Conduit Advisory Group Meeting October 18, 2016 Summer Goodwin, BPA Your host today Welcome. We will be starting shortly. Veronica Marzilli, NEEA

Agenda Welcome Stats and 2016 Highlights 2016 Annual Plan Discussion

Advisory Group Charter Purpose The purpose of this advisory group will be to provide NEEA with advice and guidance on the development, governance, and implementation of Conduit. The group will also provide guidance on Conduit’s annual plan, and will monitor Conduit’s perceived value in the region through the Conduit annual survey. Duties and Responsibilities Provide feedback on the continuing development of Conduit, including prioritizing features and functionality. Advise on governance issues: site policies, membership, content. Provide feedback on Conduit’s annual plan. Monitor Conduit’s value to the region via the annual survey. Serve as a champion for Conduit within their organization. Meeting Schedule Twice a year via telephone/web-conference, or as needed Purpose The purpose of this advisory group will be to provide NEEA with advice and guidance on the development, governance, and implementation of Conduit. The group will also provide guidance on Conduit’s annual plan, and will monitor Conduit’s perceived value in the region through the Conduit annual survey

Stats and 2016 Highlights Users: 3,211 users (Oct ’16); 3,068 users (Feb ’16); 2,607 (July ‘15) Page views (avg. per month): Goal 12,000 Actual 12,130 (2016 avg.); 12,616 (2015 avg.) Newsletter open rate: 27% (last 6 months); 28.4% (previous 6 mth avg.) click through rate: 29% (last 6 months); 31% (previous 6 mth avg.) User posts: 11,635(Oct ‘16); 11,302 (Feb ‘16); 10,411 (July ‘15) User Engagement: (avg. per month): GOAL: 13% Actual 5% (Oct ‘16); 12% (Dec ‘15); 11% (July ‘15); Most visited posts YTD: 2016 EFX Sessions videos and presentations Most visited group: Consumer Products Regional Market Planning and All Things Commercial Lighting Most prolific community member: Anne Swanson, NEEA Users continue to grow Pageviews are pretty consistent Newsletter open rates are pretty high Users continue to post, athough not at the same rate Engagement has gone down

Stats and 2016 Highlights Highlights Homepage redesign Changed to Amazon for hosting Conduit ED Power Planning (last spring) Momentum Savings (currently underway) Health Assessment Tag overhaul Conference promotion and content –EFX, NEBC, NWPPA, GoGreen EFX Conduit Lounge

Health Assessment and Recommendations

Overview: ConduitNW.org Executive Summary Site recently underwent a redesign Any usability recommendations are good-faith improvements to a site that is in good health Monitor that good health through a custom dashboard that tracks: Standard website metrics Online community metrics

Overview: ConduitNW.org Analytics Evaluation Overall Health: Slightly less traffic but steady engagement Visitor Traffic Sources: Mostly email, mostly desktop, mostly lunch time, mostly Pacific NW Visitor Behavior: Besides the Welcome Page, users are browsing, or reading specific articles, or retrieving their passwords Visitor Navigation: Welcome = more navigation; article = grab and go

Overview: ConduitNW.org Content Evaluation Homepage: more in Usability About: good NEEA/BPA context Help: could be more of a resource Welcome Emails: helpful kickoff info Email Newsletters: strong distribution Content Types: appropriate for community building and engagement Conduit ED: should be stickier Tagging: integral to searchability

Overview: ConduitNW.org Usability Evaluation Registration/Profile: ways to encourage new users to complete the process Visual/Copy Balance: visual is good, but keep focus on valuable content Navigation: opportunity for new layout

Recommendations: ConduitNW.org Audit “welcome” content Make available via welcome emails and ConduitNW.org Communication to encourage new users to fully complete their profile Standard metrics dashboard: Users/New Users Sessions Time on Site Bounce Rate Pages Per Session Custom metrics dashboard: Growth (over time) Content generation (users generating content over time) Content interaction (tracking Views, Comments, Follows, Shares, Flags and Ratings over time)

Recommendations: ConduitNW.org Use metrics to determine the value of future content series, such as Conduit ED. Create a more uniform content tagging format Audit visual/copy balance

Conduit ED Stats for Momentum Savings: 24 students, 508 views with just 2 articles so far. Stats for Power Planning: 48 students, 1,297 views, 2 comments, 1 certificate Stats for Emerging Technology: 120 students, 889 views, 11 comments, 19 certificates Stats for Market Transformation: 75 students, 500 views, 19 comments, 12 certificates How can we increase the engagement? The model has been changed. Students would be expected to go down because we don’t’ require them to sign up.

Conduit ED Resource intensive Is it worth it? How can we increase engagement with the content? Would you each give me a quote about the Conduit Ed that was most useful to you?

2017 Plan Community user survey - January Update welcome package and add to site resources Continue event promotion and content collaboration Holiday contest - Utility Throwback Photo Contest – EFX Conduit Lounge Reaching out to inactive users More tag clean up Leveraging EFX more Possible merger with EFX website - likely Site development? Institute new metrics/tools? Conduit Ed – is it worth it? Bloggers – where are they? More advisory group participation What are you interested in? Are you interested in creating content? Conduit Lounge.

Discussion Where should we focus? What are the best key performance indicators for Conduit? Engagement? Bounce rate? What tools are needed to measure? How can you get involved? A quote A blog post or two per year? Lounge Throwback contest Tag project Metrics/survey Conduit Ed Conduit Plan and goals/metrics Content strategy EFX lounge Throwback contest Event partnerships/bloggers. Portland/ Seattle

This concludes today’s webinar. Thank You! This concludes today’s webinar.

Additional slides for reference

Survey Results 215 responses 32% of respondents are utility staff 35% of respondents are program/project staff 83% have belonged for more than a year Only 4% use the site daily; the rest are driven by email alerts, or for specific purpose 26% rely on Conduit emails vs using the actual site 66% would recommend Conduit

Survey Results The top reasons to use the site is to keep up with current events, followed closely by: Find education and training events Download training materials Comment on a post Coordinate & communicate with a work group Announce or promote something Post and share ideas The primary source for hearing about Conduit is peers/colleagues (36%)