I am one part of a 3-person preconference session at Internet Librarian 2009 that’s focused completely on Twitter! Here’s my part of the session – enjoy!
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http://www.davidleeking.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_16
From the category archives:
Recently, while on a family vacation, I noticed something in a couple of stores … and thought I’d share.
My kids wanted to venture into the Disney Store and Build-A-Bear, and I went along for the ride. While in both stores, I saw signs that directed customers to check out the stores’ websites. But not just for kicks – look at what the signs said:
Disney: “Visit DisneyStore.com for an Additional Selection of …”
Build-A-Bear: “have fun and give back at Buildabearville.com.”
This is cool. Why? In both cases, the stores didn’t just have a sign letting customers know they have websites. Nope. Instead, they directed customers to visit the store websites for specific reasons.
By providing those reasons, they helped extend the customer experience with the store onto the web (and into our homes), after the fact. This type of after-the-purchase experience is sometimes called a “post-show” experience. The actual “show” was buying the product or visiting the store.
We can go a bit further with this, too. Look at the specific instructions we are given: Disney directs us to “an additional selection” of stuff. Think about that for a sec – they’re saying the larger, more complete store isn’t the physical store – it’s the digital store – the website.
Build-A-Bear directs us to their virtual world, where we can “have fun and give back.” OK – I don’t get the “”give back” part. But the “have fun” part I do understand! They’re giving you a specific reason to visit their website, and are suggesting it will be a fun experience. I’m guessing they get a lot of first-time traffic with those signs!
Guess what? We can do this too!
Look at this pic of a sign in my library, for instance (bigger version here). For a while, we had this large banner sign up by the exit doors – everyone walking past saw this sign. Our goal was simply to remind people that although they were leaving our physical building, their library experience didn’t have to end there. They can visit our digital branch and still do lots of stuff!
We could also direct customers to our “larger store.” Think about this for a sec – which place gives you a larger selection of library materials: browsing the shelves at the physical library … or visiting the online library catalog and putting stuff on hold?
Your larger, more complete library is NOT the physical building. It’s the website – the digital branch.
I’m guessing there are other ways to connect customers to your digital branch, as well as other reasons to do so… what are they? I’d love to hear them!
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Awhile back, I sent Valeria Maltoni (who writes the cool Conversation Agent blog) a copy of my book – Designing the Digital Experience.
She’s been reading it, and blogged about it (very awesome – thanks, Valeria)! And in the process, she has some really good pointers about mapping the customer journey (which I wrote about in Chapter 11). She came up with some steps to mapping a customer’s journey:
… and each point discusses the “moment of truth” found in each of those steps.
Go read the whole post – good stuff there!
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Who are your competitors? Umm … David … we don’t have competitors … we’re a public library. I think you DO indeed have competitors. You probably have more competitors than you ever did, for that matter.
Think about it for a sec.
If I want a book, where can I go? The public library… unless it’s a popular book. Then I’m put on a waiting list. Or, I could just visit Barnes & Noble or Amazon and buy the book. I could even hang out at a Barnes & Noble for awhile, and read it there without buying. And drink a latte while reading, for that matter.
How about movies? Well, some libraries don’t carry blockbuster hits, so there’s really no competition there – come get your old documentaries here!
But my library carries new popular movies. And we have competition. The local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video rental stores are certainly alternatives. Also those Redbox movie dealies that are installed a couple places around Topeka. And Netflix. Which delivers to your door for a small monthly fee. You can even rent a movie from iTunes. Why spend any money? I can simply visit Hulu or YouTube for a quick video fix.
Music? Same thing. iTunes, blip.fm, last.fm, Pandora. Etc.
Gaming – surely that’s something we have down better. Possibly. Unless you have a mega-church in town. They probably have a better gaming setup than you.
Hmm … reference. That’s what we do well. Unless you venture online (see previous posts). Here, we are usually the last resort – people go to friends, family, and online services before us (read the OCLC Perceptions report for more info on that).
OK – so libraries have competition. What can you do about that? Here are some thoughts – please add more:
What are you doing to compete for your patrons’ attention? And … since it’s a competition – what can we do to win?
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Panelist’s last names: Oberkirch, Becker, Halvorson, Byron, Gupta
#roux is the hashtag
Moderator thinks threadless.com does this well
A couple of points from the moderator:
- apprentice yourself to great work – whose work means something to you? Watch it.
- Give side projects front and center. Twitter, blogger, etc started as side projects
- focus on delicious details
- go long
- share
Bikehugger.com -
- instead of “getting the message out” celebrate all the cool stuff you do
- they have a “Latest Activity” page that brings in all their activity (which is mentioned online, so it’s rss aggregation of flickr, twitter, comments, etc)
- also holding Bike-related mobile socials. They get together with like-minded people to socialize
getsatisfaction.com (a crowd-sourced customer service & support community)
- Companies can be here (hint hint – libraries can, too – in fact, there’s a couple already there!)
Gupta:
- does an event called “Jelly”
- basically, you allow strangers to enter your living room and work (& probably use your wifi)
- it spread to other cities, they made the morning show because of it
- He also does photojojo
braintraffic.com
- plan – what happens next? IE – you want to start a blog …. what happens next?
- self knowledge – knowing your limits, & not letting it obscure your potential.
- courage. You are “out there” & have visibility. Make sure to stay focused, and remember your original goals/who you are/why you’re there
How do we know it’s working?
- stories, knowing what to measure
- how do you measure engagement?
- Gupta says “we measure love” – It’s an ROI thing that attempts to measure how much money they’re making vs how much “love” (good comments, etc) [i think - he didn't actually go into much detail]
Treat people like humans!
- don’t treat customers transactionally – that can dehumanize the experience
- move to a relationship model
- we need to figure out how to measure relationships
“Waiting for the tourists to leave” – talking about people signing up for a new social network & trying it out
Is marketing dead (audience question)? Is advertising dead (panelist reframed the question)? She seems to think so. She’ll find word of mouth stuff about product/service from other real people rather than get info from the advertisement.
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Joseph Pine and James Gilmore noticed this thing they called the Experience Economy. They think we’ve moved beyond purchasing mere goods and services – now, we can purchase “experiences” (hence, the experience Economy). In their newest book, they blend the idea of experience with something they call Authenticity.
But Experience or the Experience Economy isn’t the only thing this notion is called – this post will introduce you to some other similar terms.
For example, when I read their book, I didn’t see much in the way of website experience. Certainly, the underlying ideas were there, but no concrete examples were given (it was written in 1999, so I’ll give them a break). That bugged me enough to write my own book about it, and I called the website version of it the Digital Experience.
Rohit Bhargava, who writes the Influential Marketing Blog, comes from a customer engagement and marketing/PR background. In his book Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get it Back, he calls it personality. Here’s a quote from the introduction that explains what personality is:
“The theory of Personality Not Included is that personality is the answer. Personality is the key element behind your brand and what it stands for, and the story that your products tell to your customers. Every element of your business, from your interactions with your customers to the packaging of your product is an element of your brand personality, and these are the elements that inspire delight or indifference among your customers. In short, personality matters.”
I heard Jane McGonigal speak last year at SXSWi 2008. She presented on gaming and alternate realities … and called it happiness. Here are some notes I took from her presentation:
Question – are you in the happiness business? Our primary product soon will be happiness… Happiness is the new capital
Four key principles of happiness:
McGonigal’s description of happiness sounds VERY similar to Pine & Gilmore’s description of experience and Bhargava’s description of a company with personality.
Ever heard of Touch Points? It’s sort of like usability … but doesn’t focus primarily on how the thing works. Instead, it focuses on the experience customers have during their interactions with the product or service or website.
Ok, one more. A few years back when Kathy Sierra was still blogging, many of her blog posts focused on this same concept – but she called it enchantment and kicking ass.
See what’s going on?
It’s not quite usability (but lives there). It’s not quite marketing (but it lives there). It’s not quite design (but it lives there too). It’s not quite customer service (yep – lives there). Not quite library 2.0 (even lives there).
There’s a convergence in many different fields right now – gaming, marketing, PR, web design, customer service, etc. – that all have, as their utmost goal, providing the customer with a positive experience … an authentic experience … happiness … attracting them with personality … enchanting them … helping them “kick patootie.” (ok, my wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap upbringing just kicked in – sorry ).
Question – how are you working to enchant your users? Not just meet their information needs … but delight them? Are you providing a positive experience, and if so – how?
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