The Social Workplace is undergoing a transformation from being a closed off silo to one that deeply integrates real-time data from external sources—social experiences created and managed by the company as well as the broader social web.
For the Enterprise, KickApps is a new Social CRM platform that enables companies to create online engagement experiences, used by marketers, customer support and product development teams that delivers actionable social graph data and insights.
With the tools that we have created, we are increasingly viewed as a ‘Social’ engine in the workplace–the typical scenario involves integration with and application like Sharepoint, and existing CRM, BI, or HR platforms, the combination of which provides a complete solution for community, conversation and collaboration.
Demand for KickApps in the workplace is driven by the need for integration of externally facing experiences that feed into an internal collaboration and social platform. Unlike just a few years ago, the Social Workplace is not a silo to the outside world and virtually every function in the enterprise requires the integration of external touch points, whether to customers, partners or a broader business community.
At KickApps we’re able to deliver a best-of-breed solution for social engagement (both customer and employee) that combines very well with a best-of-breed solutions for traditional document based collaboration. We believe this combination makes businesses more productive, agile and able to respond to customer needs.
Lea & Perrins, a Heinz brand, is running a really fun video contest called “That’s a wRAP.” The concept is pretty straight forward, submit a short video of your rap about Lea & Perrins Thick Classic® Worcestershire Sauce for a chance to win a variety of prizes, including $5,000 in cash.
Engagement comes in several key ways: Content, Activities and Interaction. Activities like this create tremendous opportunities for brand engagement. As a Social Graph Engine, KickApps provides brands with the ability to deploy engagement experiences which in turn generate your brand’s very own Social Graph that can provide you with Customer Insight and an abundance of Actionable Data that can inform other engagement experiences and other marketing and sales programs (e.g. email campaigns, coupons, etc.).
It doesn’t have to end at the end of a contest either. In fact, I’d even go as far as saying it shouldn’t. You’ve now aggregated an audience that you know quite a bit about. Ask yourself how you’re going to keep them engaged. Is it another contest? Is it a content strategy? The opportunity is to go from a one off campaign to a perpetual campaign. Heck, maybe even ask them what they’d like to do next.
Some keys to success:
A compelling, and usually fun, concept that will appeal to the audience or customer you’re trying to reach (drop us a line, we enjoy coming up with great ideas).
A prize that will appeal to the customer or audience (we had a client that gave away a house!). While you don’t have to go as far as giving away a house, the importance of a great prize can’t be overlooked. You’re trying to motivate your customers to engage and interact with you, appeal to their desire to win something cool.
Deploy an interactive platform that allows people to take the contest viral and become your virtual street team (a term that was coined by an early client that was behind one of the most successful video submission contests, VIBE Verses). Encourage and enable people to share the videos across the social web and tap into their ’social graph’ to drive people back to site to vote for their video, leave comments, and more important, engage with your brand.
We hosted a seminar in San Francisco on Social Media in the Enterprise last month. The turn out was tremendous (slight underestimation on my part meant that some late comers were stuck against the back wall) with over a hundred people from multiple industries ranging from tech to consumer products. We were able to pull together a terrific program of speakers that include Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester, Sandy Carter of IBM, Dylan Boyd of eROI and James Mastan of Blue Rain Marketing.
As part of the seminar, we created a separate blog called Engage@KickApps that will deal with trends, thought leadership ideas, analysis and content from events like the June seminar. Check it out when you have a moment: www.kickapps.com/engage. Aside from great content, we hope that it’ll be a place where people can continue the conversations that come out of our seminars and events, and the content we put up.
Here’s a video of Alex opening up proceedings at the seminar. There are more videos at Engage@KickApps for you to check out. We’ll continue uploading clips of the day’s proceedings.
Just one word. A name. Literally hundreds of images are probably whizzing through your head. Not many people have achieved that in their life and career. (We hope someday that KickApps reaches that status!)
The KickApps Platform is a very powerful solution for musicians, performers, entertainers and sports teams. It allows them to create a place where their fans can congregate online and share their passion for their favorite band, singer, dancer, you name it.
It’s extremely humbling and exciting to be able to say that U2 and now Madonna are part of the KickApps family.
On a personal note: Madge, call me (212) 730-4558. While I wait, I’ll be watching this…
Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article today about how organizations like the Muscular Dystrophy Association are using online communities and social media to create online support groups for members.
We’ve been fortunate to work with a number of non-profits and advocacy organizations, including the Special Olympics and soon to be launched community for Children’s International, to create online communities where people can connect with others, share their stories and seek support. The online experience, in MDA’s case, a private network, is a very effective way to engage with an organization’s membership base and where relevant, a very useful complement to existing offline programs.
Congrats to the MDA for the recognition today. Here’s a clip from the community.
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