How to make chat work for your online business

by Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com, http://www.samizdat.com followed by feedback from Betsy Campbell

Based on an article that appeared in Internet-on-a-Disk #19, February 1997. Updated and extended November 1999 and March 2001.

My Internet: a Personal View of Internet Business Opportunities by Richard Seltzer, on CD, includes four books, 162 articles, and 49 newsletter issues that will inspire you and provide the practical information you need to build your own personal Web site or Internet-based business, helping you to become a player in this new business environment.

"Who needs a desktop?" first of a new series of business on the Web chat sessions, Wed. March 22, 2006
 

"Business chat" sounds like an oxymoron. But when done right, chat can draw active and involved users repeatedly to your Web site and help you build an archive of high-quality, low-cost content that will attract more users.

Actually, there are two related classes of software, both of which can be used for holding online discussions: chat and forum.

Web-based chat software allows numerous people to exchange text messages simultaneously in the same "session." It is often used for quick, casual, anonymous one-liner conversation. As soon as you type your message, it's available for others in the same session to read. When a dozen or more people actively participate at the same time, it gets very difficult to read what is said and even more difficult to follow the multiple threads of conversation. You need to read fast and type fast, but if you do, and if the topic is up your alley, the experience can be exhilarating and stimulating -- whether you are flirting or flaming or brainstorming.

Web-based forum software, like notes and bulletin board, allows people to leave messages which will be read later. In this case, writers have the time to reflect -- there is no time limit. They also can give their messages titles and indicate if these are answers to previous messages or new threads of thought. Typically, readers can view the list of all messages available or just the ones they haven't read before, with their threaded relationships shown. And the messages can be saved indefinitely and can be searched. Here it is possible to carry on an extended, thoughtful, multi-person correspondence.

The only problem with forums is a matter of human nature -- we tend to procrastinate. We know that we can post and read there anytime that we want, so there is no urgency. If a conversation really gets going, then the momentum can carry it along. But it is often difficult to get that kind of interactivity going. The discussion needs to reach some critical mass before it becomes compelling. Yes, we intend to participate, just like we intend to follow through on New Year's resolutions; but more often than not, it just doesn't happen.

Chat on the other hand has immediacy. And when a chat topic is scheduled for a particular time, you either connect or you miss it. Chat also can generate energy and enthusiasm and stimulate useful ideas because of the element of live interaction.

The best discussion software combines the immediacy/urgency of chat with the ability to save the discussions in threaded form, so those who participated can catch up on what they missed and what they need to reflect on further, and others who weren't able to connect at that time can see what was said; and all can add their followup thoughts and continue the discussion in a more leisurely and reasoned environment. 
 

Varieties of chat experience

Chat is like a hammer -- its value depends on what you do with it. You can create many different kinds of events and experiences, and build many different kinds of business models based on chat-related software.

For example, you can set up:

How to run scheduled business chat programs

I started doing "business chat" in the spring of 1996, when the Boston Computer Society asked me to host a regular session at the Boston Globe's Web site. The Boston Computer Society has since dissolved, but my weekly chat sessions about "Business on the World Wide Web" continue. For the current schedule and the link to the next session check http://www.samizdat.com/chat-intro.html For a volunteer activity, it's been a lot of work, but I've learned a lot in the process. The following suggestions are based on that experience: Keep in mind that in newsgroups the ratio of lurkers (those who just read) to those who actively participate is about nine or ten to one. Statistics are hard to come by for Web-based chat, but, given human nature, the ratio is probably similar. The transcript and the inclusion of followup messages in transcripts helps to draw some of these people out into the open and make them contributors.

Basically, any Web site that has rich text content and depends on that content to draw much of its traffic, should carefully consider adding scheduled chat programs (with edited transcript) and/or related distance education programs that use chat.

By the way, if you run a business chat session at your site, you might want to set it up so participants, when joining, acknowledge that they are granting you the non-exclusive right to republish material from that session in other media, without having to get further approval from the participants. (Check with a lawyer, but avoid using legal jargon -- you don't want to scare people away or confuse them.) That blanket permission would allow you to include excerpts in CD ROMs or printed books, or in other media, etc. Remember, the future of the Internet is "content".

Software wish list

I must admit that I am prejudiced in favor of SiteScape Forum, formerly known as AltaVista Forum, and before that as Workgroup Web Forum. It was developed at Digital, by people with whom I worked in the Internet Business Group, back in the early days of the Web. It is a very robust and rich piece of software, now owned and being further developed by SiteScape www.sitescape.com I love it not just because I am familiar with it, but also because many of its features reflect suggestions that I expressed to the developers along the way. I now use their software as the platform for my weekly chats. It is the practical fulfillment of the most important items on my discussion-software wishlist.

What are those items?

True cost of chat

If you are interested in making your site more interactive and perhaps building an online community, keep in mind that the discussion software is only one small piece of the solution. Thousands of Web sites have set up chat rooms that are typically empty or filled only with noise. It's as if you were given a time slot on a public access cable channel, and instead of planning, developing, and promoting programming, you just set up a video camera in a mall so people who walk by can make funny faces or obscene gestures and generally fool around.

As indicated above, you can use chat and forum for many business purposes, but the success of these ventures depends in large part on people, not software. Lots of work needs to be done in setting up, promoting, and supporting scheduled chat events.

Based on my experiences, here's a rough-cut first estimate of what it would cost in person-hours to do this on a professional (rather than amateur/volunteer) basis.

This presumes that the chat sessions are scheduled -- that a regular time slot is available each week for discussion on a broad continuing subject, and that specific focus topics typically run 3-4 sessions. For instance, my chat program about Business on the World Wide Web has covered such topics as Web access to databases, Internet telephony, and selling content on the Web. when topics continue for several weeks, the promotion effort is spread across that time and word-of-mouth and word-of keystroke have time to build audience.

Total = 14-1/2 to 22-1/2 hours

If you already have your own Web server with disk space and bandwidth to space these hours would represent the incremental cost of doing one weekly one-hour scheduled chat program. If your Web site is hosted on someone else's server, keep in mind that there are sites like Xoom, Delphi, and Groupvine where you can hold chats and forums in free space. But if you want full-function discussion software, a professional look and feel, and pages that reflect your brand, expect to pay for that kind of hosting service.

Keep in mind, too, that the skills needed to do these tasks are in short supply. You can't just ask anyone on your staff to suddenly start doing this and expect the project to be successful. Also, several different kinds of skills are necessary. In fact, it might take three or four experienced, talented, and motivated people to make this work, including a host who not only can type and think fast, and can relate well to people online, but also who is passionate about the subject.

Chat for distance education and training

I just finished helping the Kennedy School of Government with a pilot distance education project, run for them by the Otter Group www.ottergroup.com, and using SiteScape Forum as the discussion platform. You can see that discussion area at www.webworkzone.com/ksgpilot/dispatch.cgi

That project included experimenting with chat as an educational tool -- pre-course chats to familiarize the participants with what was involved in the course and get them used to the online environment and help them begin to know one another and let the professor know their backgrounds and interests; workgroup chats run simultaneously with streaming video lecture; and post-lecture office-hours chat with the professor. We just barely scratched the surface in terms of understanding the potential and coming up with procedures to optimize the experience. We still need to test chat for formal workgroup discussions with learning directors, between lectures; and for information study sessions.

With SiteScape Forum the number of simultaneous users that can be accommodated for chat depends on the hardware configuration. But this solution could usable for an entire department or school with numerous courses if you simply schedule live events so they do not conflict with another or do not add up to exceed the probable maximum for your configuration. (What matters is the number of people making demands on the server -- posting or refreshing -- at the exact same moment, which is a matter of statistical probability, and which is influenced too by the manner in which the chat is conducted.)

The Kennedy School pilot involved both a classroom/satellite-broadcast component and an online interaction component, using chat and forum.

The broadcast was a complex effort to coordinate -- a massive one-shot production. Making the audio/video available afterward over the Internet in archived form adds an interesting dimension. We now have the possibility of editing and packaging this content for other audiences -- adding new broadcast elements and more live interaction. That would fulfill the central goals of the pilot -- showing how it is possible to extend the reach of Kennedy School course content and package it for redistribution in a variety of ways -- making a tangible asset out of what had been relatively spontaneous and ephemeral teaching/learning experiences, and at the same time reaching people who otherwise would not have an opportunity to take these courses and learning from their new and diverse input.

But the online discussion started a process that could take the Kennedy School and the community of learners in new and little known directions. A core group of people who made the effort to activity participate in chats and forums, who got deeply engaged in the class content is now ready for step two: not the next course, not the availability of more of the Kennedy School curriculum from a distance (though they all seem to anxiously await that eventuality. But rather, they are ready for the opportunity to interact with one another and with Kennedy School faculty in a proto-community, continuing some of the threads of discussion to new levels of usefulness and detail, mixing theory and practice as they bring these ideas to their workplaces and come back with new questions.

While plans proceed to add new courses and/or to carry out one or more additional experiments to refine the delivery technique, I would like to see the online discussion continue and expand, with participants and learning directors self-selecting themselves into work groups focused on questions that are of great interest and importance to them (e.g., today's thread about non-profit mergers).

They could do this in asynchronous forums, supplemented by periodic chats with pre-planned topics and invited experts/guests (sometimes Kennedy School faculty; sometimes key figures from elsewhere). The quality and growth of these discussions would depend on the fecundity of the central topic and the creativity and dedication of the learning directors who run them.

Ideally, two to three learning directors would be assigned to each topic area, with one assuming leadership and turning to others for backup and support. The initial topics should come from threads that emerged during the class, in the office hours chat today, and in the forums.

The learning directors could promote their ongoing discussions and special chat events to those who enrolled in the pilot, to those who come to the discussion area later, and other constituencies that they know of and who are deeply concerned about the topics under discussion. If we started six such work groups today (each with its own special focus), perhaps two might survive for two months, and perhaps one might grow in unexpected and valuable directions -- benefiting the active participants in ways that none of them ever imagined when they signed up for the pilot, and providing the learning directors with excellent training. At the same time, such a project would give the school an opportunity to learn about less structured, less curriculum-based ways of delivering education at a distance -- community-style rather than professor--directed and continuous interaction rather than education delivered in discrete time-limited pieces.

At least that's the direction I'd like to see it go...

What next?

Already we see "voice chat" available for free at sites like Yahoo and Excite. That's kind of like a low-quality, free-form conference phone call. I can imagine occasions when that could be useful and fun. Inevitably, video, too, will be a normal part of some chat programs -- both one-way and two-way. But I hope that as we move in that direction, the base-line for business and education chat remains text -- with the voice and video as enhancements. It is good for there to be a variety of modes of expression. Different people express themselves better in different modes. It's good to give them a choice. But text has the advantage of being easily and economically saved and searched.

There are also occasions when you need to manage large numbers of participants. America Online has a setup in their larger chat rooms that allows a moderator to filter questions from the whole group, passing them on to the scheduled speaker, and allows discussion among participants in a single "row", but only the "speaker" can speak to everyone at once. America Online is great at managing chat areas -- that's probably their number one asset. I'd like that kind of capability to be more widely available. Ideally, I'd like to be able to go to a discussion-hosting Web site and rent or lease a chat/forum rooms whenever I need them.

Many business people will only need this capability for a few hours a month -- it's a natural for rental -- with "rooms" in a variety of sizes, perhaps up to the online equivalent of a convention center.

In any case, as you plan and build your chat program, don't limit what you do to what today's software makes easy. Do what makes sense. If it takes time and energy to do housekeeping chores that you wish were automatic, still don't hesitate to dive in and gain the experience necessary to make this new medium work for you. Your business needs should drive the technology, not vice versa. The more you know first-hand about the headaches and the benefits of business chat, the better you'll be able to pick what's right for you as more powerful, easier-to-use software becomes available.

Feedback from Betsy Campbell

From: "B. Campbell" <campbebe@lifepoint.net> Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 18:55:47 -0800

What a wonderful article on a topic that needs much exploration and explanation. Here are the things that come to mind as I read it:

1) There's a lot of confusion out there about when it is better to use chat and when it is better to use asynchronous methods of communication. For example, I was involved with a group that loved the idea of chat. So they forced people around the world to log in at the same time to receive a pre-written update of affairs. This is clearly something that would have been handled better as an asynch posting with real-time follow up on particular issues.

2) Along this same line, I've seen a lot of people in chats focus on the chat (the typing, the excitement of real-time interaction, etc.) instead of the information. It takes people some time to acclimate and let the chat function become invisible. If you're hosting a chat, you should be aware of the likely chat sophistication of the user group.

People believe the "if you build it...." concept when it comes to chat, and it isn't necessarily so. Yes, chat has immediacy, and this can help stimulate users to drop by. However, you need to have some reach, a critical mass of some number, before a chat can really sizzle. In most cases, it just isn't cost effective for a company to pay the moderator(s) plus guest(s) when only a handful of consumers come to the chat.

3) As an extension to the 'team meetings' that you mention, I think role playing activities are well suited to chats. For example, if I belong to a career counseling site, small groups of us can be assigned to role play the interview process (job seeker, HR person, an observer or two). Then in real time or asynch all of the small groups can come together and review what happened, what worked, etc. In this particular example (job interview role play), chat has unique properties that don't exist in other media. It is immediate because of the real-time element, however, it is much slower than a face-to-face role play. This in-between timing can help the role player have a higher awareness of how they're navigating the situation.

I'm so glad to see you writing on this topic! And thanks for letting me read it! I hope my notes are useful. Feel free to bounce things like this off of me at any time.

Betsy

My Internet: a Personal View of Internet Business Opportunities by Richard Seltzer, on CD, includes five books, 162 articles, and 49 newsletter issues that will inspire you and provide the practical information you need to build your own personal Web site or Internet-based business, helping you to become a player in this new business environment.

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