Collaboration is human. We like to take part in shared experiences and then talk about them. Debate/dissect them. Remix them. Come to shared agreement about them. These are core elements of how we share experiences.
And yet - many digital experiences seem to be more like echos - call and response, but mostly asynchronous, especially if you’re looking for a real person, instead of a script. And when you think about where you spend your ‘connected’ time is it mostly in isolation? It seems we spend most of our time online doing something alone, or reaching out for information, but not getting live feedback from a person, or groups of people.
Image by ChrisL_AK on Flickr
Why is this? Is it purely that no groups of people are ever in the same place on the internet at the same time? Is it the fact that most computers only ’seat’ one? Why are their so few places for live digital interaction outside of instant messaging/chat and texting (which, while relevant for younger audiences, are not typically a mass behavior). Is it a new preference we’re only understanding now because of the new tolls we use to communicate? Are people actually afraid to have a ‘live’ experience online?
As Web 2.0 took hold, the expectation grew that Brands should offer the chance for feedback from users, but very little of it is in real-time. Or really even close to real-time. And having groups able to give feedback and discuss or even manipulate something together is almost unheard of, outside of alternate reality worlds like SecondLife (which are, shall we say, not as relevant as one would like to a mass audience).
Think about the tools you use for work - like Word, Powerpoint and Excel. Until the latest Office release with Sharepoint built in, there were few ways to work collaboratively on these documents without emailing them around. Google and Xoho Docs gave us this power from the start, but are not as widely used. Some others are listed here. But these are really all about productivity. Where are real collaboration tools for consumers?
We have seen several recent campaigns where timeliness of response is a central part of their appeal, like the Old Spice Guy, or Wheat Thins’ Crunch Is Calling commercials with their van deliveries or Edge Shave Zone’s Anti-Irritation campaign. The fact that the response comes quickly (ok - sort of quickly) is what makes them cool. But still these examples are not about collaborating, as much as responding. Think about what a difference in quality there is between those campaigns and the experience you have watching the SuperBowl and talking with your friends while you see the ads.
So what to do? Well, the answer lies in another trend. In some recent research about DVR viewing, it was uncovered that DVR viewership was down in some younger segments, and it was determined that it was because of that group needing to experience the event/show live, in order to participate live with their friends and avoid any spoilers. So both the time-aspect and popularity of the content changed their behavior from what it might otherwise be - delayed viewing - to live viewing so they could use social networks and text messaging as an immediate channel for collaboration and connection. This finding creates an insight that drives how we design content and experiences for great community collaboration: the centrality of having a well-known Time, Place, and Reward.
Time: clear deadlines/happy hours/times to tune in
Place: obvious platforms where all/most of the people who share the passion will be
Reward/Goal: a shared community value (social currency) attached to the participation
By creating engaging Acts that include a powerful mix of Time, Place and Reward drivers we can encourage engaging experiences in a variety of ways:
- Facebook - Since almost everyone is already on there anyway - why not there? The sheer number of things you can do on Facebook continues to grow (including chat), and it may well be the SecondLife of the moment. Their recent roll out of their partnership with LiveStream allows for multiples of interactions at the same time, although true dialog has not yet really taken hold there. Why not add a platform that enables real-time community discussion for a Brand? Or crowd-creation of content that connects the people together while they are creating it?
- Online worlds - We shouldn’t count them out just yet. Don’t forget that Farmville still lets you go ‘live’ a friend’s farm, or down to the local i-pub. The key here is to match the Brand’s purpose to the community’s task when they enter the alternate world, which can get pretty murky outside of gaming worlds, which we’ll get to in a minute.
- Tablets/kiosks/media tables - One possible vision for Microsoft Surface could have been to allow for more than one ’seat’ at the computer. IPads and other tablets are still mostly used as one-person devices, but their very portability does encourage some level of ’show and tell’. As retail stores find new ways to allow for more engagement, they will be looking for ways to encourage shoppers to share and build experiences in-store that deliver value, and although a majority will be available on their mobile phones, there are still opportunities to allow for shared experiences that can impact sales.
- Gaming platforms - Wii, Xbox and now Kinect are great examples of being able to place ourselves in a world with others, easily and with a maximum of impact. Again, all that is needed is a clear purpose for participation that aligns with the Reward/Goal the gamers have.
- Hosted ‘projects’ - Prezi, the zooming presentation software, is an interesting example of a digital experience that not only allows collaboration, but gives it a personality with little avatars zooming around the page for each collaborator. Yeah - it’s kind of second-lifey, but the cool thing there is that it’s really _about_ the collaboration on something - a presentation in their case. This idea about interaction should be examined further.
- Interactive toys - When we think of how digitally wired many toys are these days, we should remember that Mom may be there with her kid at the same time, and finding something for them to do together could be an emotionally-charged moment.
- The family car - same premise as #6, but this time with a few possible other players. It’s great that the car of the future can read you your tweets, but why can’t it do something more for the whole family than just one person?
- Your site - With Facebook reportedly preparing a commenting function to be rolled out across 3rd party websites, could this (or other products like Convore) bring more dialog and collaboration to your site? If not, you can always examine where most of the conversation will be happening, and plan how to engage there.
How would your Brand participate in this kind of collaboration? And what could you do if everyone could be in the experience at the same time?
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