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

2. Agenda
Welcome
Stats and 2016 Highlights
2016 Annual Plan
Discussion

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Health Assessment and Recommendations

7. 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

8. Overview: ConduitNW.org
Analytics Evaluation
Overall Health: Slightly less traffic but steady engagement
Visitor Traffic Sources: Mostly , 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

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

10. 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

11. Recommendations: ConduitNW.org
Audit “welcome” content
Make available via welcome s 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)

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. 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.

16. 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

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

18. Additional slides for reference

19. 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 alerts, or for specific purpose
26% rely on Conduit s vs using the actual site
66% would recommend Conduit

20. 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%)