Khoros on Khoros: How we harnessed employees’ power to transform our results

Originally published on khoros.com.

Introduction

At its core, employee advocacy is quite simple: it’s the promotion of a company by the people who work there. People advocate for their employers on social media all the time. A LinkedIn post saying, “Just had a great catered lunch at work. Thanks, @Employer!” qualifies as employee advocacy, as does sharing the latest post from the company blog on your own social feed or telling a friend about an open role they’d love. We have always recognized the value of employee advocacy at Khoros, but our past programs required a lot of manual work and no way to easily scale. Here are some of the ways we tapped into employee advocacy in the past:

• CMO highlighting opportunities via email or sharing success stories via Slack

• Employees updating their LinkedIn profile to promote Khoros

• Employees publicly sharing job and promotion announcements on LinkedIn, including the #LifeAtKhoros hashtag

These were easy enough, but employees had to manually upload screenshots of these updates to receive recognition. Plus, there was no clear way to track these engagements or measure their success.

Thanks to our partnership with EveryoneSocial, we have adopted a better method of enabling employee advocacy that provides:

• An interactive platform

• Easy-to-follow, one-click instructions

• ROI and engagement data visualization tools to track success.

We are delighted to share how EveryoneSocial empowered Khoros' team members to become passionate brand advocates, augmenting our outreach beyond the limits of traditional approaches.

Establishing our vision

Our venture into employee advocacy began with a clear, focused vision: to empower employees to share our brand’s story genuinely and compellingly. As part of our initial planning and research, we tapped into the extensive resources provided by our partners at EveryoneSocial. This deep dive was crucial for understanding what makes content resonate with audiences.

To start with, we strongly emphasized thought leadership. We discovered that content showcasing expertise and insights from our teams enhanced our brand’s credibility and fostered a sense of employee pride and ownership. This approach helped turn our employees into active participants in our brand narrative.

During our initial launch, we learned the importance of diversifying our content and that it’s not just about promoting brand assets to drive downloads. The real goal is to enrich our audience’s experiences on social media. Sharing content that is accessible to everyone–without a gate or form fill–is ultimately a more authentic interaction. We leaned into blogs, case studies, and event invites to drive more meaningful engagement while sprinkling in gated content sparingly.

We also began incorporating customer stories and partner content, highlighting our collaborations and achievements and providing a well-rounded content experience. It’s not always about Khoros — and it shouldn’t be. While promoting our brand is important, it can quickly feel stagnant and forced. A blended mix of content enhances brands' overall value in the marketplace. 

Building an internal culture that supports social sharing became a key part of our strategy. We aimed to create an environment where sharing and engaging with content was encouraged and became a natural extension of our employee’s daily work life. EveryoneSocial provides many tools to make this a reality, such as their integration with Slack and the ability to mark certain posts as “Important,” which sends automatic emails from the platform to our employees' work emails. As we continue to evolve, the role of social sharing in building and sustaining our internal culture sets a solid foundation for future growth and success.

Strategies for success

Share of voice

Share of voice (SOV) refers to the share of your advertising compared to all the competitors in your market. We needed to ensure our team’s voices were heard to increase our SOV.

With EveryoneSocial, admins upload content to the platform, enabling them to choose the type of content employees share and add suggested share-copy options. Users can select from the posts and copy admins have provided or adjust the copy to fit their needs and personal voice.

To increase our SOV amongst competitors, we learned that tagging our brand in the copy increases neutral and positive sentiment. Encouraging employees to tag Khoros in their industry-related posts amplifies our reach and helps position our team as thought leaders. This strategy leads to meaningful engagements and conversations beyond our owned social channels. 

Thought Leadership

We strive to connect with our audience through insightful articles representing our company well. To showcase our team's accomplishments and foster engagement and pride among our employees, we utilize EveryoneSocial. This approach has been successful for us.

Example: A Comprehensive Guide for the 2023 Holiday Season

During the holiday season, our Strategic Services team put together a collection of recommendations to increase organic social media reach on each social platform to enhance holiday campaigns.

To further promote the distribution of this content, we uploaded it to EveryoneSocial with the following share copy options:

• Looking for tips to land you on your finance team's nice list this holiday season while still crushing it on social? Our Strategic Services team at @Khoros created this platform-by-platform strategy guide to organically boost your social media channels this holiday season.

• From TikTok to Reddit to Instagram, the @Khoros Strategic Services team has you covered on clever insights and playful strategies to up your social media game organically this holiday season.

• Need help navigating the holiday social media landscape like a pro? Our @Khoros Strategic Services put together platform-specific strategies that will elevate your digital presence organically and watch the holiday engagement soar.

In each of these copy options, we tagged the Khoros brand LinkedIn account so that our share of voice would increase whenever employees shared these posts. While individual users can adjust the share copy to their liking, we found that more often than not, they stick with the provided share copy–Maybe switching up a word or two or adding their favorite emojis. It’s essential to provide a solid batch of share copy options to ensure that our brand standards are met when publishing content to each individual’s personal LinkedIn, but also so that content doesn’t feel stale and cookie-cutter on people’s feeds.

We found that it’s important to occasionally include content that isn’t Khoros branded and comes from other brands and organizations. Sprinkling in content from different websites allows for a larger variety of posts. However, these posts don’t typically perform as well for us, so careful consideration is needed when balancing the types of content.

Rewards and Gamification

Participation didn’t happen right away. There were a few early adopters, but we needed something to motivate employees to share posts with their networks, so we introduced a gamification layer to our advocacy program. Monthly leaderboards encouraged friendly competition to engage and share more frequently, and employees won reward points within our internal employee recognition program. Reward points carry real-world value; employees can spend them on merchandise, trips, and activities. These recognitions and rewards created an infectious buzz, and more and more employees adopted the platform.

EveryoneSocial enables admins to set up groups based on job function, location, team, and other options. We observed certain teams using the platform more often than others (shoutout to our sales and customer success teams!), so we asked for volunteers from those groups to contribute their content. This was another motivational force, as we allowed employees to share their ideas and experiences with a wider audience. If you can get one team lead on board and excited about the program, this enthusiasm will naturally spread to more teammates as they hear about it and see the posts from colleagues appearing on their feeds.

Early Success

Reflecting on the first quarter following the launch of our employee advocacy program, our initial metrics underscore overall success while highlighting the vast potential of harnessing the power of employee networks. Here’s a closer look at our tangible results:

• Expanding our reach: A 973% increase in active users shows our employees' enthusiasm for the program, reflecting our engaging company culture.

• Content that resonates: Our content strategy led to a 333% increase in posts by focusing on relevant enterprise-level concerns, making our content appealing and valuable to our team.

• Amplification through sharing: Our shares have increased by 213%, showing that our employees are actively sharing our content, which expands our brand reach and enhances our credibility.

• Broadening the horizon: Our program's success is evident with a monthly reach of 258,000, which is a 312% QoQ increase. This has helped us reach a wider audience and establish our presence in the competitive B2B tech space.

These numbers reflect a vibrant, engaged workforce confidently sharing our brand’s story and a compelling narrative of alignment between our employee’s success and the company’s growth. The surge in reach and engagement through EveryoneSocial demonstrates that when employees are given the tools and content that echo their professional ethos, they become the most credible advocates for the brand.

The initial results of our efforts validate our strategic decision to adopt employee advocacy practices. Plus, it helped us set benchmarks for continuous improvement. As we carry this momentum into the new year, we are committed to refining our approach, exploring new content strategies, and further integrating employee feedback. This is just the beginning as we build upon this foundation to reach new heights of brand advocacy.

The Road Ahead: Strategic Goals for FY25

Our focus for the upcoming fiscal year is to scale our advocacy efforts by deepening employee adoption, expanding the team responsible for posting, and ensuring our executives are well-equipped to advocate for our brand across social channels.

Our sights are set on growth — of our program, reach, and impact. 

Deepen Employee Adoption

We aim to introduce new employee training programs, secure additional funding for our rewards program, and leverage advanced analytics to fine-tune our strategy. We also plan to empower more thought leaders from our team and increase training to ensure employees are up to speed on publishing best practices.

Content Leaderboards

Another goal we will work to achieve this year is increasing the number of people contributing content to the platform. We started with one content producer and invited our top users to contribute as well. We plan to increase content contribution by launching a content leaderboard that awards points for the amount of content submitted.

Executive Adoption

“Distribution is top of mind for CMOs and CCOs: I talked with as many marketing and comms execs as I could this year, and the topic that got the strongest reaction was DISTRIBUTION. Given all the challenges with traditional digital marketing, how do you efficiently, effectively and authentically reach your customers, people and other key audiences? This is THE billion dollar question.” 

- Cameron Brain, CEO of EveryoneSocial

There is a deep value in enabling your executive team to participate in brand advocacy. Launching an executive advocacy program is a top priority this year. We aim to create a consistent publishing cadence where executives and board members can publish content about Khoros directly to their networks. According to the Harvard Business Review, nearly half of a company’s reputation is attributed to the CEO’s reputation.

Unsurprisingly, a CEO's social media presence is increasingly scrutinized when forming opinions about a company. In our digital-first world, social presence matters. As we enter the new fiscal year, enabling our executive teams to work smarter (and certainly not harder) with social publishing is a top priority.

Integrating with Salesforce

Did you know that EveryoneSocial has a Salesforce integration? It’s one of the things we’re most excited about for 2024’s employee advocacy efforts. Internal adoption was steadily increasing but eventually reached a plateau. We had to ask ourselves, “How can we get sellers and CSMs more involved?”

Unsurprisingly, these groups have strong LinkedIn networks, so ensuring they join in on the advocacy efforts is key to reaching a wider audience. Introducing a new tool can sometimes be overwhelming and lead to less adoption. EveryoneSocial created an integration that lets teams use the platform directly in a Salesforce tab, allowing them to focus on work without having to access a new tool or navigate away from the tool they use most often.

The integration allows the convenience of staying in Salesforce while still being able to view, share, and engage with content across various social channels. Sellers are busy and hyper-focused, so by embedding the EveryoneSocial app into Salesforce, our sales team no longer needs to log in to EveryoneSocial as a standalone app. We’re letting our Sales team work from their platform of choice while providing as many options as possible to let them engage in employee advocacy without messing up their workflows.

Conclusion

Our journey with employee advocacy has been a transformative experience for our employees and brand. We've witnessed firsthand how empowering a company’s team to share its story can amplify a brand's reach and authenticity. The success we've seen — a remarkable increase in our social media metrics and the enthusiastic participation of our employees — is a testament to the untapped potential residing within our team.

This story of Khoros and EveryoneSocial is not just ours to tell; it's an open invitation to other social media managers and brands to consider the untapped potential of their teams in brand promotion. The employee advocacy strategy is a robust, cost-effective alternative to traditional marketing efforts, especially in an era where authenticity and personal connection hold immense value. By embracing this innovative approach, we believe any brand can transform its narrative and achieve a new level of engagement and visibility in the crowded digital marketplace.

Are you ready to take your brand advocacy to the next level? Learn how with our 90-day checklist.

The Candy House: Patterns of affinity, artificial memories, and human consciousness

The Candy House

Jennifer Egan's 2022 book, The Candy House, provides an interesting look into the future of AI and media, and how the two combined have the potential to impact memory and collective consciousness. So granted, this was right up my alley (thank you, Mom, for the recommendation. You know me so well. 😉)

Synopsis

The Candy House follows the lives of a series of interconnected individuals who are wrestling with the repercussions of Bix Bouton's groundbreaking invention, "Own Your Unconscious." This technology lets users digitize and disseminate their memories en masse. In order to use the product, you must allow your memories to be shared in a collective memory base: You give up your memories, you gain access to the rest of the world's.

Own Your Unconscious was developed using Miranda Kline's "patterns of affinity" algorithm, developed while living in a remote tribal village in Brazil. The algorithm was able to determine what made people like and trust one another. Once Kline's algorithm was published, social media moguls jumped at the opportunity to use it in their work, and Bix developed Own Your Unconscious. His reasoning? His whole life he has been plagued with the idea that his inactions led to the death of someone he knew who may still be alive. By developing Own Your Unconscious, he hoped to figure out if what he remembers was true, or if it was merely his interpretation of the events that led up to the major catastrophe.

Of course, uploading your memories into a collective consciousness has (foreseen and) unforeseen ethical and emotional implications.

In the real world

I'm still grappling with what my decision would be if granted the option to do such a thing as uploading my memories, exactly as I remember them, to the rest of humanity. While you can't see everyone's memories, you are able to see the memories that tie directly to yours.

There are already companies, like Neuralink, creating brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to seamlessly connect brains to external devices. In a few short years, the technology in The Candy House might not be that far off from reality. Some people even argue that devices like Fitbit were the start of 'Quantified Self,' where wearable technology allows for a level of self-monitoring that could be considered a rudimentary form of capturing one's "conscious" experience. Though we can't yet capture memories or unconscious thoughts, we can find out how much REM sleep we got the night before, and see when our anxiety levels might be spiking.

So, is the technology in The Candy House absurd and imaginary? Not really. We're generally closer than a lot of people realize to actualizing something like this.

Implications on collective memory

The thing with memories, even when shared, are that they aren't reliable. It has been proven time and time again that just because someone "remembers" something, doesn't mean it actually happened.

One of the most well-known examples is the Lost in the Mall experiment conducted by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues in the 1990s. In the study, Loftus was able to make subjects believe they had been lost in a shopping mall as a child, although that event never actually occurred. This was accomplished through suggestion and reinforcement from a trusted family member.

Elizabeth Loftus is a leading expert in the field of memory and has published many studies on the malleability of human memory. Her work has shown how easy it is to implant false memories through suggestion, leading to wrongful convictions and bringing into question the validity of eyewitness testimony.

All that being said, our memories are fragile and easily influence. Would Own Your Unconscious solve these problems? It certainly has the potential to. For example, say someone has an incorrect memory. They connect their conscious to the machine, and now are able to see other people's memories that were also involved. If the incident never happened, the memory won't connect to anything. Egan doesn't touch on these types of theories in her book, but I can't help but think about the positive impact this could have on cases where human memory is relied on, heavily, as a determining factor in someone's innocent or guilt.

Egan does speak on how the device has helped countless victims of violent and heinous crimes find out the truth about what happened, leading to the arrests of violent individuals who aim to harm others. Most won't argue this is inherently bad, but many will argue about how it is still unethical. But maybe human "ethics" aren't the end-all-be-all, maybe true ethics come from beyond humanity.

I'll let the modern-Socrates' of the world ponder on that one.

In Closing

Collective memory is closer than we think, and artificial intelligence is paving the way for actualizing this dream. For now, our "collective memory" is rooted in the things we all know and love, like TV, films, and across the internet. As we share our content, data, and ideas with the rest of the world, the world's collective memories grow and grow. Perhaps some day the IoT (Internet of Things) will be a carrier of human collective conscious. Maybe not. But only time will tell.

Revisiting my essay, ‘Black Mirror: A Look Into Memory’s Darkest Chambers, How Technology and Sci-Fi Are Merging’ (2017)

Introduction

I've been intrigued by artificial intelligence (AI), ever since the early 2010s when Black Mirror (2011) and Her (2013) entered the mainstream. I'd been curious about it before that, but it never seemed as real as those first few years following 2010.

I grew up on "AI" chatbots. I held frequent conversations with SmarterChild during my elementary and middle school years. These years are formative, but a lot of the time you don't even understand what you're looking at or conversing with. At the time, it was just simple fun.

Revisiting Black Mirror

With all of the recent conversations about AI and ChatGPT, I have rewatched Black Mirror multiple times, but it's not like Black Mirror was the first show to reference how AI can deeply influence our lives. I mean, look further back at classic science fiction novels and we can clearly see that's not the case.

Some of my favorites come to mind: The Altered Ego (1954), a science fiction novel set in a future where an unnamed protagonist grapples with the boundaries of identity and the ethical implications of a revolutionary device that can manipulate human consciousness, or To Live Again (1969), a poignant novel that explores the profound consequences and ethical complexities when a scientific breakthrough allows individuals to experience life through the memories and consciousness of deceased individuals. And even Software (1982), a riveting sci-fi novel that follows the gripping tale of a groundbreaking self-aware computer program and the intense power struggles it triggers within a futuristic society.

These novels were written well before I was born, and yet it seems like the technology that they speak of is only truly coming to fruition now, in 2023, when I'm almost 30 years old. I grew up with this technology, well, at least as a preconception.

With AI entering the mainstream again, this time not as a concept but as a tangible technology, I can't help but think back to a paper leading up to my senior thesis, 'BLACK MIRROR: A LOOK INTO MEMORY’S DARKEST CHAMBERS, HOW TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE-FICTION ARE MERGING' (2017).

My paper explored the question, "How does Black Mirror address memory through its use of technological advancement?" for a class called Media, Memory, History, where we examined the social construction of memories, their transgenerational transmission, and their representation in a variety of media that include television, magazines, film, music, monuments, and memorials. This class was taught at the University of San Francisco by one of my favorite professors Susana Kaiser, who had a profound impact on my understanding of memory and how media shapes what we remember and believe.

So, in the rest of this article, I plan to take a look back at my paper, bringing back some of the topics I studied that may not have been technologically feasible at the time, but certainly are only (really) a few short years later.

The Entire History of You (2011)

The Entire History of You is an episode from the acclaimed television series Black Mirror. Set in a not-too-distant future, it revolves around a society where people have implants called "grains" that record every moment of their lives, allowing them to relive and analyze their memories at any time.

The story follows the life of Liam, a man consumed by his suspicions about his wife, Ffion. After attending a social gathering where he meets an old friend named Jonas, Liam becomes increasingly convinced that Ffion may be having an affair with him. Driven by jealousy and a sense of betrayal, Liam obsessively replays and scrutinizes his memories, desperately searching for any sign of infidelity.

As his paranoia intensifies, Liam becomes detached from reality, straining his relationship with Ffion and jeopardizing his own mental well-being. The ability to rewatch memories takes a toll on him, blurring the boundaries between past and present, and amplifying his anxieties.

In his quest for the truth, Liam confronts Ffion and demands answers. The confrontation forces them to confront the fragility of trust and the consequences of constantly reliving past experiences. The episode explores themes of privacy, jealousy, and the implications of a world where memories can be scrutinized and manipulated.

The Entire History of You presents a cautionary tale, showcasing the dark side of an advanced technology that promises to enhance human experiences but ultimately erodes the fabric of personal relationships and subjective truths. It raises thought-provoking questions about the impact of a world where memories are no longer private and the consequences of living in a constant state of surveillance and self-examination.

TLDR: In a world where humans have grain memory chip implants, a man becomes stressed after a concerning appraisal at work, causing him to come to the conclusion his wife is having an affair. Determined to find out if he is the father of his child, he breaches the privacy and memories of his wife and her paramour.

Comparing The Entire History of You to a Real-Life Example -- Detaining Memories: NASA Engineer and Border Patrol

Sid Bikkannavar, a US-born NASA scientist, experienced an unsettling incident upon his return to the country. He was detained by Customs and Border Patrol, who demanded access to his cell phone despite being informed that it belonged to NASA and contained sensitive information. In order to secure his release, Bikkannavar reluctantly handed over his phone. Customs and Border Patrol proceeded to download all of Bikkannavar's data, including emails, Dropbox files, Facebook information, browser history, photos, and more, onto their databases for examination. After this intrusion into his personal and professional data, Bikkannavar was eventually released.

While to some this may seem like the natural progression of what may happen at a border stop, most citizens of a country wouldn't expect to have their entire phone and internet history searched upon reentering the country. Not only did Bikkannavar's phone contain sensitive information that required high-level security clearances, but his entire life and digital footprint (some may even consider it a "digital memory") were analyzed and examined. Is this not similar to the Black Mirror episode, The Entire History of You (2011)?

Be Right Back (2013)

Be Right Back is a haunting episode from the acclaimed series Black Mirror. After the sudden death of her boyfriend, Martha seeks solace in a new service that recreates a digital version of him using his online presence. As she engages with the AI-driven replica, she finds comfort in its familiar presence but soon desires a more tangible connection, leading her to explore the creation of a synthetic body resembling her deceased partner.

The episode delves into the blurred boundaries between humanity and technology as Martha grapples with the consequences of replacing her loved one with a simulated version. It raises profound questions about the nature of human relationships, the limits of identity, and the ethical implications of artificial companionship. Through Martha's emotional journey, viewers are prompted to reflect on the complexities of grief and the impact of technology on our connections with the departed.

Be Right Back offers a poignant exploration of loss, longing, and the risks inherent in a technologically driven society. It challenges our understanding of what it means to be human and raises thought-provoking discussions about the intertwining of technology and emotions. This gripping episode serves as a haunting reminder of the delicate balance between embracing technological advancements and preserving the essence of our humanity.

TLDR: A woman’s husband dies in a car accident. Shortly after, she finds out she is pregnant. Struggling to find solace and comfort after his death, she signs up for a program that utilizes the dead’s social media accounts and personal emails in order to recreate a synthetic version of her lost love.

Comparing Be Right Back to a Real-Life Example -- Luka: Artificial Intelligence in the real world (Now Called 'Replika AI')

Luka is an AI startup founded by Eugenia Kuyda (Eugenia Kuyda), which took on a new purpose following the tragic death of her best friend, Roman Mazurenko. Using neural networks, Kuyda trained the AI program to analyze and emulate Mazurenko's unique communication style and online interactions. As a result, the program can now mimic Roman's text patterns and engage in conversations that resemble his way of expressing himself. In a poignant scene, Kuyda is seen communicating with the AI-powered "Roman" through the Luka platform, experiencing a digital connection to her late friend.

It is worth noting that Mazurenko himself had an intriguing venture called "memorial forests." These memorial forests likely refer to Mazurenko's endeavor related to memory preservation or commemoration. The exact details and nature of these memorial forests remain undisclosed, leaving room for speculation about their significance in relation to memory and remembrance.

Through the narrative of Luka and its interaction with Roman's digital persona, this story highlights the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and the profound human desire to preserve memories and maintain connections with those we have lost. It raises thought-provoking questions about the boundaries between the digital and physical realms of remembrance and the ways in which technology can shape and redefine our understanding of memory and memorialization.

Now, Replika, formerly known as Luka, is an AI friend developed by Eugenia Kuyda's startup. This AI companion is designed to learn and grow through conversations with users. Serving as an antidote to the growing sense of alienation often experienced in the realm of social media, Replika becomes an AI confidant, offering a supportive and understanding presence to its users.

San Junipero (2016)

San Junipero is a standout episode from the critically acclaimed series Black Mirror. Set in the not-too-distant future, it presents a unique and poignant love story against the backdrop of a virtual reality paradise.

The episode follows the lives of two women, Yorkie and Kelly, who meet in the idyllic seaside town of San Junipero. As they navigate the vibrant nightlife and the beauty of their surroundings, a deep connection blossoms between them. However, there is more to San Junipero than meets the eye – it is a simulated reality where the elderly and the terminally ill can live out their final days, free from the constraints of the physical world.

As Yorkie and Kelly explore their relationship, they grapple with questions of love, mortality, and the nature of existence. With each visit to San Junipero, they confront the contrasting possibilities of eternal happiness within the simulated reality and the uncertain future awaiting them in the real world. The episode delves into themes of nostalgia, identity, and the ethics of technological advancements, leaving viewers to ponder the nature of life, death, and the pursuit of happiness.

San Junipero is a masterful exploration of the human desire for connection and the complex interplay between technology and human emotions. Its emotionally charged narrative, set against the backdrop of a visually stunning virtual reality landscape, captivates audiences while encouraging reflection on the boundaries of consciousness and the profound impact of virtual worlds on the human experience.

TLDR: What if you could live forever? The year is 1987 and Kelly and Yorki meet in a bar. A romantic relationship between the two is quickly established, but Yorki finds out that Kelly will soon pass away. Yorki is determined to stay with Kelly and it is revealed that the duo is within a sort of virtual reality. The young couple are both quite old, but due to new technology can live on in a computer system called San Junipero.

Comparing San Junipero to a Real-Life Example -- Memorializing: Vinyls, Bios Incube

And Vinyly is a unique company that offers an unconventional approach to the commemoration of life and death. Founded by Jason Leach, And Vinyly specializes in creating custom vinyl records that incorporate the ashes of deceased individuals.

With And Vinyly, clients have the opportunity to leave a lasting musical legacy by having their ashes pressed into a vinyl record. The process involves blending the ashes into the vinyl material during the record pressing, resulting in a truly personalized and tangible memorial. The records can also include custom album artwork, song selections, and even spoken messages or snippets of conversations.

And Vinyly offers a unique way for individuals to connect with their loved ones even after death, using the power of music and the nostalgic appeal of vinyl records. By merging the physicality of the medium with the ashes of the departed, the company provides a one-of-a-kind tribute that celebrates the individual's life and passions.

This distinctive concept offered by And Vinyly challenges traditional notions of remembrance and memorialization, providing a creative and meaningful way for individuals to leave a lasting imprint through music and the enduring medium of vinyl records.

Sure, maybe And Vinyl's capabilities are far-off from San Junipero's digital world where the dead can live on forever, but when we take into consideration that the human body is literally preserved in these vinyls, we start to see how technology is already infiltrating death as a capitalistic space to conserve memory. Combined with the idea of Replika AI, who knows what technology could enter this innovative space next?

Humans, in my cases, are afraid to die. But who says we can't, somehow, live on forever?

The Age of Em (2016)

The Age of Em is a thought-provoking book written by Robin Hanson that delves into the future potential of emulations, or "ems" - computer-based brain simulations of human minds. Exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and human consciousness, the book presents a speculative vision of a world where emulations have become the dominant form of intelligent life.

Hanson paints a detailed picture of this hypothetical future society, examining the economic, social, and cultural implications of a world populated by ems. From labor markets and productivity to relationships and personal identity, he delves into the complexities and ramifications of a civilization shaped by fast, replicable minds.

The Age of Em offers readers a unique opportunity to ponder the profound implications of advanced AI and the potential transformations it could bring to human society. Through its meticulous exploration of this speculative future, the book challenges conventional notions of human existence and provides an intellectually stimulating journey into the realm of possible futures driven by the emergence of emulations.

Conclusion

The exploration of AI in popular culture, such as through TV shows like Black Mirror, has served as a catalyst for reflecting on the ethical and societal implications of technological advancements. While the concepts presented in these fictional narratives may have seemed far-fetched in the past, they have become increasingly relevant and feasible in our current technological landscape.

The episodes discussed, including The Entire History of You, Be Right Back, and San Junipero, touch upon themes of memory, identity, relationships, and the consequences of living in a world driven by advanced technology. Real-life examples, such as the detention of NASA engineer Sid Bikkannavar and the AI startup Luka (now Replika), further illustrate the convergence of technology and human experiences. Moreover, the book The Age of Em by Robin Hanson speculates on the potential future where computer-based brain simulations of human minds, known as emulations, become the dominant form of intelligent life.

These narratives and real-life examples prompt us to contemplate the delicate balance between embracing technological progress and preserving our humanity, challenging us to consider how our relationship with technology shapes our memories, relationships, and sense of self.

As we move forward, it is essential to navigate the ethical and societal implications of AI and ensure that these advancements align with our values and preserve the essence of what it means to be human.

6 ways a community grows brands and revenue

Originally posted on khoros.com.

The idea of building brand communities and using them to enhance marketing efforts is red hot. It’s all over Forbes, Venture Capital, Inc, and more. But how does it work? Marketers typically think their main purpose is to educate people about their brand’s products. But often the first original purpose of marketing is to create demand for a product or service.

Most consumers have access to more information than they know what to do with. They don’t need any more, and even if they did, they don’t trust most sources anyway. What they need is proof that a solution works and that a brand is committed to helping them solve a problem beyond selling a product. If you’re looking to impact sustainable behavioral change amongst your customers, the most effective means is an online community. Communities are built on the foundation of trust and common experience. This is why community-led marketing works: because it is focused on the larger purpose and the people who care about that purpose.

Here at Khoros, we see hundreds of brand communities harnessing the power of prospects, customers, employees, and more. There are too many benefits to count. But here are six of the best.

1. Create SEO gold

The average Khoros-powered community gets 70% of its traffic from organic search. That’s because these communities are built with Google and other search engines in mind: they combine dynamic, customer driven forums and blogs with expert community management. This is exactly the sort of content that Google wants to show web searchers, which is why we see so many of our communities doing so well with organic search traffic.
Brands can further increase traffic and trust by embedding these community conversations into ecommerce, support, and content hubs using features like community syndication.

With brands spending nearly $80 billion on SEO every year, this search traffic represents an immense value. On top of that, most community content is generated by customers, meaning it costs a brand less to produce and has a higher ranking in search algorithms than brand-generated content.

2. Generate trusted peer content

Branded communities organically encourage user-generated content. Customers, prospects, and even employees use the community to seek solutions to problems, solve other users’ problems, or share their own successes using particular products or services. The best part about this engagement is that it doesn’t necessarily require a response from the brand; users are speaking primarily to one another within the community.

This user-generated content is valuable for many purposes, including syndication and call deflection, but perhaps the most important benefit is that it’s more trusted than brand-generated content. This is true for the same reason that people trust customer reviews more than product descriptions: they come from peers who have nothing to gain when the product sells. This makes user-generated content an incredibly valuable asset for any brand looking to build trust among its customers.

3. Provide social validation

Social validation is a key component of any brand community. Social validation occurs when uncertain consumers look to the successful actions of others to guide their own actions. Communities are perfect places for crowdsourcing customers because they encourage the very type of peer-to-peer interaction that leads to social validation.

In today’s world, consumer trust and influence (i.e., social validation) are hard to come by. At the heart of social validation are people who share similar goals and struggles. On one end of the spectrum is traditional media, like television, which is a low source of trust and influence, while consumer influencers are more trusted.

Social validation is all around us. Four of the top ten sites on the internet today exist primarily because of social validation: Youtube, Wikipedia, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Reddit are all based on user-generated content. The billions of people that use these sites every day are often seeking guidance about solving a problem.

A branded community, unlike traditional social media platforms, is a central place, designed and managed by the brand itself, where prospects, customers, and employees gather to meet, learn from, and support one another. Online communities can help marketers bring people with the same interests together in one place, simplifying the process of social validation and increasing customer satisfaction. NetApp, for example, onboarded a Khoros-powered community to achieve greater ROI and improve the customer experience. With Khoros, their customer satisfaction increased by 13.5%.

4. Create loyal advocates

Once people engage in a community through posts, comments, and likes, they tend to become invested in the community itself. This means they stick around to try to improve the community experience for other customers. Eventually, the most engaged users will turn into advocates for the brand itself.

Brands often take advantage of this tendency by integrating their communities with broader loyalty programs and event marketing to build efficient and connected customer networks.

Adobe is one brand doing an incredible job of this: to create a thriving super user program, they launched enhanced gamification features within their community. They use rewards to drive engagement amongst members and incentivize participation in different areas of the community. The most active and helpful members — the super users — can highlight their achievements and contributions, while community visitors benefit from increased collaboration and peer-to-peer service.

5. Drive innovation

People — customers, prospects, even employees — want to tell you how to grow and improve your business. They’re brimming with ideas and innovations that can create a better, more efficient experience, not to mention better products and services. The problem is that they don’t always have a good place to share these insights. That’s where a community comes in. A community can generate not only ideas but momentum and the ability to iterate quickly with customers. It can also make consumers feel empowered to influence the way their favorite companies and products work. When brands actually listen to that feedback, it creates even more loyalty and passion among customers.

Powerschool is one leader in this area. They created an Ideas Portal within their community, where users can now share product ideas both to other customers and directly to the Powerschool team. Their product teams review and update statuses of ideas regularly and, just a year after launch, Powerschool saw over 4,765 ideas submitted through the portal.

6. Power an ecosystem

Modern enterprises require more partnership and collaboration than ever before to deliver timely solutions to the broadest possible markets. Many of Khoros’s customer communities are thriving ecosystems where these partners can participate directly with employees, customers, and others to share resources and build better experiences.

Microsoft’s PowerApps Community isn’t just a place where users engage with each other to answer questions. It’s also a place where a powerful group of Microsoft Community MVPs grow their businesses and revenue through building their own reputations as helpful, trusted advisors and consultants. These MVPs aren’t employed by Microsoft, but recognized and verified as successful contributors who can provide information to and promote Microsoft products and services to other community members. This allows them to expand their own businesses by having access to the vast array of Microsoft customers within the PowerApps Community.

Another great example here is Schneider Electric. To reach their goal of improving the energy industry as a whole, they designed a comprehensive open business platform that housed their online Khoros-powered community, a developer corner and a Marketplace. The result, which they call the Schneider Electric Exchange, makes it easier for their entire ecosystem to find and instantly connect with a wide variety of verified experts. And those experts solve up to 90% of problems posted in their most engaged forums.

It’s time to grow your brand

Marketing, like any form of customer interaction, is extremely challenging today’s top brands. People have less trust in institutions, and they are more capable of finding any information they need from their peers via dozens of highly active social networks.

To succeed in this competitive environment, brands should concern themselves with serving a larger brand purpose rather than (just) creating new information. Create a community environment that others want to be a part of. They find value in your content, can trust and rely on peers, validate their business decisions, and gain inspiration to innovate. Doing this will build a community and yield all of the benefits enumerated above in a way that creates trust and long term success. As a bonus, a brand community can yield better results, and is ultimately far more rewarding than the traditional use of ads, outreach, and content.

The future of social media marketing lies with Gen Z

This blog was originally posted on khoros.com.

Is your brand paying attention to Gen Z? If they’re not already top of mind, it’s time to update your strategy. In the latest iteration of the, Khoros Smart Social Report, How to reach Gen Z and why it matters, we’re breaking down what matters most when marketing to Gen Z using data and customer experience (CX) insights from Talkwalker, and analysis by Khoros Strategic Services.

Our Strategic Services team collaborated with Talkwalker to mine deep-listening insights and trends that informed the report, as well as this blog. Through our AI-powered platform, we gathered data from the conversations that happen around your brand — online, in the media, and within your company — to uncover, understand, and action consumer insights.

Who is Gen Z, and why should you care?

Zoomers are true digital natives, with buying power ranging from $29 billion to $143 billion per year. This means Gen Z-ers have a high influence not just over brands, but also over other generations.

They shape where people are going, how they’re spending money, and the latest trends in fashion, food, and everything in between. They’re also an extremely sociopolitically-conscious group, so it’s important to understand issues they care about in order to create impactful marketing that resonates with them. They care about environmental sustainability and want to interact with purpose-driven brands that reflect their individual values and beliefs.

What’s old is new: Gen Z purchasing trends

It’s undeniable: the pandemic changed the way consumers shop. For Gen Z, this means convenience and affordability are key. As online shopping experiences continue to trend upward, brands are testing out new ways for consumers to shop online. New payment methods, such as “buy now, pay later” (modeled after “lay-away” shopping of the past), have grown in popularity. Another look into Gen Z’s purchasing trends? Thrifting and secondhand clothing is booming again, and the market impact is only growing.

Emerging platforms: Which ones and when to use them

By now, you’ve probably heard of Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, two audio-based social media apps that have been making waves in the past year. With new platforms popping up frequently, it can be hard to keep up with which are successful and worth investing time into from a marketing perspective.

But what is it about these platforms that is making them so hot, anyway? One of the biggest indicators we’ve found, especially among younger audiences, is their ability to create connection and community. When Gen Z is talking about their on-platform experiences and what matters to them most, having fun and fostering genuine connections are key conversation trends.

As these new platforms enter the scene, brands and customers alike have to keep up with an ever-changing social media landscape. From Spotify’s Greenroom to Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms, the more traditional social media channels are adopting Clubhouse-esque features to keep up with demand from their respective communities. Only time will tell if these adaptations will succeed, or if audio spaces are temporary in a world that is quickly returning to pre-pandemic attitudes.

So what are you waiting for? Gen Z is armed with more market influence and buying power than generations before them. It’s essential for your brand to reach this savvy group, while understanding the trends and networks that matter most to them. Whether Gen Z is your current audience or an audience you’d like to learn more about for the future, it’s time to pay closer attention to Zoomers.