Thoughtful, gen-uine, sharable andconsistently en-gaging contenttruly differentiates

a brand from its competitorson social media - no matterthe industry. This was foundin Engagement Labs annualstudy “Retail Index”. Thecompany specialises in data-based communications and isthe creator of an independentglobal benchmark for socialscoring called ‘evalue’.

The top evalue scores forthe world’s leading retailersin 2014 were Champs Sports(96), GameStop (95) andTiffany & Co. (89). These re-tailers were top-of-the-classin social engagement, impactand responsiveness – threekey actionable components of themore than 300 conventional so-cial media metrics in the evaluescore. The index includes evaluescores from more than 80 differ-ent major retail brands.

The diversity of offerings fromthe top scorers including ChampsSports, GameStop and Tiffany &Co., have significantly outscoredmany notable fashion retailerssuch as J.Crew (55), H&M (54),Forever 21 (54), Old Navy (54),Banana Republic (52), Zara (46),American Eagle (45), Gap (42),Levi’s (40), Urban Outfitters (38)and Guess (23), all of which fellwell below the retail industry av-erage of 64.

“From sporting goods andvideogames, to luxury goods andjewellery, it’s great to see such awide variety of companies thatwere able to use social to differ-entiate their brands,” said EliSinger, CSO of Engagement Labs.“The secret to their success is theability to generate significant en-gagement by being thematicallyconsistent, timely and relevantwith their content. For Tiffany,by delivering interactive, ani-mated content and integratinglive streaming of Google Hang-outs that include clever hashtags,the brand has seized the oppor-tunity to connect on social withpeople in a way that differenti-ates its business during the holi-day shopping season.”

Social media is a place where ef-fort, thoughtfulness and beinggenuine can pay big dividendsfor brands. To stay relevant,major retailers need to focus oncreating content that has a uni-form look and feel, is relevant totheir target audience and is notafraid to push the boundaries.Tiffany does well with using theirsignature blue colour throughoutall of its efforts, which is a greatway to immerse customers intheir brand and drive organic en-gagement.

“Champs Sports’ evalue score isa clear indicator of how themati-cally aligned, consistent contentdifferentiates specialty-sportinggoods and shoe retailers fromlarger multinationals on socialmedia,” said Bryan Segal, CEO ofEngagement Labs. “For instance,Champs Sports’ ‘#TheDrop’ se-ries, offers fun and interestingfacts about top athletes and pro-fessional sports teams. It’s a greatway to drive engagement andjump into mainstream, pop cul-ture moments that build trustwith consumers using relatablecontent.”

Outside of Champs Sports, themajority of sporting retailersscored above average on theIndex, including the likes of FootLocker (85), Finish Line (76) andDick’s Sporting Goods (68).Sports Authority (43) was thelone outlier that finished well

below the industry aver-age.

Other evalue RetailIndex findingsinclude:• Levi’s, Gap (42) andCoach (35) also offer little-to-no seasonally specificcontent, missing out on animportant moments toconnect with their audi-ence in a timely, interest-ing and relevant way• Coach (35) and Guess’(23) customer service num-bers were extremely low,and were a key factor intheir being ranked verylow on the Index. Guesswas also ineffective intheir use of hashtags, andlacked a strong and consis-

tent theme to their content• Big box retailers populated the

middle tier of the Index: Costco(68), Sam’s Club (65), Sears(65), Kmart (59), Walmart (50),Target (44)

• Home improvement compa-nies in general scored in themiddle-to-upper tier: TheHome Depot (81), Ace Hard-ware (75), Sherwin-Williams(62) and Lowe’s (57)

How is a brand’s evaluecalculated?Brands are ranked by their evaluescore, which is an overall meas-ure of performance and effective-ness on a given social mediachannel. The ranking is based onthe evalue scoring system, whichis backed by a patented algorithmand benchmarked against a data-base of 50,000 verified brand ac-counts. The evalue score itself isan aggregate of the ideal socialmedia KPIs – the three sub-scoresof engagement, impact, and re-sponsiveness. Unlike most tools,evalue analyses all FacebookPage custom targeting options si-multaneously. For the purpose ofthis Index, Engagement Labslooks at standard pages,global/local pages and geo-tar-geted content facing the UnitedStates.

For more information aboutevalue, visit:

The Malta Independent | Thursday 8 January 2015 1312 The Malta Independent | Thursday 8 January 2015

We usually associatesocial media withyoung people.However, this ischanging and a

study by the University of Exeterhas found that when elderly peo-ple use social media, it improvestheir cognitive capacity, theirwell-being and it also helps themby making them feel less lonely.

Everywhere we go, we caneasily spot CCTV cameras – they

have found their way in publicplaces, in shops, theatres andsometimes also in private resi-dences. Video cameras provide alot of data but more often than notwe only look at the visuals from asecurity point of view. What ifthe same video can provide uswith more sophisticated data?Businesses can now derive real in-telligence from video and learnmore about the customer flowwithin their shop-floor, which

displays are stopping people, cre-ate heat maps, and much more.

A new study found that the bestbrands on social media that man-age to win customers over arethose that consistently post di-verse engaging, thoughtful andgenuine content. The study byEngagement Labs takes into con-sideration the ‘evalue scores’ ofmultiple companies and providesinformation about the retailersthat manage to create social en-

gagement, impact and respon-siveness.

All ICT Features are available onwww.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature

The Malta Independent ICT Feature

RoderickSpiteri

Roderick Spiteri is Marketing andCommunications Manager at

MITA and editor of MaltaIndependent ICT feature

Diversity is the only consistency forbrands killing it on social media

Training older people inthe use of social mediaimproves cognitive ca-pacity, increases a senseof self-competence and

could have a beneficial overall im-pact on mental health and well-being, according to a landmarkstudy carried out in the UK.

The two-year project gave agroup of vulnerable older adults aspecially-designed computer,broadband connection and train-ing in how to use them. It wasfunded by the European Unionand led by the University of Exeterin partnership with Somerset CareLtd and Torbay & Southern DevonHealth and Care NHS Trust.

Those who received training be-came more positive about comput-ers over time, with the participantsparticularly enjoying connectingwith friends and relatives viaSkype and email.

The ageing population is one ofthe major challenges facing our so-ciety. It is expected that between2010 and 2060, the number of peo-ple aged 65 and over across Europewill grow from 17.4% to 29.5% ofthe total population. The project,called Ages 2.0, aimed to assess theextent to which the internet and so-cial media offer a tool for promot-ing active ageing and addressingthe social isolation that is too oftena feature of older age.

It found that those trained hadheightened feelings of self-compe-tence, engaged more in social ac-tivity, had a stronger sense ofpersonal identity and showed im-proved cognitive capacity. Thesefactors indirectly led to overall bet-ter mental health and well-being.

Dr Thomas Morton of Psychol-ogy at the University of Exeter,who led the project in the UK said,

“Human beings are social animals,and it’s no surprise that we tend todo better when we have the capac-ity to connect with others. But whatcan be surprising is just how im-portant social connections are tocognitive and physical health. Peo-ple who are socially isolated orwho experience loneliness aremore vulnerable to disease and de-cline. For these reasons findingways to support people’s socialconnections is a really importantgoal. This study shows how tech-nology can be a useful tool for en-abling social connections, and thatsupporting older people in ourcommunity to use technology ef-fectively can have important bene-fits for their health andwell-being.”Participants in thestudy were all vulnerable olderadults between the ages of 60 and95 years of age who were receivingsupport from Somerset Care Ltd.The 76 volunteers were drawnboth from those receiving care inthe community and those living inany of the not-for-profit organisa-tion’s 31 residential care homes.

Half of the participants were ran-domly assigned to receive trainingand the other half to a controlgroup who received care as usual.The training involved the installa-tion of an ‘Easy PC package’ con-sisting of a touch screen computerand keyboard, and a broadbandinternet connection. They wereable to keep the computer for 12months, including a three-monthtraining period.

One of the study’s participants,Margaret Keohone, said, “Havingthis training changes people’s livesand opens up their worlds, invig-orates their minds and for lots of usgives us a completely different wayof recognising our worth as we

age. I was just slipping away intoa slower way of life.”

Emma Green, the Care Technol-ogist from Somerset Care who de-livered training to Margaret andothers in the study, said: “As thetraining programme developedwith my participants their confi-dence grew and they were keen totell me how family members hademailed back, Skyped or ‘liked’ acomment or a picture on Facebook.Seeing the smiles on my partici-pant’s faces when they Skyped afamily member in the UK orabroad was such a special moment.

“One of the best Skype calls wasduring a visit to my caravan inCornwall when I Skyped a clientwho used to enjoy camping. Wewere around the camp fire and hewas able to be a part of our groupfrom the laptop, looking at the fire

and joining in. They all know that Iam only an email or Skype callaway and it has been fabulousbeing a part of the Ages 2.0 proj-ect.”

Those behind the Ages 2.0 studyhope its findings will help informfuture policy on digital inclusionand the delivery of tele-health andtele-care strategies.

Torbay and Southern DevonHealth and Care NHS Trust (TSD-HCT) was selected to participate inAges 2.0 due to its forwarding-thinking and innovative way ofworking. TSDHCT pioneered theintegrated approach to providinghealth and social care. In order toprovide the best care possible forlocal people, particularly the area’shigh population of older residents,the trust developed health and so-cial services which worked far

more closely together and wereable to respond to the whole careneeds of an individual, rather thanoperating in isolation.

The project team sought thetrust’s views on how the projectcould work in practice in the com-munity.

Mandy Seymour, Chief Execu-tive at Torbay and Southern DevonHealth and Care NHS Trust, said:“As a nationally acclaimed pio-neer, Torbay has a long history ofinnovation and of the successful in-tegration of health and social care.The Trust firmly believes that bybringing services together, andthrough participation in innovativeprojects, the needs of individualswho require care and support arebetter met.

“We’re always keen to buildupon and ensure continuity of ourintegration success and Ages 2.0has provided the perfect researchmechanism to help promote dis-cussions around future models ofcare.

“The challenges of supporting anaging population in the commu-nity are well documented – we en-courage active aging with our localpopulation by giving people op-portunities to be independent andto enable them to be living well athome for longer.

“The positive results of the proj-ect are interesting and the health-care community will look at howthis could help to influence strate-gies for supporting the increasingnumber of vulnerable and ageingpeople in local communities.”

The researchers were interested incomparing results across different

cultural contexts; therefore a parallelstudy took place in Italy. For more in-

formation visit, www.ages2.eu/en

It’s getting harder to go anywherewhere there’s not a mounted cam-era (even in people’s homes).They’re becoming so ubiquitousthat shoppers hardly notice them…especially during busy times.But businesses are starting to takegreat notice, and realising there’smore value from a security or sur-veillance camera than just a liveview of shoppers. It’s the intelli-gence in the video that’s helpingcompanies stay competitive.

Decisions Based on Data“In the past, merchandising deci-sions typically have been madebased on a merchant’s gut feeling.There’s now a way to make thembased on data,” says Steve Russell,CEO and founder of Prism Sky-labs, a San Francisco-based videoanalytics company.

Russell adds that, “Retail is verymuch an in-person business. Manystore employees make decisionsbased on what they see. They de-

velop incredible intuitions. Withdata, retailers can validate thoseintuitions and make smarter de-cisions.”

Prism combines security cam-era video with software to build‘path maps’ of people’s move-ments (where they first go whenentering a store) and ‘heat maps’that use hot colours (like red andorange) to denote how long acustomer has stood in front of anitem, or how many times theitem has been handled. Prism saysit uses privacy protection that ‘re-moves’ people from video beforeit’s viewed. Russell says that videoalso allows companies to ‘peek’into a store anytime, anywhere tosee if the ‘brand concept’ (how thestore looks) is being followed con-sistently.

Video cameras have been creep-ing into commerce for years, tellingus where people are walking,pausing, if the lines are too long ata checkout counter, and if peopleare walking away. But it wouldtake an army of staffers to viewhours of recorded data, and onlysophisticated algorithms can de-rive real intelligence from video.

Real-Time BusinessInsightsMachineShop is a next-generationmiddleware company based inBoston and Denver that helps com-panies bridge the gap between ac-tual operational technology and

information systems. CTO GregJones says real-time data from se-curity cameras is often synchedwith other systems like a point ofsale system. For example, if lowersales or missing receipts coincidewhen cameras weren’t function-ing, were they turned off inten-tionally? The next time the cameraturns off, a message goes out to thesecurity team. Jones says cus-tomers want the bigger picture,and to pull in information and con-nect services from many devices.

Jones says one of its cus-tomers, Diebold Inc., an Ohio-based electronic security systemscompany (that also makes ATMcash machines) wanted to createone, integrated view of their secu-rity environment for their financialand commercial customers. Jonessays that,

“Our job was to extract the com-plexity of communications from alltheir devices – including video,alarms and card readers – and turn

it into a language they could un-derstand (APIs).”

Jeremy Brecher is Diebold’s VPof Technology, Electronic Secu-rity. “You can install devices orcameras on the network but youwant to drive additional valueout of those investments.” Hesays Diebold’s SecureStat secu-rity management portal gives itscustomers an integrated view ofdevice status and event history,while bringing in external data

such as local weather alerts. “Think about weather. If we have

retail locations experiencing fre-quent power outages, and overlaythat information with weatherdata, we can figure out what’s hap-pening, and what may be comingnext. Then we can actively monitorthese locations, notify our cus-tomers, and help them manage thesituation,” added Brecher.

He adds that, business-wise,video data can tell you an extraor-dinary amount about how effi-ciently a location runs, and whyone location may be doing betterthan another. “Every day, someonecomes in and opens and closes abank location. Every day, there’smovement recorded on video –people going in and out of doors.Video is stored and we’re lookingfor that anomaly. Hmm, a branchclosed late. Why?”

And what about all of thoseDiebold ATMs? How is video usedto protect all that money?

“A fair amount of crime is hightech or malware based, but there’sstill a lot of low tech crime thattakes place, like a pickup truckpulling an ATM machine out of theground and dragging it away,”says Brecher. He says in high crimeareas, some of Diebold’s customersuse active GPS trackers on ATMsthat can notify a monitoring centreand let police know the location ofa stolen ATM. “Of course, there arealso criminals who try to blow upan ATM. Even in these situations,traditional alarm devices and cam-eras are still very effective.”

Blowing stuff up seems pretty oldfashioned these days. But howbusinesses are using real-time, in-telligent data from video is today’snew business model. “It’s a win-win,” says Prism’s Russell.“Retailers can ensure their storesare well stocked, well staffed, andalways on brand. And customersget to enjoy a better shopping ex-perience.”

Used with the permission ofhttp://thenetwork.cisco.com

Mary Gorges has been a reporterand staff writer for both TV and

print. After a move to high tech, sheworked in PR for Intel, and led com-munications for five SVPs at Cisco.

Now founder of TheSeasonedStartup,she works with small companies and

entrepreneurs in the San FranciscoBay area.

Training elderly in social media improves well-being and combats isolation

Video intelligence gives retailers new business insights

MaryGorges