User-Generated Content: The New ECM Imperative

The way you monitor, manage (and monetize) user-generated content will transform how you do business.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the primary driver for managing “business content” was document management; specifically converting paper-based content into electronic format to reduce physical storage costs, improve information retrieval via search technology and facilitate the exchange of content via messaging and email versus standard post and courier.

Since those early days, and the evolution of systems from core DM to include the application of retention schedules, broad records management capabilities, reporting, collaboration, integration with enterprise systems, transactional content management, content-enabled applications and other foundational components of what we now call enterprise content management (ECM), things have certainly changed.

But as the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” With many of the traditional drivers for ECM solutions at least manageable for many organizations, a new red flag is being waved. Indeed a host of challenges is upon us and they all stem from a single source: user-generated content.

Why You Need to Care
User-generated content (UGC) is a term applied to content that is created, published, shared and retained using the growing number of applications and Web-based sites and tools designed to facilitate the quick, straightforward development of content by anyone with access to a computer (aka virtually everyone). Twitter, Facebook, blogs, communities, forums and wikis are just some of the popular ways that people share their ideas, opinions, experiences and more.

The freedom to easily publish what’s on one’s mind can be exhilarating, rewarding and even a boost to the ego. To think that within minutes I can publish my very own movie review, talk about a great dinner I had at a local restaurant or advise against buying that lousy vacuum cleaner I just spent an absurd amount of money on is pretty cool. But for enterprises, this freewheeling set of easy-to-publish, view-by-all tools represents more than personal gratification; UGC poses real threats to the business, including the need to manage legal and reputational risk, as well as the need to manage changes to the core business model that stem from it.

A New Source of Risk
UGC is too big and expanding a force to be ignored. In the ever-changing and increasingly complex regulatory environment that most businesses operate in, new ways of doing pretty much anything spur additional aspects of compliance and rules and policies to adhere to. User-generated content is no exception. Let’s face it, it’s hard enough to control what people say without them having the ability to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people (and that’s not counting retweets).

Organizations first realized the damaging impact of invalid information, negative press, insider information and other harmful communication through email. However, many organizations have deployed email management tools and solutions as part of their ECM strategies to control that risk.

For newer flavors of UGC, many organizations—some 45% according to a recent study—have simply shut off access to Facebook, Twitter, public instant messaging applications and other tools. Some have done so in response to industry regulations. Financial institutions, for example, must ensure that certain functions are unable to communicate in a “freeform” fashion like that facilitated by Windows Live Messenger. Staff with knowledge of credit customers and ratings cannot communicate with those trading instruments such as credit-backed securities built around those customers. Similarly, advisory service firms (investment advisors, insurance policyholder services, pension administrators, etc.) have new compliance rules surrounding the use of “electronic communication tools.” Under the regulations, an audit of all communications with clients must be produced—similar to emails during litigation as part of e-discovery—to determine any misleading, erroneous or otherwise faulty guidance. Clients enjoy the real-time aspect of UGC tools like instant messaging, but the ability of advisors to “communicate at will” can lead to some disastrous results.

While shutting down access to certain UGC tools might satisfy the regulators, it also hinders innovation and the ability to capitalize on revenue-generating opportunities—it’s really not a long-term solution.

Beyond the risk of non-compliance and other legal concerns, there is reputational risk. Research in the field of customer experience indicates that customers who enjoy a great retail experience will tell an average of two people compared to the seven people on average that they’ll let know about a bad experience. That research is based on old-fashioned “word of mouth;” just imagine how many “views” of a bad experience are possible through a Facebook post.

Moreover, if “a picture says 1,000 words” how many does a video manage to crank out? With pretty much every smartphone being able to instantly generate a snappy video, and posting to YouTube taking no more than a minute or two, organizations face a real threat of reputational damage stemming from “short films” of poor experiences. The new wave of tools that facilitate the quick and easy sharing of UGC have transformed unsatisfied customers that were traditionally limited to telling friends and family about their experience into bona fide critics with a global (and instant) reach.

Finally, UGC also influences another major source of content-driven business risk, namely storage-related compliance. It should be understood by now that UGC is big—really big. Given the ease with which users can create content, organizations need to address the storage and compliance implications of UGC. Keeping all UGC isn’t going to work, especially in case of litigation. Evidence of the foolhardiness of this approach has been seen time and again with “the smoking gun” emails that hit the news during litigation.

New ECM Reality
Keeping tabs on UGC is a commitment that requires investment into resources to focus on it and technology to effectively monitor it (externally) and manage it (internally). In terms of risk, the imperative is twofold:

1. Employ solutions and staff to keep track of what is being said about the organization, who is saying it and what the ramifications are. A strategy and documented protocols for response are sound ideas; and

2. A UGC governance model is something to strongly consider. For some industries (like financial services, as outlined in the example above), regulators will dictate how to approach tools and how to control UGC. For others, though, managing how staff and partners communicate, and more importantly what they communicate, is not so cut and dry. There are tools available from ECM vendors that emulate popular UGC tools (like the “Facebook for the enterprise” or “business-strength Twitter”) that are worth looking into for organizations wary of the risks associated with the ease and speed of communication of many public UGC vehicles.

UGC is a “game changer.” As ECM strategies have evolved, we’ve seen content transform from a cost of doing business to a source for driving revenue, automating business processes, spurring innovation and serving as the lynchpin of compliance with industry regulations and internal policies.

With the explosive growth of UGC, some of the traditional approaches to marketing are rapidly changing. “Word of mouth,” long touted as the barometer for measuring brand experience, is taking on new forms with UGC tools. Consumers today don’t want product pushed on them via “traditional” channels like websites and email. Savvy customers aren’t visiting corporate sites as a first point of contact; they prefer to “go to the source”—visiting communities, forums, joining Twitter groups or searching blogs. Progressive companies are taking note and shifting their strategies accordingly. Take PepsiCo, for example. Once a tier-one advertiser across virtually every major sporting event, the company has significantly toned things down and elected to harness UGC to compensate. In 2010, PepsiCo reallocated Super Bowl advertising funds toward a community-based movement, leveraging Twitter, Facebook and other vehicles to promote it, rather than running a major (and majorly expensive) television advertising assault.