Download PDFOne of the most common questions about social tools and technology circles around the adoption rates of new technology into existing communities of users. This question is quite valid (we like hearing it to be honest), yet difficult to address head on.
The majority of the social tools that we are all too familiar with these days are decidedly unfamiliar to the world at large. On the one hand, we play the role of trendspotting - identifying the tools and technology that will ultimately benefit the widest audience. On the other hand, we’re blinded by our own personalities and our networks of influence. As is often cited, the echo chamber is a great place to be - so long as the echo resonates with you.
Lee Gomes has an interesting article today that drills into this a bit:
There are more sites like Twitter these days: new Web ideas and aspiring trends talked up by a chorus of tech bloggers and commentators, many of whom also make a living off them. But this crowd doesn’t always have a good record in predicting what the real world will take to, as some recent Web history suggests.
Source: WSJ.com, “Some Traditional Sites, Aiming to Be Hip, End Up the Opposite
I think Lee’s point is one to be considered quite seriously when beginning a new development. While there are always new technologies available to us, we ultimately have to match them to the needs of our user. Often, it’s too easy to get carried away with the possibility and lose site of the results. When we think of success, we think only in terms of the user, the customer. Our customer is not the client paying the bill, it’s the user investing their time in the site or application.
Kathy Sierra takes a fresh look at the ROI for Community systems. As she notes:
Every time I give a talk, someone always asks, “That’s all good and nice that helping users learn is the key to creating passionate users… but who’s going to do all that extra work? Who’s going to make the extra tutorials and better docs?” Answer: your user community. Think about all the things a strong user community can do for you: tech support, user training, marketing (evangelism, word of mouth), third-party add-ons, even new product ideas. And that’s not including any extra sales you might make on community/tribe items like t-shirts, stickers, and other gear.
For many, the use of the term ROI feels quite dispassioned and wreaks of business speak. I think if we change the point of focus from the business and instead consider User ROI - we’ve got something worth paying attention to. Kathy’s point is well taken and if you drill down in the post, you can see that she does a good job of delineating the value we give BACK to the user. You’ll also see that she strongly advocates NOT paying them for this and NEVER mentions any specific technology - just a process.
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