Archive for the ‘Communities’ Category

Blog, Communities, Community Management, Research Communities, Research Communities 101, Social Media

#ResCom101 7: The Future Of Research Communities Part 1

Date January 27 2011
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We all wait with baited breath to see where the web is going to take us next. The hype surrounding new innovations such as Google Instant or HTML 5 is massive. As users we are not only interested in how the latest departures look and feel, but also how they are going to change our behaviour.

There are those who look at it on a purely personal level – how are these changes going to change my actions? And there are those who look at it from a much wider berth, how are these changes going to influence the web as whole?

As a community manager, when I try out a new user experience my mindset is immediately on whether it can help move online research communities in a new direction. How can a new technology, technique or tool be adapted and used to make a research community more engaging, more intuitive and more interesting for those who use them?

Web 2.0 has been at the core of most research communities from their conception, but as technology and its users move on research communities need to evolve to stay relevant for community members, clients and community managers alike.

So, as we continue to test our reliance on web 2.0 tools and begin to harness technology that allows us to do bigger, brighter and bolder things, where does the future of online research communities lie?

Socialization

When we first started with our online research communities we made the decision that we would not include large social elements. We wanted our communities to focus around co-creation and research, not user interaction and social media. For many reasons this was the right decision, but as the internet has evolved people don’t just want to be sociable, they expect it.

In the early days of Headbox we found that our users who worked on our co-creation projects were finding each other online anyway. Whether it be on Facebook or MySpace users were creating groups, talking about the projects and friend requesting each other, us and our clients!

There was no facilitation on our behalf, the socially proactive nature of young people meant they were going to connect no matter what. So, as our communities have grown so have the social elements, and as social networks evolve, so will research communities user interaction.

This does not mean we are going to be building our own social network. It’s more about allowing people to connect, if they want to. It’s allowing our members to share their information, find the people they are working with and building their own profiles.

As social networking tools and online sociability grow, research communities will continue to incorporate what is suitable, and no more.

Gamification

As Marion explained in her earlier #ResCom101 blog using gaming mechanics is an obvious way to increase engagement and interest. Developing league tables, points systems and badge rewards seem like a no-brainer, they make everything more fun and rewarding for users. However, this isn’t gaming for the sake of gaming, this is gaming for the sake of research.

Rivalries and competition will definitely increase the enjoyment levels for users but there is a strong chance that results may get skewed. If community members start to post responses just to take part in gaming aspects then you are not going to receive the research output you need.

Gaming mechanics will begin to play a big part in research communities but it needs to be a subtle, intelligent approach. Whether it is keeping users rewards/badges private to them or having an intelligent points system, you need to make sure that users aren’t acting unnaturally due to gaming elements.

As well as engaging users, gamification and its rewards can also help when incentivizing users, as Marion points out, sometimes the most basic rewards can be the most fulfilling.

Experiential

In research communities the reception of information is crucial. As well as being engaging, tasks need to be easy to understand or there could be confusion. If users lose interest when receiving the task the results suffer. If there is a lot of block text to read or a lot of repetition, community members are well within their right to get bored.

People prefer to intake information if it is visual, audio or both. It is a lot easier and a lot more entertaining.

Video briefings are brilliant and can cover a lot of information very quickly. Teaming task copy with physically showing users what you would like them to do is always an easy way to make sure there can be no confusion about what is expected. At the moment video briefings seem to be an every now and again thing, this will increase and they should become normal practice for community managers.

Producing engaging, visually orientated Slidecasts that allow community members to intake information as they please is one way of communicating lots information in an interesting way.

HTML 5 will begin to play a big part in this, its ability to create clean, interesting, flexible and interactive applications will help research communities move away from Web 2.0 and allow community developers more creativity when designing task formats.

The evolution of entertaining briefings and tasks revolves around users being able to complete tasks whilst they’re being briefed. Integrating visuals and the ability for users to complete tasks as they go, and at their most engaged, will make it a much more entertaining and seamless experience for users.

This is not something that is going to happen overnight but it is the direction in which online research communities are moving.

Part 2, which will be published on Friday, will be focussing on co-creation, building, realism and analytics.

To check out past posts from the Research Communities 101 click here

Blog, Communities, Face, Infographics, Innovation, Insights

Face’s Top 5s of 2010: Developments

Date January 27 2011
Posted by Matt
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In 2010 technology, the internet and social media have really led the way, pushing boundaries and creating exciting talking points. The speed in which the research and innovation industry is evolving and changing is both breathtaking and hugely exciting.

There have been so many interesting developments this year it is hard trying to decide on the 5 most pertinent. In the end the decision came down to the 5 things that have created the most conversation in the Face office this year.

Here are Face’s Top 5 Developments of 2010:

Game Over?

This time last year FourSquare was dominating a lot of talk with their really cool and innovative use of badges and gaming mechanics. This sparked a flurry of gamification and it became the flavour of the month; 12 months on and there is an ongoing conversation about gamification and how it should be used.

Naturally FourSquare’s success led to a flood of apps and sites using games as a way of engaging users, some of them were fun and interesting, others just didn’t really make sense. People like playing games but there has to be an actual game to play for them to engage, you can’t just tag badges onto something and expect people to like it.

The conversation still continues about when games are, and aren’t, appropriate – something we’ll be keeping a very close eye on in 2011.

See: Is Gamification the Cure to Boredom

When Social Media Met Research

Social media research, real time research, social research, social media analysis, tracking… or however you might describe it has been one of the biggest research developments this year.

Measuring sentiment and online visibility has opened up new doors for companies allowing them to react quickly to the conversations taking place about them. This has led to a more adaptable way of doing things, allowing audiences to have a constructive input into how brands should interact.

There is a wider internal debate going on within the industry about the rules and regulations regarding SMR, something that will carry on into 2011. One thing is for sure though, real time research is here to stay and will continue to give brands valuable insight.

See: Social Media Monitoring: From Data to Insights

Digital Going Physical

So now that the internet has digitalised everything, what happens next? Well according to a lot of people, it’s all going to physicalise again. This means the internet and social media will be in all the objects around you, whether it is TV becoming more social, or your alarm clock waking you up with tweets, the digital world is going to be integrating into the physical world around us.

The wider conversation surrounding this topic revolves around whether people actually want to be constantly in touch with their digital lives. Are we at the stage where digital life is now fully integrated with the ‘real’ world or do we still want distance between the two?

See: Incedental Media: Devices Won’t Be Passive Anymore

Beautiful Stats

Infographics and data visualisation is something we have been banging on about for ages (and a lot in this top 5 series). However in 2010 the volume of brilliant visualisations has massively increased with some stunning infographics being produced over the 12 last months.

This rise in good looking data has been joined by Prezi’s popularity increase. Prezi is trying to take on PowerPoint in the presenting software world, a battle that a lot of people would like to see them win.

The increase in the use of infographics and visual storytelling has made the output of research a lot more interesting for audiences and long may it continue!

SEE: Why Researchers Should Be Using Infographics

The Socialisation of Brands

Up to now brands role within the social media universe has very much been a trial and error process. Initially brands used social media to try and encourage traffic to their own websites… However now with companies and agencies starting to understand how social media can create mutually beneficial relationships, brands are becoming fully social.

There are no set guidelines on how brands should interact and act within social media so it really is an open playing field. What we are seeing now (and will continue to see) is brands becoming confident using social media and start to create some interesting and exciting content, which will in turn create unique and lasting relationships with their audiences.

SEE: Wave.5 The Socialisation of Brands.

So there we are, the end of our top 5s for 2010. A top 5 of top 5s if you will.

Here’s to 2011 and another year of interesting and exciting developments!!!

Blog, Co-Creation, Communities, Conferences, Pulsar, Research Communities, Social Media

Face’s Top 5s of 2010: Highlights

Date January 27 2011
Posted by Matt
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I sent a mail around the Face office asking the team for their favourite moments of 2010. I was then going to mould all their answers into a lovely top 5…

However, much like all my best laid plans, this massively backfired when the vast majority of the team came back with the same response!

Even with this minor setback I persevered and it really wasn’t a hard job pulling together a highlight reel, there have been so many great moments this year.

Here are 2010′s best moments as as voted for by the Face team:

1) A Co-created World?

The overwhelming favourite highlight from the Face team was the amount of international co-creation we have done this year. Whether it was Saul hanging out with teenagers in Rwanda, Esther conducting workshops in Mandarin, Danny meeting Brazilian Mums or Lucy seeing Francesco in full flow in Italy, it truly has been a global year for us.

We have now worked in 6 continents (just leaving Antarctica for the full house) proving that co-creation has the ability to transcend any cultural or linguistic barrier.

2) Pulsar and the launch of RTo2

Real-time research has been one of the hot topics of 2010, and we’re very happy to say we’ve been (literally) right in the middle of the conversation. In May we launched RTo2 (Real Time o2), a social media monitoring and analysis tool designed specifically for o2. Being at the forefront of the real time research wave has been a great experience and we’ve have learnt loads in a small period of time.

RTo2 is a bespoke manifestation of our real time research platform Pulsar, you can find out more about RTo2 and Pulsar HERE.

3) Axe Twist Hitting the Shelves

In 2008 we ran a co-creation workshop in New York City with some Headboxers from the US and the UK. They were tasked with coming up with a new variant to add to the Lynx range… Fast forward 2 years and Lynx Twist, the first ever entirely co-created product, hits the shelves.

Everything behind the product, including the name, was created, developed and designed in the New York workshop. It was a long 2 year wait but it’s amazing to see another co-created product in stores (the first was Tango with Added Tango), let’s hope there are some more to come in 2011!

Everything behind the product, including the name, was created, developed and designed in the New York workshop. The Headboxers involved should be very proud of themselves, it’s not everyday that you get a product released!

It was a long 2 year wait but it’s amazing to see another Headbox product in stores (the first was Tango with Added Tango), let’s hope there are some more to come in 2011!

4) The X Crowd

Over the last few years Headbox and Mindbubble have been at the epicentre of everything we do. The enthusiasm, intelligence and creativity of our community members really has driven Face forward and allowed us to produce some fantastic work. This is why there was so much internal excitement when we announced that we would be bringing a new co-creation community to the web – The X Crowd.

TXC is for people who live and breath technology to help tech brands design and create better products, ideas, experiences and communications. The X Crowd is currently in BETA but will be making a big impact in 2011… we can’t wait!!!

5) Conferences, Conferences, Conferences

2010 saw Face hitting the conference scene hard, whether it was spectating, presenting or hosting we really enjoyed hearing the thoughts of others and sharing our own! Some of the spectating highlights include Marion’s trip to the UX London seminar, my own visit to the It’s Nice That’s Future:Content conference.

Presenting wise it has been a great year with the majority of the Face team taking to the stage at some point to present on their passion and expertise areas. Take a look at our SlideShare page and Friday’s Top 5 presentations post to check some of our presentation conferences.

There have been several other more personal highlights too – Philip holding a real Olympic Torch in a workshop, Jess getting a job at Face after conversing with Fran on Twitter, Sharmila getting to grips with 16-24 year olds during her 9 Lives research and Lucy getting her hands on unlimited amounts of ice cream (all in the name of co-creation of course), to name but a few.

One of our other highlights this year has been the growth of Twitter, which links us nicely to tomorrow’s top 5… our favourite 5 tweeters of 2010!

Blog, Co-Creation, Communities, Community Management, Conferences, Innovation, Insights, Interesting Stuff

Face’s Top 5s of 2010: Face Presentations

Date January 27 2011
Posted by Matt
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As you may or may not have noticed, we like SlideShare round these parts. So much so we stick as much content as we possibly can up on there. Some of our presentations get loads of views, some of them don’t… that doesn’t matter to us though, we love them all the same and treat them all equally.

Well… almost equally…

The following list is our Top 5 most viewed SlideShare presentations of 2010:

1) What Is Co-creation and Why Do It?

Saul’s presentation explaining what co-creation is and how to utilise its power was our most viewed presentation this year gaining over 2, 000 views. It is a great introduction in to the world of co-creation, so if you want to know exactly what we here at Face do give it a read!

2. Co-creating Insights

Second in our list is Philip and Beth from Coca-Cola’s presentation from this years MRS Annual Conference. It explores our ongoing work with Coca-Cola and how we have used co-creative techniques to find deeper, more meaningful insight.

3. Real Time Collaborative Methodologies in Market Research

Francesco and Sharmila’s presentation from our little trip to Oxford is up next on the list. Real Time Collaborative Methodologies in Market Research explores the web at the moment and how we, as a research agency, are plug into it.

4. Designing Relevance

In October Fran was joined on stage by Tom Crawford from Nokia to at the Esomar Online Research conference in Berlin. Their presentation Designing Relevance: How Open and Agile Research Methodologies Can Help Complex Organisations Stay Relevant focuses on the open innovation process we used to complete a recent project with Nokia.

5. Journey To The Centre Of The Crowd and Back Again

Crowdsourcing is a buzzword that has been flying round over the last few years, during that time its role has adapted and developed. This presentation revolves around crowdsourcing for new product development, how to do it and what the benefits are!

And finally…

9 Lives

We couldn’t really show our most popular presentations of this year without sharing Sharmila’s excellent 9 Lives Prezi presentation. 9 Lives is the output from a research project we undertook in June focusing on the shrinking 16-24 demographic. We commissioned nine young people to make films about what their lives are like in the year 2010… here is what they had to say:

Monday’s Top 5 will be focusing on the Face teams favourite moments on 2010… see you then!

Blog, Communities, The X Crowd

The X-Crowd in Brand-E

Date January 27 2011
Posted by Matt
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Francesco’s interview with Brand-E about The X Crowd is now live!

In the interview Fran talks about how The X Crowd came to be and the benefits of engaging tech lovers in the innovation process. Check out an excerpt from the interview below and you can read the full article here.

D’Orazio says a cyclical model is more conducive to innovation than a linear one. A project-based model doesn’t work for new innovation,” he explains. “You can only understand the way technology works by studying it over a long period of time – it is an incremental, continuous process. The X-Crowd community are not fans of a particular brand, they are technology fans. It is innovation that excites them, and that is what is at the centre of the community.