Working with Markets, Observations, and Viewpoints

The tools provided by Jive Market Engagement include a few features not found in other parts of the application. These are specifically designed to support market research and collaboration around it.

Here's a list of the main pieces:

Markets -- Places to collect and synthesize market research with a context that makes it easy to discuss the information there. In markets, you create observations to capture research, then create viewpoints to analyze and synthesize observations into value related to the market.
Observations -- Links or text that represent pieces of research related to the market. Observations tend to be narrow in scope, such as a link to a Twitter post or piece of community content, or simply a note of text.
Viewpoints -- Longer content that usually collects observations to support an analysis or synthesis of information. Viewpoints are an opportunity distill those bits of information you've gathered into something solid and valuable enough to suggest action.

As with other kinds of community content, observations and viewpoints invite response and collaboration. People can comment on them, link to them, and so on. If they're set up for it, markets can also contain discussions, documents, videos, and other of the common content types.

How can I use markets?

A Jive Market Engagement market is a place to focus research, analysis, and conversation related to an area of the more generic kind of market. Markets provide a way to collect information and collaborate around it -- whether the information is from a Jive SBS community or the larger Web.

Here are a few ideas for market focus:

A market demographic
A brand
A geographic region
A competitor

In markets you can:

Create observations to capture information you find while doing research.
Create viewpoints to collect observations with your views about what they might mean.
Create other kinds of content (if your market supports them), such as documents, discussions, and so on.

As with other places -- including spaces, projects, and social groups -- people can follow a market and receive email notifications about activity in a market. Here are some of the reasons why they might want to:

Observations in the market capture information from the "Web sea" they might never have noticed before.
The market's viewpoints offer insights that suggest specific direction for action related to the market.
Comments on content in the market give them a sense of how others view the information. Out of this awareness arises conversation and new ideas.

How can I use observations?

You create an observation to capture market-related information. An observation is typically a small note or a link to some other resource. It can come from:

Other content inside the community.
A bridged community.
The Web.
A Twitter post.
Stand-alone text.

After you create an observation, it becomes visible on the Observations wall on the market's Overview page. People can comment on the observation, adding their own perspective.

Note: For at-a-glance views of observations, be sure to check out the following widgets when personalizing your home page: Recent Observations. For more on personalizing, see Designing Pages with Widgets.

Creating an Observation from Inside the Community

To create an observation, use the following steps:

On the New menu, click Observation.
In the Choose Location dialog box, click the market where you want to create the observation.
Click the tab for the kind of observation you want to create:
- Note -- Simply type some text.
- Link -- Enter a URL, linking to a web site or a community page. You can also type a note to go with your link, such as a description of why you thought it was interesting.
- Twitter -- Enter a Twitter link or the user ID of a person with a Twitter account. You can also type a note to go with your link.
Click Apply Tags and Categories and enter a set of tags (separated by spaces) that help to categorize your observation so it can be more easily found later.
Click Create.

Creating an Observation from the Social Media Console

Creating viewpoints from the Social Media Console is an easy way to get items you discover as part of your research into a market. Observations you create this way carry the information you supply into the market in your community, The console item is inserted into the observation.

Note: The Social Media Console is available to market experts who are also assigned as social media experts.

To create an observation, use the following steps:

On the Market Summary page, click Launch Media Console.
On the Dashboard, display the widget from which you want to create an observation. You can create observations from Conversation Clouds, Topic Analyses, Topic Trends, River of News, or Influence Viewer.
Hover your mouse pointer over the widget, then in the widget's lower right corner, click the Create Observation button (it looks like an asterisk).
In the Create Observation dialog box, under Note, type any note text you want associated with this observation.
Under Add to Market, select the market to which you want to add the observation.
Under Categories, you can select the categories (if any) that you want to apply to the observation.
To associate the observation with an existing viewpoint, select the Add Observation to Draft Viewpoint check box, then select the viewpoint from the list.
Click Save.

How can I use viewpoints?

With viewpoints you can pull together information you might have collected through observations and other data. A viewpoint is where you suggest an analysis or synthesis of the research you're finding and capturing. A viewpoint adds value to the research referencing relevant items as a citation or a preview that quotes from the observation. After you publish a viewpoint, other people can comment on it, weighing in with agreement or alternative views.

Here are a few ideas for making the most of viewpoints:

Use a viewpoint to express something about the market, inserting or associating observations that support your assertions.
Moving from the other direction, when you notice trends in the observations you've collected, you can use a viewpoint to describe the trends, associating the observations themselves. This kind of analysis can add value to the research.
When you create or notice observations that seem related to a viewpoint that already exists, you can associate those observations with the viewpoint.
Comment on observations or viewpoints you read in the market. The viewpoint can become a focal point for conversation about the research or assertions related to it.

You can start out by creating a viewpoint in a draft state. Then, before you publish it (in other words, before it's visible to others), you can continue to add research.

Note: For at-a-glance views of viewpoints, be sure to check out the following widgets when personalizing your home page: Popular Viewpoints, Recent Viewpoints, and Your Unpublished Viewpoints. For more on personalizing, see Designing Pages with Widgets.

Creating a Viewpoint

To create a viewpoint, use the following steps:

On the New menu, click Viewpoint.
In the Choose Location dialog box, click the market where you want to create the viewpoint.
Under Create a New Viewpoint, type a title in the top box.
You can start adding your ideas as you would other kinds of content.
Associate observations with the viewpoint:
1. Click Browse All Observations.
2. Search or browse for observations that fit with the perspective or synthesis you're intending with the viewpoint.
3. For each observation, you can either insert the observation inline with the text of your viewpoint or you can associate the observation as a reference that accompanies the viewpoint.
  1. Click the View & Insert button.
  2. Under the observation preview, click Insert Observation or Add Post to References.
4. When you're finish associating observations, click Close.
Attach files if you like.
Under Tags, type tags (separated by spaces) to help categorize the viewpoint.
Save the viewpoint if you want to keep working on it before others see it; publish it if you're ready for feedback from others.