{"id":327,"date":"2016-09-02T16:02:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/?p=327"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:38:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T10:38:34","slug":"how-to-communicate-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/how-to-communicate-value\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Communicate Value"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content standard\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h1>16<\/h1>\n<h2>16.2:\u00a0How to Communicate Value<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/sponsored-by-sap.png\" alt=\"Sponsored by SAP\" width=\"113\" height=\"65\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h3>Now we know what stakeholders value, we need to know how best to communicate that value. This is more complicated than simply asking stakeholders how they like to receive information.<\/h3>\n<p><div class=\"boxout\"><\/p>\n<p>Very often, a CEO, for example, might ask for a monthly report containing the latest figures. The problem is this report lacks context and is placed alongside a dozen other monthly reports that appear at the same time but are rarely read.<\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>More importantly, there is a huge difference between communicating metrics and establishing value.\u00a0Perceived value is the degree to which each individual stakeholder believes the community helps them achieve their goals.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"tweet\">\r\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Perceived+value+is+the+degree+to+which+each+stakeholder+believes+the+community+helps+them+achieve+their+goals.&amp;url=https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/how-to-communicate-value\/\" target=\"_blank\">\r\n\t\t<h3>Perceived value is the degree to which each stakeholder believes the community helps them achieve their goals.<\/h3>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"tweetButton\">&nbsp;<\/span><p class=\"tweetLink\">Click to Tweet<\/p>\r\n\t<\/a>\r\n<\/div><\/p>\n<p>Perceived value needs more than just numbers; it needs to embrace the psychology behind persuasion.<\/p>\n<p>Stakeholders, like everyone else, are influenced by more than just facts. We do not weigh up the balance of evidence before forming attitudes and opinions. Instead, we form attitudes based as much upon emotion (a sense of feeling about the issue) as we do upon logic.<\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content standard\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"cta share\"><div><h3>Share Your Efforts<\/h3><p>Let us know what you measure.<\/p><p><a class=\"button\" href=\"mailto:richard@feverbee.com?subject=Share%20Example\">Share With Us<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>This means that the manner in which we present value must appeal not only to logic but also to emotions. It is the emotions that form attitudes. This means that we need to operate on several levels in order to establish perceived level. Raw numbers should be kept to background material only. Instead, we need to focus on:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Providing context for all data<\/strong>. At the minimum, we need to provide context. It\u2019s impossible to determine if having 1,500 active community members is good or bad. It\u2019s far better to say if 70% of your top customers are active in the community, or how the community compares against the communities of competitors.\u00a0Also use metaphors to provide context. Did you have 380,000 visitors to the community last month, or the population size of Pittsburgh visit your community last month? Did members contribute 500k words last month, or add enough information to fill the entire office bookshelf?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trends<\/strong>. More important than context are trends. If the trends are heading in the right direction, never use raw numbers. Highlight continued growth in the values they care about. Also use current trends to make future predictions. Let the stakeholder taste the future success of the project. \u201c<em>If we keep growing at this rate, we\u2019ll be twice as big as our nearest competitor in six months.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Emotive stories. <\/strong>Even better than trends are stories (or an encompassing narrative). These are clear stories that demonstrate the value the stakeholder wants has been achieved. This might include their boss making a positive comment about the community after hitting a success, or evidence of members deriving clear value from the community. Stories trump data every time. Stories that are based upon data are even more compelling. It is important to individually collect or \u2018clip\u2019 these stories in a tool such as Google Docs or using a tool such as Evernote to help create a convincing case for the community.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Milestones<\/strong>. A final useful tool is to communicate milestones. These help shape positive association with the community. A milestone might be the 100th member helped, the 10,000th question, a prominent influencer joining the community, reaching call deflection parity with the customer service line (or half), etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>All four of these play a powerful role in shaping the perception of value in the community. Do not rely upon regular monthly updates with metrics in a simple spreadsheet document. Add additional information that provides context, trends, shows success stories or highlights milestones the community has achieved.<\/p>\n<p>You can work harder to build up a positive picture of the community. This might mean collecting quotes from staff members showing how the community has helped them, from customer service teams highlighting how calls have decreased, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Act like a journalist uncovering the value of your community. Your job isn\u2019t to deliver a data dump, but to show context, highlight new trends, reveal stories, and celebrate relevant milestones.<\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content flipped\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-901\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Inbox-Full.png\" alt=\"Full Inbox\" width=\"290\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h2>Medium is the Message<\/h2>\n<p>The method you use to communicate value also influences the efficacy of the message. If you send your value messages in the email, they will appear alongside a dozen other emails. If you only use text, they will be prioritized alongside other long text-based messages.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"boxout\"><\/p>\n<p>The worst format is traditionally regular monthly updates. These are ignored at worst and hard to remember at best. The best format is face-to-face, being able to highlight and explain the success of the community through stories, trends, and context.<\/p>\n<p>Do not send high-value messages through email. Tell the stakeholder in person, via a call, or, at minimum, through a graphic that shows success.<\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a stakeholder, perhaps our boss\u2019 boss, and work through a possible example:<\/p>\n<table width=\"528\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Stakeholder<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Your boss\u2019 boss<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Motivation<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Generating more profit than the sales team (worried about budget being cut)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Community generated 735 leads this month, sales team just 415 leads<\/li>\n<li>Our product innovation webinar has been watched by more than all our current customers combined this month<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Trends<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Community profit increased by 17% more than sales team this month<\/li>\n<li>In six months, community will be generating twice the profit of the sales team at 1\/5th of the cost<\/li>\n<li>Mentions of community increased by 13% this year compared with just 5% by brand mentions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Stories<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Our three biggest customers said they stick with us because of the community<\/li>\n<li>At a job interview, an employee from a rival company mentioned how jealous they were of our community (and kept trying to copy it)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Milestones<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Our 5000th lead this month<\/li>\n<li>Now have twice as many mentions of our content as two rival brands combined<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"127\"><strong>Medium<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"401\">\n<ul>\n<li>Casual lunch\/hallway encounter<\/li>\n<li>Provided with full data afterwards in a requested email<\/li>\n<li>Graphics to prove trends<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"summary\"><div><article><h2>Summary<\/h2><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Don\u2019t send through metrics upon request; this is not an effective way of shaping the value of the community.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure all data adds context &#8211; How can people visualise or best understand the data you\u2019re sending them?<\/li>\n<li>Use trends to highlight what happens if they keep supporting the community. Predict the future.<\/li>\n<li>Capture stories that show they are getting the perceived value they want.<\/li>\n<li>Collect milestones and send them through at infrequent intervals.<\/li>\n<li>Resist the urge to use email to send through value. Communicate value in real time with passion and excitement.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><\/article><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}