News

Blog Post: Boost Association Membership with a Social Community

Wendy Gibson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:10:00 GMT

Associations are rapidly adapting to the social Web to understand its members’ needs and wants, build cause awareness, keep current members engaged, attract new recruits and ensure that they are creating mutually beneficial relationships with members. Check out this new case study for tips and best practices on launching a successful social campaign to attract new members.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the social business trail blazer for how to build a world class community for professionals. Their current focus? College accounting majors.

AICPA created the go-to place and central hub for accounting majors to connect with peers and accountants. This Way to CPA is a targeted, online community and resource center where students talk about what it’s like to be an accountant, learn about different specialties, strategize about the CPA exam and divulge tips and tricks on landing the best internships and a job after graduation.

Kudos to Justin Couto and his team at Couto Solutions, an elite design development firm that designed and implemented AICPA’s online community, for creating a bold, imaginative design.

This Way to CPA is a one-stop shop for accounting students to discuss internships, scholarships, the CPA exam, future careers and more.

Social can get really complicated trying to figure out what channels to use, how to manage them all and how to measure the value you get from each. That’s where community AICPA comes in – it’s a model to membership organizations implementing social strategies and trying to improve recruitment initiatives.

AICPA created a unified social strategy that makes it easy to manage all of their social media tools and technologies. It has Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and drives users back to its on domain community, This Way to CPA, for more in depth, meaningful conversations and engagement, and to track member involvement.

Why does it work? It’s fun, creative and easy to use. The tone is casual, content is funny and it makes plenty of references to pop culture, which students find relatable and interesting.

The community also provides real value to students navigating their career path and to accountants who mentor new talent and share their hard-won wisdom. Plus, the AICPA helps strengthen the profession by preparing top college recruits for their professional lives. AICPA also fosters loyalty and improves its own member recruitment efforts by taking a stake in an accountant’s career.

Here are some great stats on AICPA’s community building initiative:

This Way to CPA had more than 18,000 registered users in the first year, which is significantly more than it expected.
Almost 23,000 people visit the community each month and over 57% of registered users return to the site to stay connected to the community and build relationships.
19% of visitors return five times or more each month, which shows that community members are actively searching for content and becoming highly engaged with AICPA’s messaging.
With 10% of its members located outside of the U.S., AICPA also reaches a global accounting audience.

Stay tuned; AICPA is going to continue building out its social strategy. It supports a community website for high school counselors and instructors (community.StartHereGoPlaces.com) to educate students about accounting and how to pursue advanced studies in college. And, AICPA is going to build out its partnerships with 10-15 additional accounting groups, which will help it attract new members and strengthen the profession.

Blog Post: American Institute of CPAs Partners with Telligent to Increase Membership with Online Social Networking

Tiffany Henry — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

AICPA improves membership recruitment via a unified social marketing campaign with Telligent Community and Telligent Analytics

Dallas, TX – February 6, 2012 — Telligent, a leader in social community software for the enterprise, partnered with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to create the leading social networking site for aspiring accountants, This Way to CPA, which is designed to increase awareness of and drive recruitment efforts for AICPA.

“We are expanding our reach with social networking to encourage talented students to invest in becoming a CPA and eventually a member of the AICPA,” said Scott Moore, Sr. Manager, College and University Initiatives, AICPA. “This Way to CPA is a one-stop shop for accounting students to network with peers and discuss career-related topics.”

This Way to CPA is a first-of-its-kind online community that supports the personal development of accounting students and the profession by giving students a place to network with professionals and peers and discuss important topics such as how to land internships, what the accounting career path is like and advice for passing the CPA exam . Almost 23,000 people visit the community each month and over 57% return to the site to stay connected to the community and build relationships with peers.

“This Way to CPA weaves a conversational, fun personality into a creatively-designed community that provides immense value to students,” said Justin Couto, CEO of Couto Solutions, an elite design development firm that designed and implemented AICPA’s online community.

AICPA integrates its community website to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to ensure that members know how and where to stay involved with AICPA. AICPA encourages discussions on popular social media sites and drives potential and current members to its community for more in depth accounting conversations and access to exclusive opportunities, like scholarship opportunities and group accounting competitions.

With this unified social media strategy, AICPA creates more meaningful, manageable interactions that it can measure and evaluate. 19% of visitors return five times or more each month, which shows that community members are actively digesting content and becoming highly engaged with AICPA’s messaging.

“AICPA is a model for organizations trying to figure out how to create a unified, manageable strategy for social media and technology,” said Wendy Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer, Telligent. “AICPA is positioned to increase its member base because it is building strong bonds with the incoming Generation Y workforce and delivering value.”

Read the full case study here.

Telligent Community is social community software designed for flexibility in building customer-facing communities that achieve your business objectives for improving customer support, building brand loyalty and strengthening member networks.

Telligent Analytics is social intelligence software that analyzes and measures community activity so that you can glean valuable insights about how your community is succeeding and uncover areas that need improvement.

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About AICPA

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (www.aicpa.org), founded in 1887, is the world’s largest association representing the accounting profession, with nearly 377,000 members in 128 countries. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education, and consulting; membership is also available to accounting students and CPA candidates. The AICPA sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, non-profit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination.

The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Durham, N.C., Ewing, N.J. and Lewisville, Texas.

About Couto Solutions

Telligent is what we focus on! Telligent Help is what we provide to you! Telligent Solutions are what we are made of! Couto Solutions is a design development firm that specializes in creating enterprise class community solutions on the Telligent Platform. Couto Solutions is the leading Telligent Partner building custom Telligent Themes, Custom Telligent Modules, and selling the best Telligent Add-Ons and Telligent Widgets available today. Simply stated, Couto Solutions ROCKS the Telligent! For more information, visit www.CoutoSolutions.com.

About Telligent

One of the pioneers in enterprise social community and workforce collaboration software, Telligent helps companies worldwide to implement social communities for their employees, customers and partners. Its powerful community development platform allows customers and partners to customize their community experiences and build award-winning applications on top of the platform.

Telligent differentiates itself with an ease of business and a level of confidence to which seasoned and successful organizations are accustomed. With a customer-focused culture, Telligent sets the social enterprise standard for positive business outcomes. With Telligent, thousands of organizations worldwide have created successful communities that drive collaboration, communication, innovation, networking and support, including American Marketing Association, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Psion, U.S. Department of Defense - All Partners Access Network (APAN) and more.

Learn more about Telligent by visiting http://telligent.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Telligent Media Contacts

US
Tiffany Henry
thenry@telligent.com
+1 (214) 420 1350

UK
Elena Savvides
esavvides@telligent.com
+44 (0) 203 178 3012

Blog Post: CMSWire: 10 Ways to +1 Your Community This Year

Tiffany Henry — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:02:00 GMT

Long before there was Google+, the concept of +1 was used to address the topic of extraordinary customers service. So what is meant by the concept of delivering plus one? In the recent CMSWire article by Telligent SVP of Client Services, Cecilia Edwards, she fully explains the premise behind that statement.

Specifically, it seems that the +1 concept fits well with online communities, since one of the main reasons to have an externally facing online community is to deepen relationships with your customers. Read the entire article and learn Cecilia's suggestions for ways you could +1 your community this year.

Blog Post: 10 Ways to +1 Your Community this Year

Cecilia Edwards — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:55:00 GMT

Long before there was Google+, the concept of +1 was used to address the topic of extraordinary customer service. In 1993, Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles wrote Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. In Raving Fans, Blanchard and Bowles cover three areas: Deciding what you as a business want; Discovering what the customer wants; and delivering plus one.

So what did they mean by delivering plus one. Here are some of the key points they articulate:

Being consistent in your performance to create credibility with your customers
Limiting the number of areas in which you want to make a difference so that you have a chance of doing them well
Promote more service and deliver more (as opposed to under-promise and over-deliver)
Meet expectations first, exceed them second
Be flexible

Since one of the primary reasons to have an externally facing online community is to deepen relationships with your customers, it seems that the +1 concept from Blanchard and Bowles fits well for online communities. Here are 10 suggestions for ways you could +1 your community this year.

Write +1 additional piece of content – we all know that quality content that is regularly refreshed is important to the continued health of a community. While the engagement of community members does create a valuable steady stream of new content, it is no substitute for the occasional piece of content originated by your company. Let your community members hear your voice and see your continued interest in the community by writing something new that is of value to them.
Highlight the accomplishments of +1 of your community members – in order to demonstrate to your members that your community is not just a marketing site where the only thing you promote are the products, services, and accomplishments of your company, make some of the content about them. Think about the purpose of your community, why your members are there in the first place, and identify someone who has benefited from the fulfillment of that purpose. How have they used your products or services in such a way to benefit them? Tell their story – or better yet – find a way to let them tell it.
Publically thank +1 community member for their activities in the community - if you have community members that are engaging in a way that you think is beneficial – they are answering questions of others, commenting, originating content, sharing valuable information, and demonstrating the culture you desire – then thank them. People love acknowledgement and it is sure to provide some level of motivation for them to continue. Others who see your public acknowledgement will also be encouraged to follow suite.
Take +1 poll on ways to improve the community – asking people their opinions is a great way to increase their level of connectedness to your community. It says that you care about what they think and the kind of experience you would like them to have. You benefit because it gives you a perspective into the thinking of your members and can help you prioritize your investments in the community in a more impactful manner.
Implement +1 idea in the community based upon poll results – it’s great that you asked people what they would like to see changed in the community. Now it’s time to act upon it. If your members feel they can have some level of influence over the community because they see visible evidence, their loyalty to the community will increase (and so should their opinion of you.) With that increased loyalty ought to come increased spending on your products and services over time.
Personally invite +1 additional person to join your community – while it is always great for people to find your community through search or advertisements, it is even better when someone personally invites them. The specific recommendation of the community from one of the members has a much greater impact on someone’s likelihood to visit, join and engage in your community. Don’t just leave the personal invitations up to your community members though. Jump in and call or email someone you know to join in.
Greet +1 new community member – designing your community so that it is easy for newcomers to engage and developing welcome guides are both great ways to make sure that your new members can easily jump in the conversation. It is even better is someone notices they are there and gives them a personal greeting. Many communities have automated tools to help enable this – things like a default welcome message and an automatic friend. The problem with relying solely on these things is that everyone knows they are automated and therefore no one feels that anything was done specifically to welcome them personally. Take the time to make a connection with a new member, comment on something they did, ensure they get an answer to their question, ask them something about themselves, or just generally connect in a way that is personal.
Share +1 thing off topic – you are an interesting person and your members might want to know something about your interest other than business. This is why companies have baseball teams and office parties. They want to increase the trust among their employees through non-business related sharing. Don’t tell them what you had for lunch – unless of course it was something unique enough to be of broad interest (like the time some of my colleagues and I went to dinner at an exotic food restaurant and the table was spread with zebra, wildebeest, wild boar, and a salad topped with locust and crickets – that was worth the pictures and a bit of the story due to the general weirdness of it all.) Instead, share something that lots of people might have some interest in and feel like commenting on or sharing.
Find +1 community member to give some administrative rights to – managing your community is a big job that can consume a lot of someone’s time. However, there is a good chance that you have at least one member that is passionate about an area of your community that you would trust to help you with moderation and topic leadership. Give that person the right to lead. This will make them stronger advocates for your community and give you additional resources – at no cost – to stay on top of all of the community management tasks.
Host +1 online event- while most of the engagement that takes place in an online community is asynchronous, community engagement can be energized with an occasional synchronous event in which members can plan to “meet” as specific times to discuss a topic. Online chats can increase the velocity of engagement. Video casts will allow people to both see and hear each other resulting in the formation of new and deeper relationships among members.

In the spirit of this post, I just couldn’t stop at 10 suggestions. Here’s a +1 suggestion:

Host +1 live off-line event – in the spirit of +1, here is an extra suggestion: while online events are good for deepening relationships, offline events can take those relationships to even greater levels. It is important to remember that the technology should not confine the engagement of your community. Humans are social beings and in one hour of face to face interaction can shave months of relationship building time off of online communications only.

As an added bonus – if you haven’t read Raving Fans or haven’t read it in a while, here is a mind map of the Raving Fans book.

What ideas do you have to +1 your community?

Blog Post: Telligent Newsletter - January 2012

Chris Kee — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:39:00 GMT

JANUARY ISSUE

#SOCBIZ BUZZ
Top 2011 Blogs
Find out which Telligent blogs made the top-five list

Online Communities for Associations
Learn how associations use social online communities to boost recruitment and member loyalty

New Product Enhancements
Telligent Connect for Facebook and Telligent Document Preview are now available from Telligent Marketplace

MEDIA COVERAGE
CMSWire: Telligent Acquires Leverage Software: Mobile, Cloud and Usability Key Benefits

Computer Business Review: Telligent Acquires Leverage Software

InformationWeek's "The BrainYard": Telligent Buys Leverage Software To Boost Cloud Power

Dow Brook: Telligent Gains Leverage on Its Cloud and Mobile Roadmaps

MEET & GREET EVENTS
2012 Get Social Tour
Telligent has been selected by Microsoft to bring social to SharePoint as part of the Microsoft Digital Marketing Platform. A series of city tours have been announced for these locations:

Dallas – March 6
New York – March 8
Irvine – March 14
Paris – March 26
London – March 27
Munich – March 30

CUSTOMER NEWS
Congratulations to Promethean Planet on your awards:

EdTech Digest Awards – Trendsetter Award 2011
SIIA CODiE™ Awards – Best Education Community Solution
SIIA CODiE™ Awards (SUPERCATEGORY) – Best Non-Traditional Education Solution

CORPORATE BLOG
#CMAD: Kudos to all Community Managers Helping to Manage and Grow Communities

Dip Your Toe Into Social With the All-New Social Starter Toolkit

Tech Talk: Synchronizing User Profiles

WE'VE MOVED
Our office in the UK now resides at:
1 Fetter Lane
London
EC4A 1BR

FUN SOCIAL FACT
Question: What percentage of Facebook users "unlike" a brand because of too much push marketing?

Answer: 43%. On Twitter that number is 41%. Food for thought as you plan this year's social strategy.
(Source: ExactTarget)

WELCOME NEW LEVERAGE SOFTWARE CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES

Telligent extends a warm welcome to all new customers and employees; we're overjoyed that you're now part of the Telligent family!

JOIN US FOR THE GET SOCIAL TOUR

With the popularity of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, it's clear that your business needs to get social with your customers. So, why not start by adding social to your current investment in Microsoft SharePoint? Microsoft has selected Telligent as its vendor of choice to bring social into the Microsoft Digital Marketing Platform. This combines best-in-class web content management and search from Microsoft with Telligent's leading social community platform.

To spread the word about this unique package, Microsoft and Telligent are hitting the road together this spring for the 2012 Get Social Tour. Participants will learn:

How to enhance SharePoint for better business results
How branded social communities are different from social networking sites
The value of creating a customer-centric social community

We hope that you'll join us for this exclusive, six-city tour.

SPEED LEARNING WITH SOCIAL WORKSHOPS

Telligent is offering one-, three- and five-day Social Workshops to help jumpstart social for SharePoint. Specifically, these workshops will educate organizations on the basics of social and how to design and implement an online community. Because Telligent is Microsoft's choice for bringing social to the Microsoft Digital Marketing Platform, SharePoint customers can use their SharePoint Deployment Planning Services to schedule workshops with us.

Not a SharePoint customer? No problem. Anyone can schedule a Social Workshop with Telligent. Suitable for all experience levels, Social Workshops from Telligent are designed to help you explore ways to optimize customer engagement using social.

MOVE TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS

Telligent University is now open for enrollment. It delivers social learning on demand so that you can take charge of your education in an environment that's truly social. The Telligent University campus is an e-learning community built on the Telligent Evolution platform, which means that students have 24x7 access to online training courses as well as the opportunity to get social with their teachers and their classmates. Click here to learn more about self-paced learning programs for Telligent Community, Telligent Enterprise and Telligent Evolution.

GET BACK TO BASICS

Check out this social starter toolkit for beginners' resources like social media guidelines, real-world examples, and links to industry analysts and other thought leaders. Jumpstart your social education today or share this toolkit with a friend or colleague.

BRING SOCIAL TO THE WORKPLACE

With the right tools, you can create a rich and resourceful employee community that drives discussions and keeps people informed. Take a look at this all-new enterprise employee engagement toolkit for the information you need.

SAVE THE DATE: THE BIG SOCIAL 2012

Reserve September 17-19 on your calendars for The Big Social 2012. This year's user conference is scheduled to take place in the heart of downtown Dallas at the W hotel. Come find out for yourself why 100% of survey participants from the 2011 user conference would recommend this event!

Follow Us

Blog Post: Microsoft and Telligent Offer Joint Digital Marketing Solution that Fuses Social + Websites Together on a Single, Unified Platform

Tiffany Henry — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:15:00 GMT

To Support Offering, Telligent and Microsoft Announce the Get Social Tour + Social Workshop Days that will Equip Customers with the Foundation and Tools to Get Social in 2012

DALLAS, Texas — January 31, 2012 — Telligent, a leader in social community software for the enterprise, today announced educational programs and a unique product offering to help its customers accelerate their social strategy in areas where their organization can benefit the most. As Microsoft’s vendor of choice to bring social community into its Digital Marketing Platform, Telligent worked with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft’s best-in-class web content management and search functionality into its leading online social community platform offerings.

“Businesses across the board are scrambling to understand social technology’s place in the enterprise, and how to implement and receive the most value from a social strategy. To support this need, Microsoft has partnered with Telligent to create a unique package that includes educational programs, events and an exclusive product offering called Telligent Social Suite for SharePoint that integrates Telligent Community with Microsoft’s web content management and search capabilities,” said Jon Allen, Microsoft Partner Manager at Telligent.

This strategic relationship with Microsoft presents social community in a unique package that will be of significant value to customers in terms of ease of implementation, cost efficiency, and leveraging their existing SharePoint investment. The package simultaneously accelerates social activates in areas where companies will benefit the most which include, social support, social marketing, and social extranets. These packages can be viewed on Telligent’s website.

To introduce organizations to social concepts and help them get started with accelerating their social activities, Telligent is offering one, three and five day Social Workshops. The Social Workshops are designed to explore ways to optimize customer engagement using social. As an additional asset to understanding the benefits of social, organizations will also be able to choose from several handpicked partners that have expertise developing strategies and implementing Telligent and Microsoft investments together.

Specifically, these workshops will educate organizations on the basics of social and how to design and implement an online community. Current SharePoint customers can use SharePoint Deployment Planning Services to schedule a workshop with Telligent, or companies can work directly with Telligent to schedule workshops.

Additionally, to further help organizations understand the growing importance of social and how online communities can be beneficial if executed correctly, Telligent is kicking off its Get Social Tour. This six-city tour will start on March 6, 2012 in Dallas. The tour will then move to New York, Irvine, Paris, London and will conclude in Munich.

The Get Social Tour will educate attendees on the key characteristics of a world class community, give organizations insight into how corporate-owned communities differ from, but also complement, popular social networking sites, and explain how organizations can enhance their existing SharePoint investments to provide a social offering that will be most beneficial to their organization.

“Social is the new normal. Customers and partners have come to expect social engagement from the companies they work with, and its adoption will only continue to increase moving forward,” said Rob Howard, Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Telligent. “The Get Social Tour outlines the importance of online communities and Telligent’s workshops educate companies, not on technology, but instead on how social is a key component for generating more leads, increasing the number of products sold, enabling customers to provide self-service support and connecting employees within an organization.”

Visit telligent.com to register for an upcoming Get Social City Event or Social Workshop and learn more about Telligent Social Suite for SharePoint.

# # #

About Telligent

Telligent differentiates itself with an ease of business and a level of confidence to which seasoned and successful organizations are accustomed. With a customer-focused culture, Telligent sets the social enterprise standard for positive business outcomes. With Telligent, thousands of organizations worldwide have created successful communities that drive collaboration, communication, innovation, networking and support, including American Marketing Association, Dell, Microsoft, Psion, U.S. Department of Defense - All Partners Access Network (APAN) and more.

Learn more about Telligent by visiting http://telligent.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Telligent Media Contacts

US
Tiffany Henry
thenry@telligent.com
+1 (214) 420 1350

UK
Elena Savvides
esavvides@telligent.com
+44 (0) 203 178 3012

Blog Post: Telligent Educates Companies on the Foundation and Tools to Get Social in 2012 + How to Leverage Existing Microsoft Investments

Jon Allen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:15:00 GMT

How many of you believe that social is the new norm? We do, and so do your customers, partners and prospects. That is why we have teamed up with Microsoft to deliver a one of a kind dynamic and social online presence.

Your customers and partners expect to interact with your brand online. That is why through the joint effort of Microsoft and Telligent, we are able to combine best-in-class web content management from Microsoft SharePoint for Internet Sites and FAST Search for SharePoint with Telligent’s leading social community platform. Because the Telligent Social Suite for SharePoint is packaged together, you are able to know your investment upfront. As far as packaging goes, we offer Social Support, Social Extranets and Social Marketing packages that will accelerate your social activities around areas that your company can benefit the most.

These packages are offered with Telligent Social Workshops that are designed to help get you started. Most likely you don’t have the appropriate social media resources inside your organization, therefore these workshops are intended to provide you with an introduction to social and community. These one, three or five day workshops will help you to understand the power and purpose of community, learn how to plan and launch a world class community and create a customized blueprint for your community. Sound like your type of event? If you are a current SharePoint customer, you can contact your Microsoft Account Representative or access the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) to see how many SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) days you have available to use towards Telligent Social Workshops. You can contact Telligent through the Microsoft VLSC or you can also schedule a workshop today by contacting Telligent directly.

As an added bonus to help accommodate the growing need to incorporate a social presence into your business, Telligent and Microsoft are kicking off the Get Social Tour. As part of this global six-city tour, you will get a grasp on why social being a component of your business is important. Specifically, you will learn:

How to enhance your existing SharePoint investments for better business results
How corporate owned social communities differ from and complement popular social networking sites
The value of creating a customer-centric social community
The steps to gather insight into what your customers are saying about your brand

At Telligent we understand that your social needs will continue to expand, so join us as we help prepare you to make your business more social in 2012 and moving forward.

Blog Post: Sign Up Today: Telligent University is Open for Enrollment

Randy Skinner — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:15:00 GMT

In-depth training videos. Short 3-5 minute lesson plans. 24/7 on-demand access. These are all components of Telligent’s new e-learning community – Telligent University.

Telligent University is now open for enrollment to Telligent customers and partners. It provides comprehensive, yet cost-effective, education and training for Telligent Community, Telligent Enterprise and Telligent Evolution. Two learning tracks are currently available, one for site administrators and one for developers. Both tracks provide a pathway for partners to obtain certification on Telligent software.

Telligent University is just the beginning; in fact, it’s the first step towards a complete knowledge center that is being developed by Telligent. Consider the product education that Telligent University provides as your starting point and stay tuned for incredible learning opportunities to come. As we pave this path, I am very excited about what this means for the present and future of knowledge sharing at Telligent.

As we expand our Telligent University curriculum and advance our knowledge center, we will continue to keep our ears open to what customers and partners are saying will be most beneficial to them. Click here to learn about how Telligent University helps you get the most out of social. Contact a specialist to sign up for a course, get help or ask about custom training programs.

Blog Post: Telligent Invests in Customer and Partner Development with Its Newly Debuted E-Learning Community; Pathway to Obtain Certification Offered as Additional Benefit

Tiffany Henry — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:15:00 GMT

Telligent helps customers and partners get the most out of social with the launch of Telligent University

(DALLAS, TX) January 25, 2012 — Telligent, a leader in social community software for the enterprise, today announced the launch of its first online training program, Telligent University.

As part of Telligent’s commitment to customer and partner support, the new community offers on-demand e-learning for both administrators and developers. Through Telligent’s comprehensive courses, developers and administrators will be trained in building world-class communities uniquely tailored to their brands’ specific business requirements.

“We are so happy to offer our customers and partners a new learning environment that will take them beyond our on-site training; with Telligent University we can provide social learning anytime and anywhere,” said Randy Skinner, Chief Operating Officer at Telligent. “The valuable content included in the e-learning community will allow Telligent customers and partners to maximize the full potential of our products and gain exclusive knowledge from our team of experts.”

Telligent University, an e-learning community built on the Telligent Evolution platform, boasts 250 modules, lessons and training videos. Customers can review what they want, when they want, because there is no limit to how many times coursework or Telligent’s searchable content, training videos, and three-to-five minute lesson plans can be accessed. The program also offers learning checkpoints where students can test their understanding of key topics.

The learning experience includes extensive coverage of Telligent’s core products - Telligent Community, Telligent Enterprise and Telligent Evolution. This means faster, more convenient training for customers and a streamlined path to certification for partners.

An additional benefit of the learning environment is that it offers the option to obtain certification on Telligent software. There are two types of certified programs offered – developer and architect. Both certification programs include the training sessions and online certification.

Contact a specialist to learn more about Telligent University, the certification programs or to sign up today.

About Telligent

Telligent differentiates itself with an ease of business and a level of confidence to which seasoned and successful organizations are accustomed. With a customer-focused culture, Telligent sets the social enterprise standard for positive business outcomes. With Telligent, thousands of organizations worldwide have created successful communities that drive collaboration, communication, innovation, networking and support, including American Marketing Association, Dell, Microsoft, Psion, U.S. Department of Defense - All Partners Access Network (APAN) and more.

Learn more about Telligent by visiting http://telligent.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Telligent Media Contacts

US
Tiffany Henry
thenry@telligent.com
+1 (214) 420 1350

UK
Elena Savvides
esavvides@telligent.com
+44 (0) 203 178 3012

Blog Post: #CMAD: Kudos to all Community Managers Helping to Manage and Grow Communities

Wendy Gibson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:13:00 GMT

How would you define a community manager? The following phrases are a good starting point:

Lead social capital builder
Brand evangelist
Master listener
Rule enforcer
Spam controller

As many of you know, today is the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD). According to Wikipedia, Altimeter Group Analyst Jeremiah Owyang first initiated this day in 2010. CMAD takes place every fourth Monday of January as a way to “recognize and celebrate the efforts of community managers around the world using social media to improve customer experiences.” Over the past three years, it has grown into a globally recognized day in the socialsphere where the simple words ‘thank you’ go a long way.

In my blog last year I gave an overview of the growing importance of community managers and why they are vital to managing and growing an online community. So I thought that it would only be appropriate for the blog this year to personally recognize and introduce you to Telligent’s community manager and point out why she is such a cherished asset to not only Telligent, but also to our growing community.

Meet our community manager: Jenn Emerson

Why is she so important to Telligent and our community, you ask?

She established the culture of the community through participation
She works hard on connecting members to the appropriate resources and supplying all members with valuable content that they would find informative
Recommends, and also implements, suggested changes to the community based on member feedback
Enables influencers in the community
Evangelizes the community within the organization
Is the voice of Telligent on the social media channels we are a part of

Our recent white paper, Strategies for Building World Class Communities can give you more insight into the general importance of community managers. Also our very own, Jenn Emerson, blogged about the essential role community manager’s play in helping to manage and grow an online community.

So how can you show your appreciation to your community manger? One suggestion is to join in the conversation on Twitter by using or following the #CMAD hashtag; I'm sure that a simple thank you tweet to your community manager would be very much appreciated.

Now it’s your turn to share – How are you celebrating CMAD or honoring your community manager? We’d love to hear from you; please share with us either in the comments section below or via Twitter!

Blog Post: National Inflation Association: "Enterprise Social Networking to Revolutionize Workplace, Says NIA"

Tiffany Henry — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:30:00 GMT

According to the predictions of The National Inflation Association (NIF), enterprise social networking will revolutionize the workplace beginning in 2012 and change forever the way the world gets work done. This particular article gives an overview of the growth of enterprise social networks and describes enterprise social networks as "kind of like Facebook for the workplace, but without the socializing. Enterprise social networks are meant to result in employees working together better as a team and getting their work done more efficiently."

As the article continues, NIF lists organizations that are leading in this growing space – among the companies listed is Telligent. Telligent is stated as one of "the leaders when it comes to integrating enterprise social networks with the existing technology of large corporations."

Read more about what NIA thinks about Telligent and the future of enterprise social networks.

Blog Post: Dip Your Toe Into Social With the All-New Social Starter Toolkit

Jenn Emerson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:20:00 GMT

Do you spend countless hours researching social? Have you heard about online community, but are unsure if it will be beneficial to your organization? Do you wish that there was one resource out there for the best tips and information on social media? If this sounds like you, then look no further!

We asked our customers, “How can we help you get started on the right path with social media and online community?” Overwhelmingly, people responded by saying they first need help to understand social, then educate others in their organization. You spoke, we listened. Based on popular demand, here’s a toolkit that explains the basics of social:

What is social media?
How do brands and organizations use social media for business?
What is an online community?
Is there a difference between social networks and online communities?
What are the basic functions of an online community?
How can I benefit from an online community?

Our toolkit makes learning easy. Plus, it includes valuable resources like social media guidelines, real-world examples, and links to the websites of industry analysts and other thought leaders who we recommend you follow.

Seize the moment! View this complimentary toolkit now.

P.S. We’re constantly updating our social toolkits to help you stay in-the-know, so visit early and often.

Blog Post: Tech Talk: Synchronizing User Profiles

David Shaw — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:16:00 GMT

Because organizations manage multiple systems, inside and outside of the enterprise, maintaining user profiles can be a struggle. Our goal is to simplify profile management. Both Telligent Community and Telligent Enterprise feature social profiles that allow people to customize their profiles so that their peers in the community understand who they are, what they do and what interests them. Organizations can currently synchronize social profiles from Telligent with Microsoft Active Directory and other applications with profile stores using LDAP.

Now, Telligent is putting the finishing touches on a number of plug-ins for Telligent Enterprise and Telligent Community that will make profile management a breeze. These enhancements will make it easy for administrators to sync users’ community profiles with their profiles in other enterprise software. With the new plug-ins, as profile information is created/updated in a Telligent community it automatically updates the user’s profile in the corresponding system. The new enhancement not only synchronizes profile information, it also ensures that the chosen system of record maintains control.

In the coming months, Telligent will be rolling out the new profile sync plug-in starting with support for Microsoft SharePoint 2010. It’s just one of several enhancements that we’re adding to Telligent Connect for Microsoft SharePoint, so stay tuned for updates.

Blog Post: 5 Steps to Ensure Your Members Don’t Run Away With Your Community

Cecilia Edwards — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:06:00 GMT

A Best Practice of World Class Communities is to Encourage Ownership of the Community by Members

One of the strategies Telligent encourages for building World Class Communities is to encourage a level of ownership of the community by its members. There are several benefits associated with this:

People tend to support the things they feel they have ownership of
The cost of managing the community can be lowered with community volunteers
Community members can often be more ardent supporters of the community rules and also more effective evangelists of your products than employees

This usually works well because the interest of the community members is in alignment with those of the company sponsoring the community. The following chart is an example of the typical types of things both a set of customers and a company would be focused on:

The key is ensuring that the community's interest stays aligned with the interest of the company that is funding the community, otherwise there is a problem.

Sometimes, Community Ownership can Turn into a Community Hijacking

Just after Christmas, Steve Pavlina closed down the forums on his site after five years. You can read his blog post about it here. These forums appear to have grown into a very successful community, with community user numbers that would be envied by most. He had over 48,000 registered users who posted about a million messages across 67,000 threads. About 400 of his users were very active on the site and several were part of his volunteer moderation team, and yet he still shut them down.

Pavlina shared that his original objective for the forums was to create a space where growth-oriented people could come together to help each other in a positive support environment, and for a while that is exactly what he had. However, over time, many of the community members started to develop what Pavlina labeled as ‘a sense of entitlement’ and they began breaking the rules. They routinely annoyed other members and promoted their own businesses and affiliate programs. The final straw was when some of the volunteer moderators – his trusted power users – joined in the dysfunction. In other words, the vision for the community was lost. As a result, he shut down the forums.

5 Steps You Can Take to Avoid This

There are a number of things that can be learned from Steve Pavlina’s experience that can help you avoid having the same thing happen to your community:

Work with a set of founding community members, or power users, if your community is already well established. Also create what Fever Bee’s Richard Millington calls a “Community Constitution”. This constitution should include a statement of the community’s purpose, beliefs, and governance approach (the consequences of violating the constitution). Having a set of members that assists with crafting the constitution helps to create ready defenders of it as well.
In addition to the constitution, the community manager should create a community guide that informs new members how to get started, describes the intended culture and explains a bit about the history of the community. This can set the stage for new member engagement and serve as a tool that moderators can point constitution violators to as a reminder of acceptable behavior.
There must be strict enforcement of the guidelines – no exceptions allowed. If a community member hasn’t already done it, moderators should publically provide feedback on inappropriate behavior so the entire community learns what will and will not be tolerated. Additionally, public thanks should be given to community members when they call other members out on violations of the community guidelines and culture.
The community manager has an opportunity to gently steer the direction of the community by initiating discussions and posting content that is of interest to the broader community and in alignment with the community's vision. Having an editorial calendar and executing on it will ensure a steady stream of relevant content that is aligned with your company’s objectives.
Establishing and maintaining good relationships with the influencers in the community is critical. As mentioned above, community members can be both better enforcers of your rules and champions of your cause than you can. Do what it takes to ensure you stay connected to those with the most influence in your community, and be sure to solicit both their input and help when needed.

Blog Post: Have You Heard? New Telligent Product Enhancements are Available

Rob Howard — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:18:00 GMT

Innovation. Industry Growth. Product Enhancements. These are all things that Telligent focused on in 2011 and will continue to focus on in 2012. In September, Telligent welcomed customers and partners from around the globe to The Big Social, our annual user conference in Dallas, Texas. The Big Social was a great venue to communicate Telligent’s recent accomplishments, such as our newest product releases, and to preview our roadmap. Here’s a brief update on some of the announcements we made during The Big Social:

Telligent Connect for Facebook

One of the announcements I made during my keynote was Telligent Connect for Facebook. It enables you to bridge conversations happening on your community with Facebook and vice versa. Specifically, Telligent Connect for Facebook allows you to plug a forum from your community directly into your company’s Facebook page. This comes at the ideal time since Facebook removed discussion forums in October.

Telligent Connect for Facebook will be available for download later this month from Telligent Marketplace. Please keep in mind that it requires Telligent Community 6.0 or later. Telligent Connect for Facebook adds to the Facebook Social Plugins that are currently available in Telligent Marketplace.

Telligent Enterprise User Experience

As part of August’s Telligent Enterprise 3.0 launch, we unveiled a new user experience. You can download this new theme directly from Telligent Marketplace today. Stay tuned; more enhancements to the Telligent Enterprise user experience are coming soon.

Document Preview

Telligent Document Preview allows you to view common document formats, such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF, within your browser. It’s great because you can now view documents in the community without having to download them first. Telligent Document Preview provides a viewing experience that is similar to SlideShare.

Telligent Document Preview supports both Telligent Community 6.0 and Telligent Enterprise 3.0, and you can download it now from Telligent Marketplace.

Support for Microsoft FAST

We are putting the finishing touches on our integration work for Microsoft FAST. Be on the lookout for updates.

More information about Telligent Analytics 4.0, Remote Widget Studio and our Telligent Social 100 challenge is coming soon. Plus, Telligent Community 6.5 and Telligent Enterprise 3.5 will be available Spring 2012, so check Telligent.com for updates.

Blog Post: Successfully Implementing an Online Community is a Team Effort

Cecilia Edwards — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:15:00 GMT

After you have done the necessary steps to build and deploy a successful online community, there’s still one thing left to do – make sure that your community team is in place.

It takes more than just one person to build and maintain a community; it takes a team effort to successfully implement an online community. Numerous people in your company will be involved in the process, but the number of people will greatly depend on factors such as the structure and objectives of the community and the unique element of your company.

Regardless of whether you are creating a community for a Fortune 500 company or a non-profit organization, there are four team positions that should always be filled.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at each of these positions:

Owner – Develops the strategy, cares for the community and is also measured on the success of the community. Your IT department may be involved in the deployment of your community; however, a more successful model for ownership comes from the business side.
Sponsor –A senior executive who is committed to using community to execute corporate strategy. Try to think of someone who is a strong leader, has a strategic eye and understands how to interweave community into the corporate strategy.
Champion – Who are those two or three people who consistently evangelize your online community in your organization? They should be your champions. Let them spread positivity about the community and get people involved.
Community Manager – Lead social capital builder. Evangelist. Responder. Rule enforcer. Spam controller. These are all characteristics of the community manager. Initially this individual’s role is to establish the culture of the community. However, over time, the community manager’s role will shift to engaging and enabling influencers in the community and serving as the champion of the community within the company. Speaking of community managers, let me introduce you ours – Jenn Emerson. She does a fantastic job running our community and understands what it takes to be a successful community manager.

As you study the definition of each position, who do you think would be the ideal individual(s) to carry the title for each role at your company? It may be challenging at first to identify someone for each position, but it is essential to assign a name to each of the roles.

Find out more specifics of what each role in the community team entails by downloading our whitepaper, Strategies for Building World Class Communities.

Blog Post: Telligent Newsletter - December 2011

Chris Kee — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:44:00 GMT

The holidays are a perfect time to reminisce on experiences from the past year and to express warm wishes for the year to come. In the spirit of the season, thank you for being on this journey with us; friends who’ve been with us for the last seven years as well as new faces who joined us in 2011. We are looking forward to sharing an incredible 2012 with you.

-The Telligent Team

TELLIGENT ACQUIRES LEVERAGE

Telligent reached a major milestone with the acquisition of Leverage Software. We made the formal announcement on December 19, 2011. Based in San Francisco, Leverage is a leading provider of enterprise social networking software. Its 100% cloud-based platform powers online communities for customers including The Home Depot, Redken, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Stanford University plus a host of other brand leaders who use online communities to engage with their employees, partners and customers.

For more information about the acquisition, including the benefits it brings to Telligent customers, please read this message from Telligent CEO, Patrick Brandt.

AUSTIN LUNCH & LEARN WITH DELL

In Texas, big things are happening in social, including the launch of the re-designed Dell TechCenter. With its IT focus, TechCenter is a premier destination community for enterprise computing. Members and Dell employees engage in conversations related to Dell’s products, solutions and services on topics ranging from cloud computing, virtualization, storage technologies, networking and more. It offers a world-class community experience via interactive features including blogs, wikis, forums, online events and social sharing.

Watch as Telligent Founder and CTO, Rob Howard, sits down with Jeff Sullivan, Dell Enterprise Community Manager, for an exclusive one-on-one interview.

New BEST PRACTICE TOOLKIT

Whether your association is for a professional, trade or affinity group, if you’re like most, you’re trying to figure out how to keep conversations going with your members and create meaningful, valuable relationships to accomplish your goals. Telligent is here to assist you with our Best Practice Toolkit for Associations. In this toolkit, you will find valuable resources that you can use to create a rich and resourceful community that delivers value in ways that social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can’t.

Also be sure to take a look at our first toolkit, Best Practice Toolkit for Customer Service.

SUCCESS STORIES AND WEBINARS FOR ASSOCIATIONS AND MARKETERS

Did you know that the ideal size for a market research online community (MROC) is between 300-500 people? Interested in how one association converts 65% of its online community participants into dues-paying members? Watch these archived webinars featuring CORE4 Research and AICPA to find out how. In November, CORE4 Research and Telligent demonstrated how online community is being incorporated into market research. A few weeks later, AICPA and Couto Solutions joined forces with Telligent for an engaging discussion on the state of associations and social media.

The case study for CORE4 Research is also available.

December Issue

#SocBiz Buzz

Hot Press
Telligent acquires Leverage Software, a leader in enterprise social networking

Investor Relations Get Social
Broadridge talks to InformationWeek about its Shareholder Forum, and how it improves investor communication and assists with channeling validated feedback

Future of Online Communities
Rob Howard gives his opinion to CMSWire on the important role crowds will play in the future

Telligent Connect for Facebook
Rob Howard talks about Facebook removing the Discussions tab application and Telligent Connect for Facebook, a new way for companies to integrate their community with Facebook

Meet & Greet Events

BlogWell Conference
Old Red Museum
January 24, 2012
Dallas, TX
Register Now

CORPORATE NEWS

CORPORATE BLOG

Telligent Holiday Office closures

December 26, 2011
December 27, 2011 (UK Only)
January 2, 2012

Blog Post: SharePoint, Facebook, Best Practices and More: A Look Back at Our Favorite Blogs from 2011

Megan Yunker — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:27:00 GMT

Before we break out the bubbly and black-eyed peas (people in the Southeast US will understand), I want to jump on the “Year in Review” bandwagon and take a look back at some of my favorite blogs from 2011. I picked these blogs based on very sophisticated criteria: your favorites are my favorites too. Without further ado, here are the top-five Telligent blogs from 2011:

#5 SharePoint 2010 Plus Telligent Capabilities and Benefits by Rob Howard

#4 Top 5 Warning Signs of a Social Media Expert by Rob Howard

#3 There was a tie for 3^rd place between the blogs announcing our Best Practices Toolkits for Associations and Customer Service by Jenn Emerson

#2 Facebook Says So Long to Discussion Forums by Rob Howard

#1 Exciting News: Telligent Acquires Leverage Software by Patrick Brandt

Enjoy…and Happy New Year from all of us at Telligent! See you in 2012!

Blog Post: Fierce Content Management: Telligent Buys Leverage Software

Tiffany Henry — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:40:00 GMT

In the recent article by Fierce Content Management, journalist Ron Miller wrote about Telligent recently acquiring Leverage Software. Miller highlights key reasons behind the acquisitions, customers Telligent will gain, in addition to a basic background of Telligent. The article wraps up by stating that this acquisition "looks like a great deal."

Read the full article here.

Blog Post: CMSWire: Eye on 2012 - Community and Your Digital Business Lifecycle

Tiffany Henry — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:47:00 GMT

In this CMSWire bylined article written by Pete Iuvara, he discusses the world of digital business. He specifically feels that Digital Marketing, Customer Engagement, Social Media Integration, Mobile and Cloud Computing got a lot of attention this past year; and rightfully so. In line with these areas, came rise to a concept commonly referred to as the 3 C's of Customer Experience Management (#cxm): Content, Community and Commerce.

Of the 3 C's, Pete receives insight from Telligent Founder and CTO, Rob Howard, about his thoughts on the importance of community. Pete feels that communities will be a big topic next year, and Rob feels similarly, stating that ultimately online communities will be the fuel that enables sellers to better understand what buyers want and how they make their purchasing decisions. Read the entire article and learn more about Rob's thoughts on community here.

News

Blog Post: Boost Association Membership with a Social Community

Blog Post: American Institute of CPAs Partners with Telligent to Increase Membership with Online Social Networking

Blog Post: CMSWire: 10 Ways to +1 Your Community This Year

Blog Post: 10 Ways to +1 Your Community this Year

Blog Post: Telligent Newsletter - January 2012

Blog Post: Microsoft and Telligent Offer Joint Digital Marketing Solution that Fuses Social + Websites Together on a Single, Unified Platform

Blog Post: Telligent Educates Companies on the Foundation and Tools to Get Social in 2012 + How to Leverage Existing Microsoft Investments

Blog Post: Sign Up Today: Telligent University is Open for Enrollment

Blog Post: Telligent Invests in Customer and Partner Development with Its Newly Debuted E-Learning Community; Pathway to Obtain Certification Offered as Additional Benefit

Blog Post: #CMAD: Kudos to all Community Managers Helping to Manage and Grow Communities

Blog Post: National Inflation Association: "Enterprise Social Networking to Revolutionize Workplace, Says NIA"

Blog Post: Dip Your Toe Into Social With the All-New Social Starter Toolkit

Blog Post: Tech Talk: Synchronizing User Profiles

Blog Post: 5 Steps to Ensure Your Members Don’t Run Away With Your Community

Blog Post: Have You Heard? New Telligent Product Enhancements are Available

Blog Post: Successfully Implementing an Online Community is a Team Effort

Blog Post: Telligent Newsletter - December 2011

TELLIGENT ACQUIRES LEVERAGE

AUSTIN LUNCH & LEARN WITH DELL

New BEST PRACTICE TOOLKIT

SUCCESS STORIES AND WEBINARS FOR ASSOCIATIONS AND MARKETERS

December Issue

#SocBiz Buzz

Meet & Greet Events

CORPORATE NEWS

CORPORATE BLOG

Telligent Holiday Office closures

Follow Us

Blog Post: SharePoint, Facebook, Best Practices and More: A Look Back at Our Favorite Blogs from 2011

Blog Post: Fierce Content Management: Telligent Buys Leverage Software

Blog Post: CMSWire: Eye on 2012 - Community and Your Digital Business Lifecycle