The Science of Relationship
Michael Wu, PhD (mich8elwu) Principal Scientist of Analytics @ Lithium
April 24th, 2012
Track: Social
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agenda ▪ Introduction: CRM data
▪ Development and maintenance of relationship • Anthropology: complementarity between social network and community
▪ Interpersonal relationship and the Dunbar limit • Sociology: the attention economy
▪ Customers relationship (with brands) • Application: dealing with the Facebook irony
▪ Future work
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what’s the “R” in social CRM
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▪What data do CRM system store? • Contact record
• email, phone, address • twitter, facebook, linkedin?
• Transaction record • purchase/sales history • order/fulfillment data
• Support record • support case history • service delivery data
▪ Where’s the “r”elationship data in CRM system?
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Today’s CRM system
“R” ≈ record
≠ relationship
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where do we find relationship data? ▪ On social media • Facebook • Linkedin
▪ It’s a huge ecosystem of tools+services
▪ There are too many places to look!
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where do we find relationship data? ▪ On social media • Facebook • Linkedin
▪ It’s a huge ecosystem of tools+services
▪ There are too many places to look!
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Social is not new!
Human have been social since they were caveman
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Social anthropology perspective of social
Tech relationship
1. Social network 2. Community
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Social anthropology perspective of social
Tech relationship
1. Social network 2. Community
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how do social networks form?
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Emeryville = community
Bob old members new / casual members
weak ties strong ties
A story of how Bob’s social network was built
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how do social networks form?
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college
work
Emeryville = community
Social networks form naturally within communities as people establishes relationships
Social network maintains relationships as people move between communities
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what do real social network data look like?
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▪ Social Network • Held together by pre-existing
interpersonal relationships between individuals
• You know everyone in your network (ego-network), people who are connected to you directly
• Each person has only one social network, despite there are many social network platforms
• Structure: Network
communities vs. social networks (on/offline)
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▪ Community • Held together by some common
interests of a large group of people
• Most people, especially new members, do not know majority of the members in the community
• Any one person may be part of many communities at any given time
• Structure: Hierarchical, overlapping & nested
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▪ Social Networks
communities vs. social networks (on/offline)
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▪ Community
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lifecycle of relationships
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disconnected
weak tie
strong tie
2. building tie strength
3. maintaining relationship
1. creating a weak tie
do nothing
do something
bad
Easy! All it takes is an “hello”
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But what is relationship?
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▪ Relationship: sociology perspective • A tie or a connection between two entities (e.g.
people, companies, cities, or even nations) • Tie strength = strength of the relationship
▪ Granovetter: components of tie strength • Time: • Intensity: • Trust: • Reciprocity:
▪ Strong relationships requires more time & attention
the components of a relationship
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Time: amount of time spent together Intensity: emotional intensity & sense of closeness Trust: intimacy or mutual confiding (transparency) Reciprocity: amount of reciprocal services
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▪We only have 24 hours a day
▪We only have fixed amount of attention
▪ How many meaningful relationship can we have?
the attention economy
16 via nielsen
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▪ Prof. Robin Dunbar found a relationship between brain size of primate species and their group size
▪ Extrapolate data from 38 primate species to human neocortex ratio Dunbar number = 148 (~150)
▪ Verified by surveying pre-industrial villages/tribes
~150: the Dunbar number (or Dunbar limit)
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we know the human neocortical ratio
148
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▪ Order our relationship from the strongest (immediate family) to the weakest (acquaintance)
▪ This creates a relationship profiles for each person
▪ In pre-industrial villages & tribes, people only know ~150 people on average
does Dunbar limit still applies in modern society?
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wife children
parents
siblings close friends
…………
# of relationships
tie s
treng
th
16 ~150
acquaintance
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▪ Dunbar’s limit may not apply in modern society b/c • necessity for social cohesion is
substantially lower • communication (an important part
of socializing) is much more efficient
▪ But our brain hasn’t changed for millennia…
does Dunbar limit still applies in modern society?
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wife children
parents
siblings close friends
………… 16
acquaintance
# of relationships
tie s
treng
th
~150
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we can have more than 150 friends
20 # of relationships
tie s
treng
th
~150 strong ties weak ties
if have fewer strong ties
attention shift from stronger ties to weaker ties
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we can have more than 150 friends
21 # of relationships
tie s
treng
th
~150 strong ties weak ties
if have weaker strong ties
attention shift from stronger ties to weaker ties
We can shift our time/attention around, but the total amount of time/attention remain roughly the same
area under the yellow relationship profile
area under the blue relationship profile =
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What about the relationship between customers & brands?
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customer relationship < personal relationship (with brands) (with people)
always weaker
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▪ Facebook contains a lot of our strong ties • By definition, these stronger ties will demand more attention, and will win more
of your limited time/attention
▪ Irony: because Facebook is “too good” at maintaining our strong ties, it created problems for itself: • In the presence of strong ties, weaker ties
are harder to develop into strong ones • If you already have strong relationship with
your customers. Great! maintain them with Facebook is the way to go
• Otherwise, the strong ties on Facebook will hinder the development of weak ties
the Facebook irony
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but it’s too fast for your dog
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How can brands build stronger relationships with their customers?
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▪ “time” = time spent together ≠ duration of relationship
▪ “time” increases tie strength if the desires to spend time together is mutual
component #1: time
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time
trust
reciprocity
intensity
LOVE
desire = mutual
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▪ “time” = time spent together ≠ duration of relationship
▪ “time” increases tie strength if the desires to spend time together is mutual
▪ Key: know when your customers want to spend time with you, and be there for them
component #1: time
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trust
reciprocity time
intensity HATE
desire = non-mutual
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reciprocity
▪ Customers’ intensity for brands is much lower than their intensity for friends
▪ It is genetic! We have no control over it
▪ Tactic: appeal to greater causes that customers have strong emotions for
▪ Key: don’t try too hard on this component
component #2: intensity
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intensity
time
trust
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▪ Transparency creates an environment that’s more conducive for building trust
▪ 2 types of transparency • brand–customer
• blog, twitter, etc • customer–customer
• community discussion forum
component #3: trust
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trust
time reciprocity
intensity
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▪ People trust themselves, so they tend to trust brands that co-create with them
▪ 2 types of co-creation • passive: listening + collect customer input • active: crowdsourced ideation + filtering
▪ Key: 1. Create transparent & authentic
communication channels to customers & among customers
2. Co-create with your customers
component #3: trust
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trust
time reciprocity
intensity
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time
trust
▪ Reciprocity = reciprocal services
▪ Customer Brands • Make it easy for them to help other
customers of yours • Reward them properly and serve
right
▪ Create a sustainable cycle of reciprocity by co-creation
▪ Key: don’t forget to let your customer help you
component #4: reciprocity
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reciprocity
2 way
intensity
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trust
time
▪ Customer community • Opt-in: it’s there when the
customers want it • May have a great cause • Transparent channel • Platform for co-creation • Enables reciprocity
▪ Customer relationship are build the same way as inter-personal relationships, in a community
building customer relationship
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intensity
reciprocity
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Now we know how relationships are built, can we measure it?
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not yet, but each pillar is ~quantifiable~
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how much time spent in your brand community?
how much time spent engaging & participating on your fan page, youtube channel, etc.?
how deep are the engagements with your brand?
sentiment ratio, emotions
hard to measure. But that’s OK, b/c it’s hard to influence too
how transparent is your brand to your customers?
how responsive you are to your customers?
how many inter-customer discussion do you enable?
at what rate are content being co-created w/ your customers?
at what rate are reciprocal and mutual services being carried out?
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future CRM
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Big challenges:
Combining the metrics for the 4 pillars into a single metric that quantifies the
strength of relationship.
There are nonlinear dependencies between the 4 pillars of a relationship, so
a simple linear model, such a weighted average, won’t be sufficient.
Hopefully, future CRM will not only have data on your customers’ relationship with
your brand, but also the strength of relationships among your customers.
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Thank you Q&A + discussion
@mich8elwu
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4/24/2012 ©2012 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved. 36
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