Lauren Gundrum

Marketing versus community development

I recently read an interesting blog post called The Five Reasons Why Most Facebook Fan Pages Aren’t Real Communities by Jessica Malnik. The point was that most Facebook brand pages are just “glorified marketing channels.” It struck a nerve with me because I’ve recently started managing the Facebook Fan Page for Ask Different (Stack Exchange’s Q&A site for Apple users), and a lot of what she said is true. But is using Facebook as a marketing channel necessarily a bad thing, and does marketing on Facebook preclude it from being a community development tool as well?

Here are her 5 points and my take on them:

1. Fans don’t usually like a page based on common interests or other community defining characteristics. ”In fact, the two most common reasons to like a brand are if you are a current customer or to receive discounts and/or freebies”, Malnik says.

I totally believe the discounts and freebies part, considering that’s a tactic I use frequently to get people to participate on Stack Exchange sites, but isn’t “being a current customer” kind of the same thing as having “common interests”? 

2. The vast majority of fans don’t participate on Facebook pages. In fact, “only one percent of fans…actually engage with the brand at all.”

But isn’t one percent pretty good? Comparatively speaking anyway, it’s a lot higher than most click through rates on ads. It’s usually the case that your top users will generate most of the conversation (at least that’s the case with Stack Exchange sites). If that’s true on Facebook pages too, then they can be a community for that tiny percentage of people who are engaged, and a marketing channel for the rest.

3. It’s a one-sided conversation. Same point as above, plus the fact that “82% of brand pages are updated less than five times a month.”

Well, if that’s true of your Facebook page, then you’re probably not trying to build a community are you? In my opinion, it’s important to update any kind of social media at least a few times each day, and closely monitor it in order to respond to any fans or followers who do engage with you. So, what about the Facebook brand pages that are updated on a regular basis? Can we get some info on how much of a community those are? 

4. Numbers still matter. That is, “there’s always going to be push back” for quantity over quality.

If your company’s aim is to market to as many people as possible, that may be the case. But if your company’s growth depends on a strong sense of community, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. For example, I’m always happy when a promotion gets a lot of new users to our site, but nobody really considers it an entirely successful promotion if those people stop asking questions once the promo is over. This is separate from Facebook of course, but I think it’s the same principle. 

5. Gimmicks, expensive apps and games drive a lot of the action. In other words, brands up their numbers by creating “games, contests, and other fancy Facebook apps.”

Well, I can’t say this isn’t true about a lot of what I do. Any time a big video game is released, I run a contest to get people engaged and asking questions about it on Stack Exchange Gaming (I mean, check out this awesome Diablo contest). But I wouldn’t say this “creates a false sense of community” like Malnik claims. The contests increase our traffic and activity, which gets our users talking to each other. Isn’t that exactly what community is? Jessica Malnik says “In a true community, members stumble into the group and then start talking with one another, usually naturally and without any real incentives.” It’s true that the contests aren’t anatural incentive, but when you’re building a community, anything that gets your users talking to each other is usually a good thing. Maintaining the conversation once the contest is over is usually trickier, but if the new users’ experience during the contest is good and they get value out of using our site, they might just come back.

I think my biggest problem with this post is that marketing is portrayed as the antithesis of community development. But in my experience doing community development at Stack Exchange, there is definitely a lot of overlap. In order to develop a community, you have to draw new users in, which requires some marketing. It goes both ways too - in order to get those new users to stick around, you have to create a sense of community. So, I don’t think that community management and marketing are mutually exclusive; in fact, I think you can’t really do one without the other.

Mini apps

I read Business Insider’s article Which Social Network is  Right for You, and it made me realize that several new apps  are “miniatures” of larger social networks or technologies. Path is the first example that comes to mind - it’s designed for you to stay in touch with your closest friends (well, if 150 people can be “close friends”). I haven’t used it personally so I’m not sure what kinds of features it has that Facebook doesn’t, but it seems like the idea was to be a “miniature Facebook.” 

Stamped is another one that seems like a miniaturized version of the more popular  Pinterest. Whereas Pinterest boards can be for anything you like, “a stamp is a five-star recommendation. It’s only for the things you like best.” I believe you only get 100 stamps, at least to start. 

Are these “miniatures” good ideas? Won’t growth be limited by the fact that using them limits you by definition? Do you have to choose between the miniature and the unlimited version, or are they two different use cases? 

A good analogy, I think, is the iPod shuffle versus the regular iPod or iPod Touch, which have more space. Personally, I have a 16GB iPhone so I can really put all the music I own on there. But in practice I really only listen to 100 songs - the same playlist over and over again, on shuffle, when I’m running. So do I really need all that space? Sure, it’s nice to have all that music, but a shuffle might make more sense for me.

Along the same logic, do I really need to “Pin” more than 100 things? Or keep track of more than 150 people? Probably not, but I do. But is that because I want to, or because Pinterest and Facebook are more popular? How can these “mini apps” break through?

How much frustration is $10 worth?

As someone who works in a user-facing role, where things I do sometimes inconvenience people (whether it’s my fault or not), I’ve thought a lot about the best way to say “I’m sorry”. Is it better to send someone a gift, with the obvious intention of appeasing them, or to just send a sincerely apologetic email? Are there other options? This conundrum becomes even more perplexing to me when the situation is reversed and I am the customer.

Back story:

I recently booked an appointment on Zocdoc, and was pleased with how easy it was to enter my insurance, type of doctor, area, and book an appointment online. It’s like OpenTable for doctors! 

However, the morning of my appointment, I got a message from the doctor’s office that they needed to reschedule and asking me to call them back.

1. No, I don’t want to call you back. The reason I use Zocdoc is so I don’t have to make a phone call.
2. The point of Zocdoc is that the appointments are supposed to be guaranteed. 

Whatever. So I called them back. They didn’t answer. I called them again. They told me to call back later, because “the person who handles Zocdoc appointments is away right now.” 

What? You have a person to handle Zocdoc appointments?

1. Aren’t Zocdoc appointments supposed to be automated? Therefore you don’t need a person to handle them?
2. If you have a person to handle them, that must mean you regularly cancel and have to reschedule them, and therefore you aren’t following the rule that appointments are supposed to be guaranteed.

Yes Zocdoc compensated me, but their screw up actually cost me a decent amount of time and frustration. I used the service specifically so that I wouldn’t have to make any phone calls, and I ended up having to make 3 - and that didn’t even get me an appointment. $10 is nice, but after thinking about it, the appointment working out is more important to me.

Also, it’s very transparent what the $10 is for - it’s hush money. It’s to keep you quiet and keep you using Zocdoc. But is there a better way to say I’m sorry that seems more genuine and less like hush money? 

I’m not sure at this point. Anyone have thoughts on this subject? 

NY Health and Fitness Tech Meetup

General Assembly’s Front-end Web Development Class

I’ve been taking General Assembly’s Front-end Web Development (FEWD) course for the past several weeks. The first half of the class was focused on CSS/HTML. I was already pretty comfortable with CSS/HTML before starting this class, but it was good to get some formal training and to learn best practices. We recently started learning Javascript/jQuery, which is pretty new to me - I took the Girl Develop It class on Javascript/jQuery about a year ago, but it was only an overview and I haven’t had much practice with it since.

So far, the class is going pretty well. I finished the CSS/HTML section by building the static front-end of a slideshow creator. I hope to make some more progress on the slideshow creator by the time the course is over. I’ll obviously need some back-end help in order to import photos from Facebook and save slideshows, but I should be able to enable naming, rearranging pictures, timing, and other things of that nature.

There are 3 weeks left in the class, and in that time I hope to become more comfortable with the logic and syntax of how Javascript/jQuery modify HTML elements. I get the gist now and can work through most of our class examples and homework, but I think with more practice it will come to me much more quickly. 

Thank you Smilebox, for inspiring my next side project.

Smilebox has inspired me to build a slideshow creator. Because their system for saving and reopening projects is the most counter-intuitive thing ever.

Some background:

I used it to build slideshows of my recent trips to Disney World and Tanzania. I finished the Disney World one and emailed it to my mom. Because of that email apparently, Smilebox saved it so that it automatically appears when I sign into my Smilebox account from any computer that has the software installed. That’s cool, however the Tanzania slideshow is not yet finished, so I haven’t emailed it to anyone. Mysteriously, even though this project is saved in the same folder as the Disney slideshow, it didn’t appear in “My Smilebox Creations” automatically when I signed into my account on a different computer.

Investigation!

Hm… what is going on here? Upon further investigation, I discovered that when you download Smilebox, it creates a special folder on your computer called “My Smilebox Creations” where all your projects are saved. It also creates an XML document within that folder that keeps track of the projects you have saved. In order to work on your projects from a different computer, you have to install Smilebox and copy all the contents of that folder over to the “My Smilebox Creations” folder that will be created on the other computer.

I did not realize this, because when I signed into my account on the other computer, the Disney slideshow automatically appeared in the Smilebox editor (not just the folder, the actual saved creations tab you can access when you open the program). You can imagine my confusion when one of my projects was there but the other one was missing. I googled the problem and discovered that I needed to copy the projects over, so I did that. Then I closed and reopened the program, but still nothing! Restarted the computer, nothing. Argh.

At this point it occurred to me that I didn’t copy over the XML file. So I did that, and it finally worked. There are so many problems with this system.

1. Nowhere did it say I needed to copy the XML file over - only that I needed to copy the project folders. 
2. Giving me a log-in implies that my projects will be saved whenever I sign into my account, but that is not the case.
3. Emailing a project saves it for you, but saving it does not. What?
4. The average user will not even know what an XML document is.
5. It’s not obvious when you save a project where it is saved, or even that there is a special “My Smilebox Creations” folder created for you.

Ok, that’s enough for now.

/rant

“No, you can’t buy from us.”

Working in a pseudo-marketing, pseudo-PR (ish) job has definitely made me notice bad customer service more, but this was by far the worst customer service experience ever.

I walk into a Deli and ask for a small frozen yogurt, which costs $1.99. Clearly marked on the board. The woman walks away, gets me a yogurt and says “$2.99”.

Me: “oh your board says $1.99.” (I know it’s only a dollar, but it’s the principle!)

Her: “We don’t have that size.”

Me: “Ok you didn’t tell me that. Can’t you just fill this cup up less?”

She walks away. I assume she’s going to get a new cup and fill it up less. She comes back empty handed.

Me: “Could I have my frozen yogurt please.”

Her: “No.”

Seriously?! Fail. Fail. Fail. In this situation, what should she have done? Hm…this is a real tough one huh? 

1. A monkey should be able to fill a cup up less than full. Right? Nope.

2. If you can’t figure that out, you can at least tell the customer you don’t have smalls. Right? Nope.

3. If you can’t figure that out, when you come back and the customer corrects you, you can give it to them at the price of the item they asked for. Right? Nope.

4. If you can’t figure that out, you can say “I’m sorry.” And go get another cup and fill it up half full or whatever. Right? 

NOPE. Apparently it’s better to tell the customer THEY CAN’T BUY FROM YOU. Well, alright, deli-right-underneath-my-apartment. I will stop coming here 3 times a week. Because apparently I’m not allowed to buy from you.

Jury selection is the most broken process ever.

Story time.

I got a summons to appear in court yesterday at 9 am. I knew from the beginning that I was probably very unlikely to ever be chosen to sit on a jury. I wrote my master’s thesis on eyewitness identification accuracy, my lab also ran jury decision-making studies, and I interned at a trial consulting firm for a summer. None of those facts will ever change, nor do they depend on the particulars of the case.

Shouldn’t the courts have you fill out the juror questionnaire and submit it online so attorneys can consult it ahead of time? 

Obviously, some people will be fit to serve on certain juries and not others, but when you have a background that might disqualify you from any case, shouldn’t the attorneys at least be aware of that before they call you in? Then, if your professional and educational background doesn’t bother them, they can call you in and assess whether your opinions and personal experiences are likely to result in biases relevant to the case at hand.

Unfortunately, no such system exists. 

Instead, I had to appear in court, and sit in a room with 18 other jurors for 2 days in order to be questioned for 2 minutes before the attorneys decided they didn’t want me.

Not because of anything I said related to the case. They didn’t even get to that. All they asked me about was what kind of trial consulting work I did. I replied: “Running mock trials, creating and administering pretrial publicity surveys, helping prepare attorneys for this.”

After that one of the attorneys asked “Oh, so what questions should I be asking you right now?” At least he had a sense of humor.

The Kindle Fire Netflix App

I’ve been on a “How I Met Your Mother” kick lately, and so have my roommates. We all share a Netflix account, which means that the “recently watched” episode isn’t always the one I left off on. It’s great that Netflix saves your spot, but the Kindle Fire Netflix App has the worst interface ever. 

First of all, if I click on the recently watched episode of “How I Met Your Mother” and discover it’s one I’ve already seen, I want an easy way to switch to another episode. But there’s literally no way to go directly from one episode back to the series. I have two options - either scroll through each episode (literally drag the little bar to the end of the episode) til I find the one or want, or close the episode and type the words “How I Met Your Mother” into the search bar. The Netflix website has “More Episodes” at the bottom of each episode where you can get back to the series with one click. It’s ridiculous that the app doesn’t have something similar.

What’s even more ridiculous is that if I finally do figure out that I have to close out of the episode and re-search for the show, this is what I see:

Yep, that’s right: a box pops up with a series summary, but all the episodes are hidden by the keyboard. If you try to scroll down, you can’t. You have to stare at this screen and hit random buttons in order to figure out how to actually get to the episodes. Eventually I figured out that you have to hit “Search” to get rid of the keyboard. How is that at all intuitive?

What’s up with the multi-blog management system on tumblr?

I started using tumblr a while ago, but only just started using it regularly, and only just created a secondary blog (train, eat, enjoy). I thought it was really cool that I didn’t have to have a separate sign-in to have another tumblr. The whole concept of a universal log-in makes a lot of sense, and I always appreciate when I can sign in to a new web app using Facebook, Twitter, etc. However, it seems like tumblr’s “universal” log-in system has more drawbacks than benefits. 

For example, my secondary blog is all about food and exercise. The people that are (hopefully) going to read those posts are a completely different audience than the people who would want to read about technology, and startups. So when I follow other fitness bloggers, I want to follow them from that blog. But I only have one account, so (I think?) they only see that they were followed by laurengundrum.com. Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be able to designate which blog they see? 

Along the same lines, when I connect my tumblr account to another web app, it only connects as laurengundrum.com (I experienced this today when I tried to link my tumblr to my Klout profile, which for some strange reason thinks I’m only influential about Justin Bieber). That’s ok I guess, given that this is my main blog, but I’d like it if Klout knew that I write about food and exercise so that I could maybe be influential about topics besides Justin Bieber. 

I don’t know how exactly it should work, but right now it seems like secondary tumblrs are almost completely hidden unless someone has the direct link or you link to your secondary blog in your primary blog. I might be wrong about this, but it seems like there’s no way to change which blog is primary, which is kind of silly. Right? I mean, if when I follow people they only see my primary blog, I should at least be able to switch which one they see that way. 

Maybe I’m wrong about these things, but it hasn’t been easy for me to figure out, at the very least. Tumblr! Help!