“Social-Lite” Applications for Business Websites

When Starbucks recently launched a new program called My Starbucks Idea there was a veritable storm of negative feedback from the online advertising and marketing world; from New York Magazine to MediaPost. The site, which aims to create a community of Starbucks patrons who (after registering of course) can submit, vote on, and comment on ideas for how to improve the products and services offered by the coffee giant, was decried as an awful example of social networking, a bad marketing idea, and just generally boring.

But perhaps the industry is being just a little harsh? I mean how easily we forget about Wal-mart’s “The Hub” which was the mother of all misguided and blundering social networking initiatives. I cringe as I recall those canned and obviously fake comments on user profiles about products and sales. Surely a virtual comment box isn’t as bad as all that?

So in the interest of a balanced take on on things I wanted to look at My Starbucks Idea in a slightly different light. Now, I’m the first to admit that I find the site pretty bland and well, let’s face it, kind of boring. I’m also willing to bet it will be a short-lived project because really how much engaging conversation can a person have about lattes, double half caffs, or skim mochas? And how long can it be before the social mischief starts, and folks start taking advantage of the fact that Starbucks claims it will follow through on ideas that garner the most votes. I can see rogue users starting to vote for a new drink called the Hoover Dam, that is 100 oz. of espresso and features an image of J. Edgar on every cup. A project like this just begs for anarchy.

However, it seems unfair to me that this niche social site be compared to the social media giants. It’s clear that the company isn’t trying to recreate a social networking community like Facebook or MySpace, but rather the My Starbucks Idea seems more like the glorified comment/feedback forms that typically show up on retailers’ websites after each product listing. The only reason this more tried and true method won’t work for Starbucks is that they rely on in-store customers and have little online merchandise to talk about. That said, consumer (or user) generated content (CGC) is a sales tool that most major online retailers are now using. I wrote a little about the rise in CGC in a previous post about a Bazaarvoice study that revealed 80 percent of US shoppers place more trust in brands that offer customer ratings and reviews.

The My Starbucks Idea project strikes me as Starbucks’ way of entering into the arena of CGC and providing customers with a greater way to engage with products. A customer relationship management (CRM) tactic more than a foray into mass social media. And, by that rationale, it might be less of a failure than it first appears, considering that unlike “The Hub” fiasco, it’s not purporting to be much more than what it is. Starbucks employees are completely transparent when they comment and the purpose of the site isn’t necessarily to get Starbucks patrons to hang out and talk about their lives but rather to go in with a specific action in mind (submit, discuss, vote).

Screenshot of My Starbucks Idea after I voted on an idea (see the grey check mark?)

And what does Starbucks get? They get to interact with a population of people who actually want to talk about Starbucks products in their free time, they get those emails for future communications, and they get to bring the social world to them using what I’ll call a “social-lite” application.

What is a “social-lite” application?

I define “social-lite” applications as those social media and “on-demand” apps or services that a company can place on their own website or easily integrate with their own site using a micro-site (as Starbucks has done). They are typically a lighter or tamer (more controllable) version of MySpace, YouTube, and other popular social media sites. Basically, any social-lite application gives the company the chance to host the party themselves, which works particularly well for big brands that want to control their message a little more.

Companies benefit from social-lite applications in quite a few ways:

• First, they get to cut down on the “noise” of the mass public in popular sites like YouTube and MySpace.
• Second, their audience is already interested since they’re visiting the site, and “social-lite” apps provide a way to deepen the relationship, these apps also are built by the company and in support of the company.
• Third, ostensibly, the company can keep better tabs on their social community when it’s in-house.
• Fourth, the expectations for these niche communities are more defined since they are more focused to a particular group of people.
• And finally, most of these social-lite apps are highly trackable and measurable (Salesforce.com’s touts tracking), or at least they’re moving in that direction.

In Starbuck’s case, the social-lite app is the Salesforce “Ideas” application. The “Ideas” app is a virtual comment/suggestion box - an on-demand and trackable way to get feedback from clients, partners, customers, and/or employees. If you have a Salesforce account, you can tie this service right into your existing CRM, providing a much richer understanding of your potential customers. Salesforce seems to be heading strongly in the direction of incorporating social media and “on-demand” applications that tie directly into a client’s existing sales automation account.

Screenshot of Salesforce “Ideas” tracking and measurement tools.

As more and more marketers search for ways to measure, analyze, and track social media efforts, applications like “Ideas” will become more and more popular.

The new 7.5.1 CMS400.net version of the Ektron content management system, now comes with what they call “community platform and social networking framework.” I checked out what this might look like at the Pfizer Brands 2Live By site. Unfortunately at the time of this post, the community features didn’t appear to be activated, but I assume that it will function much like a forum where users can set up profiles, post ideas, comments, and possibly some user voting/polling.

The social networking do-it-yourself leader NING is also a good example of a social-lite application. NING allows you to develop your own social networking site that is based on a shared theme, idea, event, or anything really. For instance, Ning network Classroom 2.0 is for people interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. With over 7000 members, Classroom 2.0. has built a very robust, niche community that doesn’t have to deal with the “noise” of LinkedIn’s or Facebook’s zillions of profiles, but instead can stay focused and relevant to its members.

Another emerging social media “on-demand” application provider is KickApps, which basically provides the whole social media kit and caboodle through it’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. A SaaS is an online platform that removes the need for hosting, downloads, software packages, etc. Think Google Docs. KickApps let’s you host all your content for free and they take the revenue from ads that they place on your site, OR they let you control the ad inventory and charge you for page views (CPM model) by your community users. The most popular KickApps users are TV, sports, and media, but other retailers are getting into the mix. Autobytels.com’s “My Ride” is a good example. Despite the fact that ads that you don’t specify will show up on your site, I qualify service like KickApps as social-lite apps because the community is guided by the company and in service of the company.

Screenshot of “My Ride” Autobytel.com’s car lovers community.

Which brings us to one of the challenges of a social-lite application. Because communities are more specific to a company and its’ products/services, it’s definitely important to provide the right amount of relevant, interesting, and engaging content in order to get anyone to participate - again think Wal-mart’s “The Hub.” Also, companies will have to be careful not to appear too “markety” or try too hard to be “hip” with their social initiatives. As more big brand names attempt to incorporate social media, these will be the big challenges. To a certain extent, the simple, straightforward, and transparent approach of My Starbucks Idea might be a good way for a company like this to start out of the gate. I think this site will be a good test case for how these new social-lite applications will fare in the future.

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