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Social media measurement: three good questions

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I had the pleasure this morning of interviewing Chris Frank, vice president of global marketplace insights for American Express, on his advice on how to measure and glean insights from social media. Chris’ two wise mantras:   “less counting, more evaluating” and “focus less on the means (“the buzz’) and more on the ends (outcomes like changing perceptions, intention and action.)

When you’re looking at your social media data, Chris suggests asking smart question to evalauate what’s going on and what it means to your strategy. Three questions I found especially interesting when looking at the data:

  1. What surprised us?
  2. So what?  What should we think about doing differently based on what the data shows.
  3. What is our intent with social media?  What does the data tell us about how well we’re doing (or not) in pursuit of that intent?

Filed Under: Research, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , , ,

No more friends says American Express executive

August 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

“I don’t want any more friends. But I do want your knowledge. That’s what’s really motivating people to use communities, “ says Tilak Mandadi, VP of Interactive and Travel Technologies for American Express.

Talik – one of the most entertaining IT execs I’ve ever heard in a long time– said seven things matter the most for effective online communities:

1. Social intelligence – learning what other people know — vs. social networking.
2. Specialized context of community
3. Exclusive content
4. Ability to transact
5. Moderate moderation
6. Participant defense of the brand (Let other AMEX customers defend the brand if someone says something negative)
7. Speed to market

The ability to transact is especially important. Tilak said customers using American Express’ “Members Know” travel community have expressed frustration at not being able to act on what they were learning about in the community, which Amex is going about changing.

Many companies are creating communities for awareness, loyalty and word of mouth, but they may be missing a big opportunity for transaction revenue — and frustrating customers in the process.

Filed Under: Communities, Social media strategy Tagged With: ,