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Building SustainableCustomer Communities
Lessons Learned, Strategies, & Challenges
Allison JonesDirector, Community Development
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Social Media Strategies Summit, Boston, MASeptember 22, 2011
A little bit about me
What problems are we trying to solve?
How do we define community?
Best Practices @ McGraw-Hill
Employees as Community Managers
What’s Next?
agenda
what problems are we trying to solve?
Rapidly Expanding Digital Customer Base [Technical & Pedagogical Support]
Rapidly Expanding Digital Product Offerings [Awareness & Interest]
Increasingly Complex Sales and Implementation Models [Pressure to Keep Budgets In-check]
what problems are we trying to solve?
Enhance our Strong McGraw-Hill Brand [From Publisher to
Education Services & Digital Learning]
In the beginning…
symposia series
what is a community?
Any group of customers (existing or potential, instructors or administrators) who share passions, share pains, or share a sense of belonging and who want to connect with us, and with one another, to exchange knowledge, share ideas, and ultimately enhance student learning.
-- The Hyper-Social Organization, Francois Gossieaux
The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media
Francois Gossieaux and Ed Moran
why communities form
Humans are hard-wired to be social
Our Reciprocity Reflex: We want to help others and be helped
Recognition: Professional “kudos” within communities feel good
-- The Hyper-Social Organization, Francois Gossieaux
benefits of communities
Communities can increase revenue per customer dramatically (i.e. increase digital usage)
Communities will increase product introduction success ratios
Communities amplify everything you do - increasing effectiveness and decreasing costs
From The Tribalization of Business Study, 2008
symposium ended.conversation stopped.
continue the conversation!
But how…?
Brand Advocates are highly-satisfied customers and others who
proactively recommend brands and products without being paid to do so.
By systematically energizing Brand Advocates, marketers can cost-effectively increase sales, qualified leads, and increase positive Word of Mouth.
Brand Advocate recommendations are the #1 driver of purchases and brand perception in nearly every product category
brand advocatesBrand AdvocateData & InsightsZuberance Report
January 2011
76% of consumers recommended companies they trust to a friend or colleague
36.3% of “workplace consumers” regularly give advice to their peers in the workplace about products and services, and 59.4% say they occasionally do so
Up to 90% of marketing spend goes to advertising and retail promotions. Yet the single most powerful impetus to buy is often someone else’s advocacy
90% of consumers who post online reviews say they write reviews to help others make better buying decisions
92% of consumers trust “recommendations from people I know.” Only 37% trust search engine ads, and just 24% trust online banner ads; 5% trust emails from someone they don’t know
data time outBrand AdvocateData & InsightsZuberance Report
January 2011
what’s the answer?
Join conversations already in progress on other community sites, or…
Build a community space if one doesn’t exist
[We’re doing both.]
profs & social media
Source: Babson Survey Research Group & Pearson
<<< All powered by Groupsite.com
X-discipline tribes
best practicesPEOPLE. Incorporate community (tribal) leaders (e.g. Faculty Consultants, Employees, Industry Leaders) to engage conversation ($$)
CONTENT. Provide quality content, in the form of blog posts, video content, professional dev opportunities, user stories, efficacy studies, events. ($$$)
CULTURE. Adopt a company-wide culture that believes in the power of customer-to-customer connections (FREE)
best practices
Make itPersonal.
Support your Tribes.
employees as community managers
Employees are Community Managers.[Whether we like it or not; choose to like it]
It’s (slightly) messy. Embrace it.[Monitor it. Respond to it. But embrace it.]
It’s not (always) ‘common sense’.[Create guidelines. Train. Make it fun.]
What’s next?
More Meaningful Connections
Our customers don’t want more connections (in general), they want more meaningful connections.
How can we better facilitate meaningful connections that ultimately enhance our customers’ experiences?
What’s next?
More and Better User-Generated Content
Our customers are educators; but they aren’t tech geeks. And demands on their time are ever increasing.
How can we make it easy for them to help educate one another relative to edtech?
let’s connect, meaningfully
/Ally2550
/in/AllisonJonesLinkedIn
@AJTaken
Building SustainableCustomer Communities
Lessons Learned, Strategies, & Challenges
Allison JonesDirector, Community Development
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Social Media Strategies Summit, Boston, MASeptember 22, 2011
