http://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2012-10-17T13:55:00ZCompanies must be willing to turn the selling cycle upside down to inspire user-generated content on social media sites.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240009236?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- Image Aligning right --> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/view/240008245/6-ways-iphone-5-ios-6-amp-up-social-opportunities"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/878/ios6_image_tn.png" alt="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" title="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- / Image Aligning right --> The best social interactions--at least for companies--tend to be user initiated. In fact, most social engagement works best when it is organic, but that only happens when companies are engaging with customers and followers holistically, explained Ajay Ramachandran, chief marketing and product officer at <a href="http://www.dynamicsignal.com/">Dynamic Signal</a>, a company that provides social CRM. Ramachandran detailed ways to achieve this goal during an invitation-only session at <a href="http://2012.pivotcon.com/ ">Pivot Conference</a> in New York. <P> Ramachandran divides social into five categories: social enterprise, social listening, social responding, social engagement, and social amplification. He puts social enterprise and social listening at the bottom of the scale because they create fewer chances for organic engagement with customers, being focused solely on internal efforts and watching the social scene, respectively. The most advanced category, social amplification, delivers the highest level of customer and follower interactions. He said companies that have reached this level are also most likely to be using the eight tools and strategies that the most successful brands use for social engagement: social CRM, social strategy and execution, content marketing, customer engagement, gamification, social analytics, influencer marketing, and social listening. <P> "Those are the eight areas that people need to invest in to get to the point of engagement," Ramachandran said. <P> <strong>[ Growing organically: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240006793/how-whole-foods-handles-social-media?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How Whole Foods Handles Social Media</a>.]</strong> <P> To attain social amplification level, first it's important to identify influencers and amplifiers--those that are already engaged with the brand. It is important not to get too bogged down looking at a user's social stats, however. "One of the biggest mistakes people make is relying on generalized influence measurement systems," he explained. "The reality is that all of those systems are designed for consumers." <P> Engaging customers and building relationships are also important, but marketers must remember that engagement takes forms outside of traditional social media. It needs to be thoughtful and include segmentation that targets messages to end users--the often-mentioned one-to-one marketing. In the social realm, this may include asking users to send photos of themselves engaging with a brand or soliciting product reviews. <P> Ramachandran also suggested that companies take advantage of the "modern buying cycle" that starts with customers who have already made purchases and taps those customers as part of the sales cycle. In this new cycle, the sale starts with a customer's use of a product and shifts into delight and loyalty, segmentation and targeting, activation and engagement, relationship and advocacy, and amplification and revenue. "About 40% of pins on Pinterest are about this cycle--people loving what they use and posting about it," he said. "We think about selling as a funnel--a large pool winnowing down to a smaller one--but why not upend the apple cart and start small and go bigger?" <P> When you're hearing about a company from peers, you're more likely to tune in and potentially make a purchase or get involved, he said. <P> <em>Social media make the customer more powerful than ever. Here's how to listen and react. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/gogreen/081312by/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">The Customer Really Comes First</a> issue of The BrainYard: The right tools can help smooth over the rough edges in your social business architecture. (Free registration required.)</em>2012-10-16T16:13:00ZOften spoken of but seldom achieved, transparency is one of the most important elements of becoming a social business, say Pivot Conference speakers.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240009152?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- Image Aligning right --> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_networking_consumer/240006809"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/862/pinterest_logo_full.jpg" alt="10 Pinterest Pointers For Businesses" title="10 Pinterest Pointers For Businesses" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Pinterest Pointers For Businesses</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- / Image Aligning right --> If you want to be a social business, learn to be transparent and involve everyone--from upper management to the newest intern--in your day-to-day blogs, tweets, and posts. <P> The advice, presented at the <a href="http://2012.pivotcon.com/">Pivot Conference</a> this week in New York City, is applicable to large companies and small businesses, who are increasingly getting into the social media act, according to a Manta research report that found <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/13/business/la-fi-mo-small-biz-survey-20120912">90% of small businesses</a> are using social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. <P> One of the most important things a business can do--and something that many have not gotten the hang of--is to be transparent, according to Charlene Li, founder of the Altimeter Group. There is no credibility in social without transparency, she said. <P> One of the earliest examples of how to do this right came from Dell, which in 2006 defused a potential publicity nightmare with its own blog post. During a conference event, one of the company's laptops exploded into flames, Li explained. Someone took a photo and released it on the Web. Rather than downplaying the incident, Dell penned its own blog about the disaster, titling it <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2006/07/13/flaming-notebook.aspx">Flaming Notebook</a>. <P> Another example she cited was Four Seasons, which puts unfiltered reviews on its site, pulling content directly from Tripadvisor.com. The company doesn't delete negative reviews or those that could hurt its brand. The simple fact that it does this helps to boost its customers' trust in the company, Li said. <P> <strong>[ Learn <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_consumer/240008448/what-linkedin-endorsements-mean-to-you?itc=edit_in_body_cross">What LinkedIn Endorsements Mean To You</a>. ]</strong> <P> This type of transparency starts with making social the "course of business for everyone," not just those who are in PR or marketing, Li said. Businesses need to create a culture that includes social and rewards social risk-taking. "The true act of courage is when you don't know what the outcome is going to be," she said. She suggested managers "create opportunities to take small risks every day." No one should be "sitting there wondering what will happen" if they fail, she said. <P> Sharing within a corporate social environment is a good way to start, as is creating a reward system so that everyone who contributes to social--whether their interactions succeed or fail--can be rewarded for their efforts. Li explained that Google management says that "every failure is an opportunity to learn," which is why some of the very engineers that fail spectacularly end up on the best projects. <P> Managers should also look to every employee as a potential source of a good social idea or communication, said Jimmy Soni, managing editor at Huffington Post. His organization is "flat" so "ideas can bubble up from the bottom." Each week the site holds calls with junior staffers asking them what the organization can do better. The results include "dozens" of ideas, many of which are implemented. <P> <em>Social media make the customer more powerful than ever. Here's how to listen and react. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/gogreen/081312by/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">The Customer Really Comes First</a> issue of The BrainYard: The right tools can help smooth over the rough edges in your social business architecture. (Free registration required.)</em>2012-05-02T09:00:00ZSix new turnkey "frameworks" cut time to set up community rewards for users in both consumer and business markets. http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232901285?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- Image Aligning right --><!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/232602613"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/759/slide1_full.jpg" alt="6 Social Sites Sitting On The Cutting Edge" title="6 Social Sites Sitting On The Cutting Edge" class="img175" /></a><br /><div class="storyImageTitle">6 Social Sites Sitting On The Cutting Edge</div><span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --><!-- / Image Aligning right -->Gamification should be child's play, or so said gamification company <a href="http://badgeville.com/">Badgeville</a> last week as it released a new set of gamification "frameworks," a collection of turn-key solutions designed to make it easier and faster to add game-like incentives to any online experience. <P> The company, which counts industry heavyweights such as Dell, eBay, and NBC as customers, announced six new frameworks that can be integrated into many of the most popular third-party platforms including Salesforce.com, Lithium, Bazaarvoice, and Yammer. <P> <strong>[ Want to understand how the game is played? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900162/gamification-75-psychology-25-technology">Gamification: 75% Psychology, 25% Technology</a>. ]</strong> <P> Each of the frameworks--Core Gamification, Community Expert, Competitive Pyramid, Gentle Guide, Company Collaborator, and Company Challenge--was developed based on observations and analysis of about 150 customer deployments, said Tony Ventris, the company's senior game designer. "Frameworks are the next evolution of gamification," he said. "Now, we're able to identify better ways of doing things." <P> Community Expert provides a way to reward people for the "expertise, passion, and engagement" they show for a site or community, said Ventris. Gentle Guide--mostly for internal corporate implementations--lets users track a worker's daily tasks and jobs, and make sure they are completed. Company Challenge takes Gentle Guide one step further by incorporating the use of teams and competition between departments or offices. Company Collaborator puts rewards into the hands of other employees so they can reward their co-workers' behavior, giving them recognition. <P> Although there are companies that offer tools similar to what the frameworks can provide, the main difference, said Ventris, is that Badgeville frameworks can be implemented across a variety of apps and websites. "Say you have a Jive implementation. You can also integrate the framework within your website and your blog," he said. <P> Kim Celestre, senior analyst for technology marketing at <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Kim-Celestre">Forrester Research</a>, said the cross-platform approach might be a smart one for some companies. "This reflects where social media is heading. Announcements like this are going to enable companies to incentivize their customer communities no matter where the customer has his or her interactions and conversations," she said. The frameworks also show that there is real value for gamification in the business-to-business world, something that many pundits questioned when gamification first started taking off. "For a B-to-B company, this type of platform also applies," said Celestre. <P> The frameworks are another step in the company's quest to bring gamification to any platform or interface that a user might interact with. Earlier this year, Badgeville <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/mobile/232602062">announced</a> a mobile gamification software developer's kit (SDK) that lets iOS and Android developers add its gamification features into smartphone and tablet apps. The company also promotes its gamification capabilities as part of a broader <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231902474/badgeville-takes-cue-from-facebook-with-behavior-graph">platform for motivating and tracking user behavior</a>. <P> <em>Follow Karen J. Bannan on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/KarenBannan">@KarenBannan</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/thebyard">facebook.com/thebyard</a></em> <P> <em>The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today! </em>2012-04-26T12:20:00ZAdobe earns credit for the way it makes use of Facebook APIs for Pages, Ads, Apps, and Insights, becoming the first company to win badges in all four areas of Facebook's Preferred Marketing Developer program.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232901004?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Facebook Apps In Action" title="Facebook Apps In Action" class="img175" /></a><br /><div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Adobe this week announced it is the first of Facebook's 232 initial preferred marketing developers to be qualified for and receive Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) badges in all four of the social platform's marketing APIs: Pages, Ads, Apps, and Insights. <P> The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232900591/facebook-intros-good-developer-seal-of-approval">PMD program</a>, which was announced April 19, merges the company's Preferred Developer Consultant (PDC) program and its Marketing API program. The PMD program is intended as a seal of approval to help connect brands to "consultants who can work with them to build comprehensive Facebook campaigns and presences," wrote John Li, manager of Facebook's Marketing API Program, in a Developer Blog post. Its end goal, wrote Li, is to make it easier for brands to launch cross-platform Facebook campaigns and presences. "Clients can find developers by geography and expertise and read case studies and feedback," he wrote. <P> "The goal with the APIs is to let every marketer make every brand experience engaging and let advertisers understand what their Facebook investment returns for them--not just in dollars, but in time spent on [a] site, downloads of coupons, or trial offers," explained John Mellor, Adobe's VP of business development & strategy. <P> <strong>[ Graphic design software in the cloud? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/marketing/232900752/adobe-serves-up-creative-cloud-buffet?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Adobe Serves Up Creative Cloud Buffet</a>. ]</strong> <P> Lawrence Mak, Adobe product marketing manager, detailed what each of the badges--and Adobe's support of the individual APIs means to customers on Adobe's Digital Marketing <a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/social-media/adobe-first-facebook-preferred-marketing-developer-awarded-all-4-facebook-api-badges-what-does-this-mean-for-you/">blog</a>. <P> Some of the integrations include Adobe tying the Facebook marketing APIs to products such as its Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, which includes Adobe Social, a new offering that integrates Facebook page management, ad buying, and analytics, said Mellor. "Advertisers shouldn't have to approach social with one arm tied behind their back," he said. "We want to give them the complete buffet of what's available at Facebook. We work with a lot of agencies that provide services and we have a rich services team here ourselves." <P> Although there are sure to be other developers that earn all four Facebook PMD badges, Adobe's early success highlights the company's commitment to the social space, said Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst with the Altimeter Group. "Adobe has made several acquisitions [in social]. They have gone way beyond Photoshop," he said. The company has made a series of acquisitions and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232600513">moves that solidify</a> the company in the space. For example, Adobe in November announced the acquisition of digital marketing firm Efficient Frontier for an undisclosed amount. The deal closed in February. <P> Combined, the company has spent more than $2.4 billion over the past few years to extend its reach in the digital marketing space. While Mellor wouldn't comment on future acquisitions or announcements, he confirmed that Adobe is keeping an eye on the social space as a whole and expects to make announcements around platforms and services that achieve "scale." <P> "We want to have a complete offering," he said. "We never want to look at a client and tell them that they can't do something." <P> <em>Follow Karen J. Bannan on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/KarenBannan">@KarenBannan</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/thebyard">facebook.com/thebyard</a></em> <P> <em>The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today! </em>2012-04-23T11:19:00ZSocial comments, ratings, and reviews tool will provide real-time feeds for service and support.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232900708?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- Image Aligning right --><!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/232900305"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/780/montage_full.jpg" alt="Get Social: 11 Management Systems That Can Help" title="Get Social: 1 Management Systems That Can Help" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">Get Social: 11 Management Systems That Can Help</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --><!-- / Image Aligning right -->SAP and Salesforce.com users just got the ability to add a new layer of data to their information stream. <P> Social media vendor <a href="http://www.bazaarvoice.com/">Bazaarvoice</a> has introduced several new integrations with its Social Platform product, including SAP and Salesforce.com. The announcement means companies will be able to track reviews, comments, and shares posted on corporate and commerce sites, as well as Facebook pages. <P> "One of the values of the integration is the customer service professionals can more actively engage. As a piece of content is created in real time the integration will notify customer service that someone just asked a question or posted a review so the person can respond to it quickly," explained Mike Svatek, Bazaarvoice's chief strategy officer. The end result is an increase in brand loyalty and the ability to take and use such information in the sales, marketing, and product lifecycles, he said. <P> There are a number of competitors in this field, including <a href="http://www.buddymedia.com">Buddy Media</a>, <a href="http://www.lithium.com">Lithium</a>, and <a href="http://www.powerreviews.com">PowerReviews</a>. <a href="http://adobe.com">Adobe </a> also has made several social media acquisitions, which put the digital design company on the social media map. However, Svatek said his firm's solution is set apart by its integration with CRM apps. <P> "The main difference between our service and other social listening tools is that when someone has something to say--positive or negative--we know exactly who they are, can tie it back to a transaction, and know the model number and SKU they are talking about," Svatek said. Users can also tap analytics to better segment their audiences. One example: Being able to identify product advocates who can do early reviews of a product, which helps R&D make changes to a product or service before it goes out. <P> <strong>[ Can we talk? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/community_management_development/232900672/a-brainyard-experiment-lets-have-a-social-conversation?itc=edit_in_body_cross">A BrainYard Experiment: Let's Have A Social Conversation</a>. ]</strong> <P> Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst with the <a href="http://www.altimetergroup.com">Altimeter Group</a> agrees that this type of integration is key for those companies that want to connect existing customer ecosystems with social media. "The end goal is, when you do have these systems, that you can understand the customer from all places and eventually predict what the customers want and need," he said. "That kind of power is very, very valuable for sales, marketing, and R&D." <P> While the announcement may be a positive one--Bazaarvoice customers will have deeper integration with what's being said on their websites and company Facebook page--it doesn't mean that CMOs and other executives will be completely covered when it comes to social media. Most will still need to employ other social listening tools to keep up with what's being said on external social networks such as Twitter and Pinterest as well as other blogs, communities, and websites. This means there's more to keep track of. <P> In addition, companies who use the Bazaarvoice integration will need to educate internal groups that may have little or no experience working in the social media realm. Today, the majority of social media deployments and analysis is handled by the marketing and corporate communications departments, according to a recent Altimeter study, with 82% and 75% of those departments formally deploying customer-facing social media efforts, respectively. Only 30% of support departments and a mere 4% of R&D departments using customer-facing social media, according to the same study. <P> This may change as social media companies are acquired and rolled into a single interface, but until then there's going to be a big learning curve for anyone just starting out with the category. <P> "Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all suite," Altimeter Group's Owyang said. "There's an arms race going on in the social media tools industry, and it's still very unclear who will come out on top." <P> <em>Follow Karen J. Bannan on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/KarenBannan">@KarenBannan</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/thebyard">facebook.com/thebyard</a></em> <P> <em>IT's challenge in dealing with social networks comes on two fronts: How to interact with would-be customers on big social networks like Facebook, and how to provide employees on internal networks with collaboration that's as powerful as their Facebook experiences. This virtual event, <a href="https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1004065&K=MAA20&tab=overview">Social Business: Marshaling Expertise, Engaging Customers, Building Brands</a>, will help IT leaders sort through their strategic choices. It happens April 26. </em>2012-04-06T14:02:00ZNew implementation process, analytics feature lets publishers increase user engagement.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232800416?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Facebook Apps In Action" title="Facebook Apps In Action" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div><span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> BigDoor this week announced the next generation of its Gamified Rewards Program, featuring a simplified implementation process called Rapid Integration and an analytics dashboard that help publishers gain better insight in to key performance indicators (KPIs). <P> The analytics create a "no-exposure" control group, so publishers can see how BigDoor's platform boosts four KPIs: loyalty, engagement, viral distribution of content, and revenue. <P> The company provides a gamification platform that lets online publishers offer user incentives for engaging more often and more deeply with their websites. Incentives include exclusive content, virtual rewards and items, community status, and offline rewards. Competitors like Badgeville and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231902300/gamification-in-play-at-enterprise-20">Bunchball</a>--which boast large customers such as Fox and CA Technologies, and Wendy's and Chiquita, respectively--have previously announced similar analytics features. <P> However, unlike Badgeville and Bunchball, which cater to both business-to-consumer and enterprise customers, <a href="http://www.bigdoor.com/">BigDoor</a> focuses squarely on the consumer side, according to the company's co-founder and CEO, Keith Smith. <P> <strong>[ For more on how small businesses are using gamification to increase profits, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/ebusiness/232700110?itc=edit_in_body_cross">SMBs Use Gamification To Convert Fans Into Cash</a>. ]</strong> <P> Among the 25 companies that participated in a November private beta test of the new platform, there was an average boost of 153% in user loyalty and 672% in engagement, Smith said in an interview. "We measure all steps of the user lifecycle. We track it back to the user's performance. How often are people registering? How often are they coming back? Are they inviting their friends? Are there referrals? What's the revenue on a per-user basis?" <P> This gamification model of reward is one of the most controversial in the industry, says <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900162/gamification-75-psychology-25-technology">Gabe Zichermann</a>, chair of the G Summit and author of Gamification by Design (O'Reilly, 2011). "Rewards aren't everything," he explains. "The more frequent discussions are, 'Do people care more about real awards versus virtual?'" Using the BigDoor model, consumers are rewarded for actions such as downloading music, re-tweeting, liking content on Facebook, interacting on a blog or online community, or simply returning to a site. <P> The overall gamification market is exploding, with direct spending expected to shoot up to $2.8 billion by 2016, up from $100 million in 2011, according to <a href="http://www.m2research.com/gamification.htm">M2 Research</a>. According to one Gartner report, by 2015 more than 50% of organizations will gamify innovation processes, and more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will install at least one gamified application. <P> The addition of BigDoor's analytics is significant for the company, says Brian Blau, research director, Consumer Technology and Markets at research firm Gartner, because their customers can now use the analytics to take action on campaigns and programs. "Using analytics as a key business driver is the key here. Understanding a product, technology, or marketing campaign by looking at the details of user metrics such as loyalty, engagement, and revenue can only help improve its performance over time once those metrics are used in decision-making about the future," he explained. "Analytics can provide key insight into product performance. It's not a substitute for making great products, but it certainly can help a company make critical improvements." <P> Separately, the company announced an additional $5 million round of venture financing, led by its existing investor, Foundry Group. This brings the company's total funding to $13 million since it launched in 2009. <P> The funding round is less an affirmation of the gamification trend than a needed boost for BigDoor, says Blau. "Gamification and its ability to be used as an engagement driver is relatively new, and companies like BigDoor need resources available to sustain them over the long term as they refine their product strategy, fend off competition, and grow their user base," he explains. <P> <em>The <a href="http://e2conf.com/boston?_mc=E2IWKPREM">Enterprise 2.0 Conference</a> brings together industry thought leaders to explore the latest innovations in enterprise social software, analytics, and big data tools and technologies. Learn how your business can harness these tools to improve internal business processes and create operational efficiencies. It happens in Boston, June 18-21. Register today! </em> <P>