Posted by Shaun Callahan
Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:56:00 GMT
This Wednesday’s Groupsite success story comes from Filip Coertjens who is the Interactive Marketing Specialist for Accenture Belgium & Luxembourg.
Here’s what Filip shared:
“Accenture Belgium and Luxembourg drives progress & performance by developing highly talented people and putting them at the service of our clients to help them become high-performers and at the service of communities to help them grow. One of these communities we nurture is our Alumni network, that connects former Accenture colleagues and friends with our people. CollectiveX enables all these people – more than 400 by now – to actively connect, share and collaborate. It is a perfect environment to keep such a community alive!”
Do you have a corporate or college Alumni group that should be staying in touch to gets things done?
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Posted by Shaun Callahan
Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:24:00 GMT
Wow! Thank you! 2007 will be remembered as the year of the Group Engagement Network. The entire CollectiveX team thanks all of you who were first to realize the power of group engagement.
CollectiveX Groupsite / User Facts
Of the 10,000+ Groupsites currently powered by the CollectiveX platform:
• 80% are private groups (invite only) vs. 20% public groups (anyone can join or request access)
• 70% are used for professional oriented purposes vs. 30% for social purposes
• 30% are informal groups (families, friends, etc.)
• 27% are company groups (intranets, extranets, workgroups, boards, etc.)
• 26% are membership groups (associations, non-profits, clubs, etc.)
• 10% are web communities (interest based social networks, etc)
• 5% are alumni groups (schools, companies and organization alumni)
• 2% are conferences
Average age of a CollectiveX user is 38.5 years of age, in fact, CollectiveX has more users ages 62+ then users between the ages of 18 – 21.
Here are just some of the powerful capabilities that were added to the platform this year:
- Public and Limited Group Visibility (Manager / Group Settings page)
- New & Notable Discussions (Summary page)
The Latest and Highlighted Discussions area displays the most recent and highlighted discussion topics.
The top most discussion in the list is always the most recent discussion.
Other topics in the list are topics that have been highlighted by
a group manager for increased visibility.
-Headlines and Links (Summary page)
The Headlines & Links area provides access to external content via news feeds and shared links. News feeds can be pulled from any external blog or news site via RSS. We even help you create your own feeds simply by entering keywords that are relevant to your group. Links are bookmarks that are shared by group members.
All headlines and links can be rated and discussed via a special toolbar that
appears when headlines and links are visited. Resulting discussions take place in your group’s Headlines & Links Discussion forum.
- Profile Completeness Meter (Summary & Members pages)
The Profile Completeness Meter is located at the top of the right sidebar on the Summary and Members pages. This meter serves as a reminder of what outstanding profile information you need to fill out to complete your profile.
- Group Membership Types (Manager / Group Settings page)
In addition to configuring a group’s visibility option to public or limited visibility, managers are also able to set membership preferences for their group. There are three types of member signup options: 1) By invitation only; 2) By request approval or invitation; and 3) Anyone can join.
These options allow managers to configure groups to cover any and all member signup possibilities.
- Member Profile Customization (Manager / Group Settings page)
Group Managers are now able to ask custom member questions to be displayed in each member’s profile. Questions types include: Short answer, Long answer, Multiple choice, Date, and Website link.
Questions can be set to “Required” so that they must be answered during signup. Members will be reminded to answer non-required questions via the profile completeness meter.
- Member and Pending Member Search (Manager / Pending Member & Members areas)
It is now easy to locate members and pending members from within the manager area. This is very useful for large groups with many members or pending members. You can now search by member name or pending email address.
We look forward to 2008 being a fantastically productive year as we continue to establish CollectiveX as the place where groups go to work.
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Posted by Shaun Callahan
Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:19:00 GMT
Engagement. We believe this is one of the most important metrics a Groupsite manager can use to judge the success of any Groupsite. Are your members engaged?
What you want to see is engagement with the people, the content and the platform.
We want the members in your group to be engaged with each other. We are where groups go to work. This means people working together, communicating, building trust and getting things done.
Engagement with the content means they are contributing their own ideas and information and they find the content provided by others in the group interesting and useful.
Finally, engagement with the CollectiveX platform means they have a comfortable understanding of how to use the tool to work for them. We are a technology platform – a Group Engagement Network which has no value if actual people aren’t using us to get things done. A hammer doesn’t drive the nail, it’s the person holding the hammer that does.
Manager Tip – Do an engagement check. At least once a week, randomly select one of your Groupsite members and do the following:
1. Read their profile. You might learn something about them you didn’t know that you may find interesting or useful.
2. Send them a “private message” or even call them on the phone and ask the following to help them engage with the people, content and platform:
People questions:
• Comment on something you learned from their profile.
• If they have little to no info in their profile, mention that you were hoping to learn more about them since they shared so little.
• If they have posted a personal objective, ask how you might be able to help achieve it.
• Ask them if they have met any other members who they have found to be interesting or useful.
Content questions:
• Ask what information shared by the Group they find most interesting and useful.
• Ask what information they wished were being shared by the group but isn’t yet.
Platform questions:
• Ask them what they think of CollectiveX?
• Ask if there is anything they are trying to do but don’t know how to yet.
Feedback matters. People matter. Engagement matters.
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