Matthew Lees Research

How Should You Manage Customer Communities?

Matthew Lees — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In today’s Web 2.0 world of ever-increasing social networking and customer engagement, forward-thinking companies are identifying new ways to connect with customers more deeply and in more ways. To deliver on this, companies must have an organizational structure that reflects the priorities and commitment to running a customer-centric business and fill the roles within this structure with the right people. In this report, we present our ideal customer community team, starting with the Vice President of Community, and discuss not only the various roles and responsibilities, but also the desirable skill sets and personality traits of team members.

Building a Customer Community with Wetpaint

Matthew Lees — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Wikis are typically good at helping manage collective information, but not for enabling conversations, the lifeblood of online communities. Enter Wetpaint, both the company and its on-demand product. The Wetpaint wiki, which launched in 2006, combines the Web-page editability of a wiki with threaded discussion lists and other community and social-networking elements. While not ideal at supporting all types of communities—it is geared more toward affinity communities than ones based on peer-to-peer service and support—its ease of use, variety of pricing options, and integrated Wetpaint Network make it worth considering for supporting many small- to medium-sized communities.

Online Community Platform Evaluation Matrix

Matthew Lees — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Our Framework for Evaluating Online Community Platforms presents the criteria we believe to be important when evaluating technology systems to support and enable your customer community. Because each organization is different, you should focus on evaluating those features that are most important to your situation. To assist you in this, we present our evaluation criteria in matrix form with blank columns for the platforms under consideration. You can use this matrix to notate the capabilities of the short list of products you are currently investigating, and/or to evaluate the capabilities of your current purchased or home-grown solution.

Framework for Evaluating Online Community Platforms, Version 2

Matthew Lees — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online community platforms are no longer newcomers to the software stage. Built initially with only basic forums, they have developed dramatically in scale and scope, providing arrays of features and capabilities for community members (your customers), moderators, administrators, and other key stakeholders. This updated framework reflects the technological advances and increased expectations for what community platforms should provide, such as support for advertising, graphical and interactive media (especially photos and video), and social networking. This report will help you evaluate today's online community platforms and identify the one that's best for you.

Puzzle #2

Matthew Lees — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

There’s nothing that says sudoku puzzles have to use numbers. While sudokus are typically done with numbers, any nine distinct symbols will do. So here, we present six sudoku puzzles, each using nine different letters that cannot be repeated in any row, column, or 9x9 box. Why letters? Because it allows for the possibility of including/hiding words inside the sudoku grid! Each of the six sudokus contains a hidden nine-letter word that you can find after you’ve solved the puzzle. These hidden words relate to the Internet, technology, and/or the work we do at the Patricia Seybold Group.

Puzzle #2: Solutions

Matthew Lees — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

There’s nothing that says sudoku puzzles have to use numbers. While sudokus are typically done with numbers, any nine distinct symbols will do. So here, we present the solutions to the six sudoku puzzles, each using nine different letters that cannot be repeated in any row, column, or 9x9 box. Why letters? Because it allows for the possibility of including/hiding words inside the sudoku grid! Each of the six sudokus contains a hidden nine-letter word that you can find after you’ve solved the puzzle. These hidden words relate to the Internet, technology, and/or the work we do at the Patricia Seybold Group.

Who Owns Community?

Matthew Lees — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Online communities and social networks are changing the ways organizations do business in this customer-empowered, Web 2.0 world. As companies develop and hone their customer community and social media strategies, a fundamental and paramount issue is deciding where these initiatives should live within the organization. In this report, we break ownership down into two parts: sponsorship (authority and accountability) and responsibility (management). Through this lens, we discuss six factors on which community ownership depends, as well as a seven-step approach to deciding how these factors relate to your organization.

Active Community Members: What Makes Them Tick?

Matthew Lees — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Typically 1 percent of registered members, active members create a great deal of content, answer a disproportionate number of questions, guide your customers though the real-world use of your products and services, relay customer concerns to your organization, and lead by example. Through interviews with four active members of leading technology-based communities, this report looks to answer such questions as “Why do active members devote so much time and effort to help others?” “What drives them to share their expertise and perspective?” “What’s in it for them?” And “How can the community’s business sponsor best identify and support them?”

Jive Software’s Clearspace X

Matthew Lees — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Jive Software made a name for itself with its Enterprise Forums. Its new Java-based Clearspace product line was developed with collaboration in mind. Clearspace (no “X”) enables internal collaboration within organizations; Clearspace X, built to support collaboration with external groups (think partners, developers, and customers), is the subject of this product review. Clearspace X’s most distinguishing feature is its seamless integration of communication and collaboration components including blogs, discussion lists, and documents (with workflow), all within a shared tagging scheme. If collaboration with and among your community members is important, Clearspace X is worth a close look.

Helping Customers with Self-Control (of Their Own Content)

Matthew Lees — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

User-generated content is a vital and inseparable part of online communities. Most communities enable members to create and share their content, with some basic amount of control. But users are looking for more. They want to manage how their stuff looks, who can access it, how it’s accessed, and what others can do with it. This report discusses the increasing expectations for user “self-control,” and the implications for community managers and sponsors. We also provide examples of sites that give varying degrees of control to members, as well as recommendations for enabling your users to have the control they want.