If a bar had the opportunity to replace its bartender with a bartending machine, do you think it should? Even if the machine could hold a decent conversation because it was operated by a real person, do you think the bar would be as successful as one that used the real deal? Hold that thought, as we'll be returning to it soon.
Anonymous online communities have a bad reputation; but essentially they’re just powerful tools for collaboration and the spread of information. They can be used for good or ill.
One of the reasons the series rose in fame was because anyone who liked the series could be open about it, regardless of gender or age, in the anonymous community of 4chan. Since users could not be identified, there were no consequences, such as the social embarrassment of men admitting they liked a cartoon show for girls (it's not as creepy as it sounds, as My Little Pony was also designed with parents in mind). [Ed. note: It is as creepy as it sounds.] The community participants were far more forthcoming with information and honesty using the identity of “anonymous poster” than they would ever be on a network like Facebook.
The lesson for brands to learn here is that if they really want to know what people are thinking, give them the option of talking from behind a mask. This allows brands to achieve the following:
Calmly and fairly handle complaints. On anonymous communities, people are more apt to complain (and do so rudely), creating opportunities for the brand to demonstrate superior customer service in its responses and instill confidence from the target market.
Put privacy back into the hands of the consumers. Anonymous commenting gives the choice of privacy back to users, making them feel empowered.
Generate more comments. When people don't have to create yet another sign-up name and password, they are more likely to keep the discussion flowing.
Of course, the two major disadvantages of this approach are noise pollution from low-value comments and the amount of moderation required -- as news outlets will attest.
Ironically, to really reap the benefits of anonymous communities, a brand will have to give up its shield of anonymity and engage completely, allowing its employees to speak out on its behalf. A brand listening on a network is a faceless entity, inhuman and untrustworthy. A Scott Kinoshita who works for a brand on a network, however, is Scott Kinoshita first and a representative of the brand second.
Scott is human, he has a face, he is the bartender for The Brand (I told you we'd come back to it). Not only is a very human "bartender" more personable and transparent, but individuals who never wore a mask to begin with lend a distinctively authentic voice to their organization. The bartender becomes a familiar, trusted face the community opens up to.
While the setup of anonymous networks with "naked" organizations will have its fair share of challenges, it also offers a combination of consumer privacy with transparent engagement for brands, potentially generating superior data, engagement, and loyalty.
An anonymous community won't be appropriate for every organization, but it gives back consumers what they've lost -- privacy -- while offering brands the benefits of social networking.
"doesn't the most meaningful data come from knowing who the users are who are engaging with your brand on a social network?"
Maybe.
People can hide their data, can use personas, or simply choose not to engage as a matter of distrust. The anonymous element is an option, not a requirement. Those who really want to engage, who want their identities known are welcome to do so.
But providing an anonymous option allows those who don't trust the brand yet, or don't want to share all their data to still give their feedback and be heard.
By responding to intelligent anonymous feedback in a respectful way the brand builds trust. I remember you're not so found of companies being so grabby with your data, Nicole. Wouldn't it be nice for once if the control was given back to you? To let you say what the company may or may not know about you?
What if during account registration, for any field you had the option of "None of your business" or "I don't trust you enough yet to tell you that". So if you filled in nothing, you could be anonymous (other than your IP obviously). If you just filled in your name, you could always go back and say "OK, I trust you enough now to tell you X".
After all, do you give everyone you know all your personal details -- or do you wait to get to know them first and build up some trust?
I've noticed that analytics can fill in a lot of the gaps, and besides -- the less personally identifiable information the company has, the less lawsuits it has to deal with later if anyone breaks into it.
I think the more a company needs feedback from the target market, the more it should embrace anonymous networks. Not having require yet another password, not needing another log-in, not having to share one's social media account with yet another data-grabby organization removes a lot of obstacles that might discourage that oh-so-valuable feedback and opportunity to engage.
For example, McDonald's would be less suitable for an anonymous network; they know they have a lot of detractors, a massive market, and I don't think the brand is ready to engage them on that kind of level. It would require a lot of monitoring and more transparency than I think management is ready for. (This is more from my experience with McD's on Twitter)
It is an interesting idea, but I agree that most brands are now deeply invested in the idea of getting to know their consumers, and engaging with them as personally as possible.
Scott, I had one other question about your post. You write: "While the setup of anonymous networks with 'naked' organizations will have its fair share of challenges, it also offers a combination of consumer privacy with transparent engagement for brands, potentially generating superior data, engagement, and loyalty."
Interesting points. But doesn't the most meaningful data come from knowing who the users are who are engaging with your brand on a social network? Seems like the brand could lose out here.
Scott, interesting blog. I'm wondering what types of organizations/brands you think would best benefit from this idea? You note that it's not for everyone, and I agree. And I'm still not sold on this in general, but I'm curious to know which types of companies you think should and shouldn't try this.
@Paul Whyte: I think the guidelines I can offer would depend on both the goals of the organization, the organizational culture, the kind of market they currently engage and the kind of target market they want to engage.
As far as goals go, anonymous networks with transparent brands work towards building up trust, reducing the risk associated with doing business with the brand, and getting critical feedback on products, practices and image. The anonymous network is sales support and follow-up
If management isn't willing to buy-in to trying something new, if they're stuck in doing things they way 'they've always been done', then don't even bother. I guess the short version is that if the culture isn't one of engagement already, don't try to work a network with an anonymous option.
The organization will also need to have a game-plan in place to handle spammers and hijakcers when they occur in a way that doesn't disrupt the day-to-day engagement. (4chan uses CAPTCHA)
Probably the biggest factor though will the nature of the target market itself. The broader the interests and appeal your network has, the more moderation and work it will take to maintain.
A key advantage of an anonymous-option network I neglected to mention is the fact that it doesn't require an account to leave feedback, making it easier for the target market to speak. The harder feedback is to come by, the more suitable an anonymous network becomes.
Yes, that dialogue today is more than it was in the past - it's a vital part of the 2.0 existence of brands and customer relations.
As a marketing research guy, I know that the vast majority of the customer base doesn't engage but the fringes do and when the middle ground does participate in this conversation it is a very important thing. They tend to remain quiet until really pushed to a REALLY LIKE or a REALLY DISLIKE -- and this is very valuable to companies, a measure of something bigger if there suddenly happens to be a lot more "chatter"
The personal data issue is one which hasn't changed in the lessening, and has moved more toward the "more protection is better"
"An anonymous community won't be appropriate for every organization, but it gives back consumers what they've lost -- privacy -- while offering brands the benefits of social networking."
So can you help us with any guidelines to help organization decides as to whether an anonymous community is appropiate for them or not?
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
There is so much data available in analytics that it's easy for enterprise users to get sidetracked by some interesting numbers. It's even easier to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data available, which threatens the value of analytics to the business. The solution for enterprise analytics experts is to have the intended audience for a report create a profile of the targets.
Many branded sites don't do their owners any favors. They may have been designed by professionals; yet they utterly fail to have good design, simply because those who wanted the site in the first place have little to no idea what they wanted to get from it.
While doing research online, I discovered some unpleasant stories about major gyms. We're talking about the biggest national gym chains across North America. Customer service nightmares, unfair practices, and at times borderline criminal behavior. These stories troubled me, since I'm a member of one of them, and there were a lot of stories about it in the comments -- with not a single response from the gym.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
Marissa Mayer at Yahoo has come out with her strategy on turning the company around: culture, company, calibration, and compensation. But Yahoo needs to have a technical approach to the mobile cloud opportunity, not a management theory lesson.
Amanda Richman, president of digital at MediaVest, cites the rise of the 'empowered consumer' as one of the most significant changes in digital marketing today.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
