Thought Following

Linkedin Recap: Proving the Value of Community

| Lana

In this LinkedIn post of Rich Millington, he shared a case study of proving the value of a community by estimating the value in a statistically valid way since running a controlled experiment wasn’t feasible.

My Takeaways

Below are some of Rich’s examples:

  1. Compare the generated revenue of active (> 1 post) vs. inactive members
  2. Determine the revenue contribution of members who posted 1+ posts
  3. Correlation of logging in at least once to revenue increase
  4. Replying to a post and the probability that they will sign up for an additional course
  5. How creating a new thread and is related to new course enrollments

Epic Quote

The takeaway? Not all engagement is equal.

The most valuable actions weren’t just any interactions. They were starting discussions, sharing resources, and responding to messages.

This insight led to a clear strategy:
→ Encourage thread creation.
→ Provide more downloadable documents.
→ Increase engagement in direct messaging.

– Rich Millington

Recap: Automation and AI in Online Communities (Community Roundtable)

| Lana

This recap is from Community Roundtable’s Community Conversations podcast on “Automation and AI in Online Communities”

Hosts Jim Storer and Shannon Abram chat with Jessica Langston the Senior Director, Community at Autodesk about the ways automation and AI can benefit online community programs, including language translations and localization, filtering and analyzing community data and automating repetitive tasks.

Listen to the Podcast

My takeaways

Use cases for using AI in the Autodesk Community:

  • Filter through data to create themes of what they’re hearing in the community
  • Language translations for localized content
  • Repetitive jobs (administrative and operational) to focus on relationship-building in their community

On community evangelism:

  • Awareness efforts to amplify what’s in it for customers
  • Add value proposition in messaging
  • Look at the ones who are evangelizing – strong with customer engagement and getting them in the community, speaking at events, writing about it. It’s a team effort.
    • Grassroots vs. marketing campaign

Notes to self

  • Look into using AI to filter through data to find common discussion themes
  • Look into community evangelism program ideas

Mastering ChatGPT: Top Tips from Wired Magazine

| Lana

Part of my Thought Follower series:

Here are my 5 ChatGPT takeaway tips from Wired Magazine’s 17 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level written by David Nield:

  1. Get a response for your intended audience
    Takeway: Use prompts tailored to your audience like “explain quantum physics as if you were talking to a 12-year old”
  2. Create prompts for other AI engines
    Takeaway: You can ask the chatbot to add more detail to sentences, role-play as another AI tool and refine answers as you add more information.
  3. Explain difficult concepts
    Takeaway: Copy and paste text from different sources and ask Chat GPT to explain it to you
  4. Ask for feedback on writing
    Takeway: Paste your text and ask ChatGPT if your title is effective or to check your spelling, grammar, tone, readability, and more.
  5. Potent prompts – specificity and refining
    Takeaway: Detail and specificity is important when generating prompts and helps you get a better response. Additionally, giving ChatGPT a starting point lets it finish it off – and you can always refine the response.

My Action Items

  1. Use ChatGPT for article titles and editing
    While I may not agree with every suggestion, it’s like having a personal writing tutor.
  2. Write specific and detailed prompts
    Quality prompts result in quality responses.
  3. Consider my audience
    Ensures my content is relevant and engaging.

Renewing my Thought Follower Pledge in 2024

| Lana

In January 2022, I shared that I am a proud thought follower and had planned to summarize podcasts and articles to share them here. Little did I know that 2 months later, tragedy would strike and I’d be laying my fiancé, our hopes, and planned future together to rest. With the help of friends, family, Zuora co-workers, and other communities who rallied around me, I’m back!

The industry has changed since 2022 and so, my thought followership tales will focus on these 3 topics:

  1. ChatGPT Tips – getting the most from generative AI chatbots
  2. Community Management Math – allow me to dispel the mystique
  3. Communities Across the Lifespan – helping all ages find their tribe

And as with most tales there are side stories so you may see some other topics as well.

Let’s continue!

Recap: 20 Ways Organizations Use AI To Interact With And Serve Customers (Forbes)

| Lana

Here are some of my knowledge nuggets as a thought follower from Forbes Technology Council’s article, 20 Ways Organizations Use AI To Interact With And Serve Customers which shares ways AI can augment an organization’s product and services to effectively communicate with their customers:

  1. Personalized Customer Experience – responses catered to the individual
  2. Adaptive Entertainment – real-time changes to digital experiences
  3. Chatbots; Behavior Analysis – 24/7 customer engagement and ability to analyze buyer behaviors, preferences, and inclinations.
  4. E-Commerce Searches – Personalized guidance
  5. Real-Time Delivery Tracking – AI predictions notifying customers about package delivery
  6. Tailored Purchase Offers – Predict which customers will buy complementary or higher-level products.
  7. Sentiment Analysis – Predict how customers feel during interactions
  8. Customer Feedback Analysis – AI sentiment analysis applied to feedback to detect nuances in emotions and pinpoint problems early
  9. Disease Prevention – identify patients who are likely to develop a chronic condition
  10. Content Generation And Curation – use user data to show different information based on actions
  11. Guided Customer Support – customer support solutions using real-time sentiment analysis and guidance
  12. Fraud Prevention – using machine learning models to detect genuine customers from frauds
  13. Predictive Maintenance – analyze data from connected devices and sensors to anticipate failures and conduct preventative maintenance
  14. Dynamic Pricing – personalized pricing strategy
  15. Verified Customer Onboarding – welcoming genuine customers and keeping fraudsters at bay
  16. Customer Profiling – creating profiles of current and potential customers for better service, keep shelves stocked, etc.
  17. Talent Sourcing And Recruitment – better source workers for better talent matching and acquisition
  18. Body Measurement – online try-ons, virtual dressing rooms, fitness coaches, and rehab assistants
  19. Customer Complaint Management – better classification of customer complaints to connect customers to the right person at the right time
  20. Higher-Quality Patient Care – tailor-made treatment plans, identifying health issues early, reduce wait times by streamlining operations

Read the full article on Forbes.com:
20 Ways Organizations Use AI To Interact With And Serve Customers

My Takeaways

From the above, the following are of value to me to learn more about:

  • Personalized customer experience
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Content generation and curation
  • Behavior analysis
  • Guided customer support
  • Verified customer onboarding
  • Complaint management

Recap :Centers of Excellence (Adrian Speyer)

Lightbulb on a stack of magazines
| Lana

Here are some of my knowledge nuggets as a thought follower from Adrian Speyer‘s article and presentation Centers of Excellence: The Next Big Thing for Community. What’s shared here is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of content so I encourage you to dive deeper by reading the article or watching the video.

EPIC Quote

There’s an opportunity for there to be a space – a digital home so to speak – for everything customers need to be successful – a center of excellence – but with community permeating all aspects of this – so the conversation is not to the community as much as it is with the community. It would touch all aspects: help, learning, connection, discovery, and thought leadership.

Adrian Speyer, “Centers of Excellence: The Next Big Thing for Community”

My Takeaways

  1. Communities should be the central hub for all customers to be successful along their journey – from pre-sales to learning best practices
  2. Communities should “broaden their horizons” and move past being just a support community.
    • Stop using the word “support” and use “success”
    • Focus on outcomes – what makes the customer happy (max ROI)
  3. Stop working in a silo. Think laterally and involve teams in a “Center of Excellence Advisory Board”
  4. Understand your customers by building personas.
  5. Focus on your members, finding the right people to run the community, and develop a robust plan (don’t just wing it).
  6. This takes time so don’t expect immediate results. Rather, focus on micro-successes.

My Action Items

  1. Redefine my communities as Centers of Excellence where customers find value beyond support and focus on highlighting content that will make them successful such as virtual events to connect with peers to discuss strategy and share their experiences (best practices and pitfalls).
    • Extend CoE concept to internal teams – product, engineers and developers. Hearing product feedback will help make the product better, improving customer experience and building trust in the company.
  2. Reach out to other teams – especially those in the field – to better understand what is keeping their customers from being successful (e.g. knowledge gaps) and develop community opportunities for them to connect and learn from others.
  3. Empower customers by partnering with them to develop customer-led/focused community programs so that they can share their success stories with others.