New Symbiosis of Professional Networks study, 2010]
• 24% plan to use an online community to support senior-level client relationships in 2011-12. [Leader Networks New Symbiosis of Professional Networks study, 2010]

So … if your employee engagement survey yields data that gives HR a headache and an agenda, or your NPS scores are not all you had hoped, consider addressing the root cause – lack of trust! Take the time to explore new and innovative experiences such as online communities to engage your audiences, building and supporting trust in your company. And remember, as my daughter’s friend recently learned: it takes time and effort to earn trust.