Last week was pretty exciting…
Richard Millington offered a master class in community engagement. I really like his data driven, social science focused approach so it was super to spend the time immersed in it. Lots of practical advice, and I picked up more than a few ideas. Super Stuff! Quite a few folks from the healthcare sector too, which has it’s own unique challenges. Thanks to Rich for sharing.
This subject came up recently, so I started to do a bit of research. Here are some interesting things I learned plus some of my own guesswork. (In no particular order)
1. High costs of moving, such as exporting content and usability/design considerations will make movers less willing. High costs of staying put, transaction fees, will incline folks to move. Abstract only.
2. Web site features and the needs of the potential users help drive the notion of whether a platform is credible or not. Interpersonal trust is different that the credibility of the platform. Abstract only.
3. New tools can change the dynamics of the community by letting in new voices. More contributors may help build trust in the community. Framing of issues may change. Old boundaries of power and roles may be blurred. Access to new information may bring about privacy concerns and individual’s roles. (Not introducing new tools may lead to frustration in the community.)
Introducing a new tool goes beyond training and trying to get people to use it, it may involve changes to the community in more fundamental ways. Google Books 133-137
4. Moving to a new platform can split a community and is one of the leading reasons a community might die, so careful planning is warranted. R Millington
5. Be sure you can move the communities hard earned content and reputation scores. [JN]
6. Use quantitative measurements to show why the new system is preferable, especially for common tasks. That might mean x few clicks to do a task. Just using words like “easier” or “intuitive” may not get you very far, [JN]
7. For common, tasks be sure to have explicit instructions on how to accomplish they same thing on the new platform. [JN]
8. Have a place for the community to share what they are learning about moving to the new platform. Not just tutorials from the vendor, but what the community if exploring and finding. [JN]
9. Allows one to promote the community all over again. In this way, communicating with new members who either dismissed the former offering or were not aware of it at all. Just like “new and improved” gains the attention not only those who used the product, but had not noticed it in the past. [JN]
This also allows those who may have been intimidated about joining an ongoing community an chance of entry when roles are less defined. [JN]
10. Give plenty of opportunity for people to figure out the kinks of doing their work on the new platform, but if you are really moving, there needs to be some kind of inevitability. At some point one needs to step out of the sandbox. [JN]
1. Lin, T.-C., Cheng, H. K., Wang, F.-S. and Chang, K.-J. (2012), A Study of Online Auction Sellers’ Intention to Switch Platform: The Case of Yahoo!Kimo Versus Ruten_eBay. Decision Sciences, 43: 241–272. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5915.2011.00347
2. Kineta Hung, Stella Yiyan Li, David K. Tse, Interpersonal Trust and Platform Credibility in a Chinese Multibrand Online Community
Effects on Brand Variety Seeking and Time Spent Journal of Advertising. Volume 40, Number 3 / Fall 2011. DOI: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367400308
3. Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice of Networked Learning
By Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Vivien Hodgson, David McConnell. Springer; 2012 edition (October 28, 2011)
4. The 7 Most Likely Ways Your Community Will End R Millington Feverbee.com (Nov 09, 2009)
Interior page of a SharePoint Menu
When internal IT offers up new technologies to its business partners it needs to do so in a way that is quickly grasped and immediately useful. Business is often too busy doing, well, business, to take extra time.
Having a catalog of IT services is one step, but what if we go further and have a menu of services?
Banners Badges for Intranet
Promoting departments’ services on the intranet helps break silos, prevents wheel re-invention, and increases efficiency. However, a little goes along way.
By sponsoring popular business content, you can both highlight important information, mitigate the annoyance of repetition, and show the value of the business section.
As the examples demonstrate, the content needs to be timely. Content management systems that allow for iframes, widgets, or the ability to push content out to pages, is necessary.
So, is anyone else out there trying promotion on the intranet?
I happened upon Sebastian Deterding’s Slideshare “Meaningful Play Getting Gamification Right” (Thx Giuliano) and was struck how it resonated with Dan Pink’s talk “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us“.
Dan puts forth modern behavioral studies which show that for higher level tasks, ones that require more thought that mere repetition, rewards such as cash (points?) do not motivate. There are three things that motivate people on these higher level functions:
Deterding tells us what makes for a good game. His list is:
I think one could easily make the case the the Dan’s idea of contribution could easily fit with Sebastian notion of meaning. And after reading the citations on Dan’s slides, it is easy to tell his ideas were based on behavioral research.
For those interested in games, Dan Pink’s talk is an excellent background as to why Sebastian Deterding’s recommendations are important.
