1to1 - Spring 2009 - (Page 12) CASE STUDIES: ATKINS | DEL MONTE | MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER Gaining Insight From Social Media Three companies learn customer preferences from mining their social communities. Social Media Motivators A study asked 297 communications professionals the influence their social media efforts had on their organizations and the criteria they considered to be the most effective. (1 = not at all effective; 5 = very effective) Search engine ranking Number of hits/unique visitors Targeted audience awareness of program Blog search engine rankings Incoming links Bottom line increase Positive/negative nature of blog posts or comments Number of RSS feed subscribers Number of comments on blog/podcast SOURCE: Society for New Communications Research Atkins Creates a Two-Way Dialog d ieting is in many ways a solo endeavor. But as with many other activities, people have gone online in search of a support community as they strive for a common goal. Atkins, the weight loss program that includes a book and other dieting products, realized that consumers using the program were getting together online and talking about their attempts to lose weight, so the company created a social network to bring those conversations within the Atkins brand. “There’s a real leadership within the community itself among people who have [lost weight] and want to help newcomers along and give them encouragement,” says Colette Heimowitz, vice president of education and research. When the original Atkins Learning Center launched four years ago, it consisted of a series of message boards for customers to talk to each other. Late last year Atkins overhauled the site and built community.atkins.com with social network provider Powered. The site gives Atkins a two-way dialog with consumers and provides members with tools to interact with each other and learn about the company’s products. “Now I can also be an authoritative voice, blogging about the latest 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 issues they may encounter, like telling them how to make it through the holidays,” Heimowitz adds. Atkins doesn’t directly sell products on the site (though there is a link to the company’s online store); the primary purpose of the network is engagement and building brand consideration, loyalty, advocacy, and retention. Many members have indicated on the boards and through survey feedback that they appreciate that Atkins has provided the site for free, something that isn’t always the case in its industry. Currently the site has approximately 200,000 registered members; 5,000 members joined during the first two months of the updated launch. Members have posted more than 15,000 comments on the forums, and site visits have more than tripled on the new community versus the same time period on the old site. “We really wanted to roll out these new features to give people a chance to not only talk to each other, but so that we could qualitatively collect feedback and have something to give to our development team,” Heimowitz says. “We added the blog, but we also added ratings and reviews of products, as well as online courses that people can take to help them lose weight.” The next phase of the update, scheduled to launch in February, will include more personalization and tracking for members. They’ll be able to create a journal, track their weight electronically, measure their carbohydrates and BMI, and create a more detailed user profile. Atkins plans to mine the ratings and reviews, as well as the feedback from message boards and surveys, from this and future updates to change its products, learn about how and why people diet, and develop new services to address member needs. “We haven’t decided everything we’re going to add because we want to survey our members and make sure our decisions are data driven based on the needs of our audience,” Heimowitz says. “We want to be different than our competitors because we create a safe, comfortable place [our customers] can go to help them lose weight, and, especially, make them feel like they’re having fun at the same time.” > Jeremy Nedelka ONLINE EXTRA: Read more about how companies are mining customer insight from social media at www.1to1media.com/links/insight.html www.1to1media.com http://www.atkins.com http://sncr.org/ http://community.atkins.com/ http://community.atkins.com http://www.1to1media.com/view.aspx?itemid=29293 http://www.1to1media.com/links/insight.html http://www.1to1media.com
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