Month: September 2017

This isn’t nearly as bad as when I asked a roomful of lawyers the correct time but it certainly feels similar. When trying to understand the definition of “Active” or “Active User” for the purposes of the Office 365 Usage Reports, it can be a little confusing. So, I do what I always do when I am confused, I draw pictures.

These definitions apply to both the Office 365 Adoption Content Pack (O365 ACP) and the Activity Reports in the Admin Center. The information I pulled is pre-Ignite 2017 so I am anxious to see if definitions change soon.

There are a few things to be aware of. For example, in Exchange, there is no calendar information but I’ve heard that is coming. Also, when looking at the SharePoint numbers, be aware that when talking about the O365 ACP, the Active User metric shows users who did file activity with a SharePoint Team site or Group site. That is a little different than what is in Admin Center. This is another area I’d look for a change once the O365 ACP is updated.

I know blue ribbons from State Fairs don’t await my illustration but I am hoping to help you grok what active user means so that you can derive more value from the usage reports. I know when we were creating our tyGraph Pulse product for O365 reporting, I was constantly referring back to the web page I referenced above. I urge you to visit the support.office.com page I reference if you want to see the source table.

If this helps you, by all means hit print and use it. All I ask is come back and check out my blog for updates. This is the first in a number of visuals I am putting together to help those who are equally wired like me visually.

I’d be interested to hear your comments about your journey with O365 Reporting. Drop me a note!

When engaging with folks about their enterprise social network (often Yammer community managers) I usually start with the same two questions. First, what problem are you looking to solve? Second, how does the answer to the first question inform your social strategy? What I hear varies but answers include questions on the engagement of users and wanting to know who is “moving the needle” or influencing their network. This post offers a way to think about network influence and what should be taken into consideration when measuring it.

Here are four factors that taken together, make up this approach:

1. User contributions to the network, usually in the form of messages.
2. Impact of those contributions on other users.
3. Breadth of contributions. Are user contributions in one group or many?
4. Reach. How many other users have been reached through a user’s contributions?

Top Contributors: Good start, Not Enough

Knowing your top contributors is a good start, but it is not enough. This can give you a good picture of who is active in your user base but it doesn’t really help you know how or even if, they are engaging others. And this is the point isn’t it? We are usually after that elusive but attainable network state where users are influencing others by engaging in constructive dialogue and working on projects together to achieve business objectives. Let’s start with contributors as one of our key factors and add to it.

Impact: Cause and Effect

Our second factor and likely the most critical is the impact of a user’s contributions or posts to the network. Are other users responding to posts? Are they hitting the “like” button? These are signs of impact. Another measure of impact is being “at mentioned” in your network. The act of someone looking for you is a good indication that they want your opinion, your thoughts, or at least your attention to a message or thread.

Breadth of contributions

The third factor for consideration is the breadth of a user’s posts. Meaning, are they posting in one specific group or many groups? The more groups a user posts in, the more likely they’ll have a higher influencer score.

Reach: Total User Interactions in Messages

The fourth and final factor for influence is to determine the total number of users a specific user has interacted with and use that as part of the equation. In other words, who else has contributed to the same threads you have? The more users, the bigger your reach.

This approach powers the Influencer Score of tyGraph for Yammer. Full disclosure, I am the Director of Product there and have had the opportunity to see this in action with my fellow tyGraphers and some awesome customers.

There are other ways to think about network influence and one of my favorites is well articulated by Christian Buckley (@buckleyplant). His ebook on Social Capital includes a discussion on influence from a different perspective.

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how to measure ESN influence. Drop me a note below. Thanks!