The new website went live at midnight last night! Take a gander, take a peek, and, if so inclined, let us know what you think.
If you’re new to Tribeca Insights, you probably didn’t see our old website, which was, in my humble opinion, depressing. It was very gray, with a stock photo header featuring two businesspeople sitting in chairs on a beach (why?). And while the site was probably just as informative as the new site, it didn’t exactly compel people to look much further than the homepage. It might have even driven people away, since we’d always get feedback saying that people couldn’t tell what we do based on what they found on the site. So, you know what? We decided to make a change.
“More accessible, more engaging, more user-friendly,” was what we had in mind when we designed the new site. A bolder top navigation with drop-down menus displays all the links you need to learn about TI, and if that’s not enough, we now have featured Knowledge Leaders, featured projects and our most recent news. In addition, if you register on the site or for a particular project, even more information becomes available to you. You can read Knowledge Leaders’ full bios, see project descriptions and questions before you apply, discover ways to connect with TI via our various social networks and provide feedback about your consultation experiences. Even just now, we received the following feedback from a registered Knowledge Leader:
Was a very positive experience, and believe client was satisfied.
We are VERY excited! I’ve been clapping my hands all morning like a child at Disneyworld, unable to contain my enthusiasm for the new tribecainsights.com. We hope others like it, too, and that it will engender confidence and trust in our company and services. If all goes well, we will continue to add new features—let us know what you’d like to see! Also, we’ll continuously be on the lookout for Knowledge Leaders who’d like to be featured on the site, so if that’s you, send us an email and a headshot. In the meantime, happy surfing to all our clients, experts, potential clients and potential experts!
technorati tags: Tribeca Insights, new website
In a fit of frustration over a particularly tricky (and fruitless) recruitment project, I lashed out in lament—on Twitter. To my astonishment, the micro-blogging (140 characters or less) community immediately rallied and responded to my cry; two experts engaged me directly, and several industry Twitter users began following my posts.
We’ve gradually been exploring using social networking as a recruitment method. Our Twitter account (http://twitter.com/TribecaInsights) has generated some positive publicity and useful connections, but this was the first time a very niche expert was engaged and recruited via this new milieu. I think that a keen foundational notion behind playing with various expert recruitment methods—e-mail, telephone, Facebook, and now, Twitter—is that industry experts—like television-viewers, food critics, university professors and elementary school students—may be segmented. Consumer segmentation, as most companies already know, is increasingly important and relevant to media consumption, sales and marketing as the power of the internet becomes more widespread.
I remember attending a seminar on segmentation and demographics analytics during my days as a publicist. They presented some interesting supporting statistics on the effectiveness of targeted marketing by contrasting the number of magazines and television stations available in 1940, 1960, 1980 and 2000, along with accompanying data on the (impressive) industry revenue generated through spending, advertising, subscription and merchandising. Needless to say, the exponential growth in media options targeted to very specific users (entire magazines devoted to featuring bridal accoutrements for brides-to-be; golfing destinations catalogs for golf enthusiasts; even eerily comprehensive pet parenting periodicals aimed at Labrador owners, poodle breeders, and terrier trainers!) have transformed the formerly modestly-sized media industry to a multi-billion dollar, globally-linked machine.
Applying the same mentality in expert recruiting—by tapping into the social networks and industry-specific virtual communities target experts are likely to frequent—could uncover caches of previously un-reachable, un-discoverable, or un-responsive experts. We’ll be experimenting and finessing our recruiting procedures into the summer—stay tuned for updates!
technorati tags: Twitter
This morning, Dazhi and I met with Integrity Research (http://www.integrity-research.com), a boutique consultancy focused on devising primary research and market research strategies and services for the financial sector. The meeting was pleasant and substantive; we learned about Integrity Research’s business model and ongoing and upcoming research industry reports, and we were able to introduce ourselves in person to Tom Hutchinson, who oversees IR’s relationships with service providers.
We’ll be tuning into their blog, ResearchWatch for the latest and greatest from our competitors and fellow innovators in the research space.
technorati tags: Integrity Research
One of the fun perks of working at a young company is choosing from the infinitely large sampler platter of web-based business-streamlining software. After a rather complicated fling (they never start out that way. . .) with MS Access, we took on a trial (dabbled, if you will) of Dabble DB, an online databasing service that would enable us to keep records of experts we’ve contacted, open projects and calls we’ve scheduled or need to schedule. We had two basic criterion for our database hosts: 1. that the software needed to be able to handle a substantial bulk of data and 2. that it would be user-friendly and accessible not only to Tribeca Insights associates in New York, but also to our team members in Seattle and Wisconsin.
To these ends, Dabble preforms exceptionally well. By using an online platform, we’ve eliminated the cumbersome task of saving, uploading and/or emailing database contacts. We can also deftly manipulate large numbers of expert contacts, biographies and projects in ways that were much more intensive in MS Access, and impossible in MS Excel.
In addition, we discovered a number of delightful Dabble DB functions and applications. I’m no tech pro, but it didn’t take long to become familiar with Dabble’s simple, essentially idiot-proof system, with the aid of their HELP forums (and a couple of calls to Technical Assistance). A few of my favorites, and most frequently used—
Pages. Apparently a newer addition, this sharing function allows us to incorporate user-submitted information—including survey results, questionnaire responses, and contacts—into our database. We can then view the results and benchmark accordingly.
Link to Entry allows a particular piece of information (e.g., an expert’s name) to be linked with a database entry (e.g. an expert’s complete biography and contact information). Derived Fields enhances the Link’s usability by giving viewers quick access to each designed Link. This makes it simple for us to create call schedulers and connect cross-project information for experts without having to re-enter the data each time.
Filters. Oldie-but-goodie filters allow for us to quickly build and dissemble page views.
Import / export. Before touting this rather inextricable tool, I should warn users that the import function bugs out occasionally when burdened with large (in my experience, in excess of 200 Excel rows) hunks of information. There’s fortunately a duplicate-eliminating function for when the system freezes in the middle of a big import task. The program also nicely integrates new information into existing column headings so you don’t have to. You can also export data in all the usual formats.
Now. I’m not the most informed web-based software user (far from it), but the following need fixin’—
Server speed. I’m not sure how frequently encountered this is—my previous experience with benchmarking web-based software hadn’t had this problem in the same capacity—but I’d say once every few days, I get a server-related issue, such as data overloading or freezing. Dabble’s blog keeps users somewhat informed of server maintenance issues.
Invalid Entry ErrorsThese occasionally pop up—but the error doesn’t seem to actually exist. Ideally, I’d like to know where my invalid entries are, and how to remedy them.
All in all, a very satisfying trial. I suspect there’s a lot we haven’t tested or tried yet with Dabble, but I’m looking forward to exploring additional functionality to further optimize our processes.
technorati tags: Dabble DB