Capture Your Customers’ Stories

HALLATROW, UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 12: Seco...
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You know there are thousands of stories about all of your products. The guy that is creating the cork “art car” in Texas, the race car driver in the northeast, the skateboarder in San Francisco and the eco crafters in Washington, DC.

Focus on tapping into the networks where these people are already talking about the cool things that they are doing and creating, participating and connecting to those conversations.

When you have something worth sharing, people will share it! Build the tools to create world wide evangelists and do it in a completely different way than anyone else.

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Building Online Community, One Conversation at a Time

Building Blocks
Image by ogimogi via Flickr

Building online communities takes time and effort. Most communities can’t sustain themselves, particularly early in their growth, without a concerted effort from an organization’s community manager. However, some basic tenets of community apply and if you stick to some best practices, you’ll be more likely to achieve success.

Read more…

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Social Media & New Technology for Child Care Directors

Last week was full of opportunities for me to share my passion about social media. On Thursday I spent the afternoon with the lovely ladies of the Oregon Association of Child Care Directors talking about the basics of social media.

Below are my slides. You can download them by clicking on the little people in the bottom right (view in slideshare) and then clicking download.

Part 1

OACCD Workshop Session 1

Part 2

OACCD Workshop Session 2

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You’re Not Drowning: Getting Started with Social Networks

I had the pleasure of speaking to the Professional Women’s Forum, a terrific group of… um, professional women. In addition to the obvious make-up of the audience, I’ll say that it was a great way to spend my lunch. Smart, savvy women inspire me.

Of course, understanding and getting involved with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter is a two part undertaking. Part one is understanding the mechanics and part two is finding long term value (and managing the potential toxic time dump that these things can create). The time management question is one that I get a lot and I’m sure I’ll continue to address.

The slides below are the ones I shared today. As always, too much to cover in too little time. If you have questions, leave a comment here or email me a question.

Professional Women’s Forum Presentation

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What Kind of Blog is Right for My Organization?

A blog can be a great outreach and conversation tool for your organization. I’ve written before about why and how to get started, but I want to talk a little bit about how to decide the best type of blog.

What should you write about?

A blend of types of post is usually the best bet. No one style fits all the time (in my experience). Keep yourself and your content fresh.

Issue Posts: these type of posts aims to establish companies as being at the forefront of the market in terms of dealing with particular issues. If you’re eco-friendly and focused on sustainability, you can post about related. Share your expertise and offer advice to others seeking to do the same.

Thought Leadership Posts: this type of blog tries to establish organizations as leaders in terms of understanding and analyzing their field. Difficult to write, but if you have a wealth of experience, posting often under this type can establish you as a leader among your peers. Be generous with your knowledge, it will come back around to benefit you in the long run.

Instructional Posts: Instructional posts tell people how to do something. Tips and tricks provide a resource for your readers and tend to be popular for the long term.

Informational Posts: A common blog post types where you simply give information on a topic. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of what your organization does. A “behind the curtain” look at what you do to be successful. Guest posters that would be interesting for readers is a good way to share the writing burden (you may be surprised who is interested in writing!)

List Posts: One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list. Posts with content like ‘The Top Ten ways to…’, ‘7 Reasons why…’ ‘ 5 Favorite…’ are easy to write and usually very popular with readers. I’ve also found list posts help me organize my thoughts around a subject and can often cross into a another “type.”

There are plenty of other types of blogs and posts out there. Do you have a favorite to read or to write?

Photo via Flickr by RogueSun Media (CC)

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Six Criteria of Successful Blogs Presentation

I had the pleasure of chatting today with the Oregon State University Extension Service staff about blogging. This was the slideshow from my presentation. Enjoy!

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It’s Not Business-As-Usual These Days: Some Tips for Small Business

We’ve all heard the stats. Businesses who continue marketing during down economic times emerge stronger on the other end than those who do not. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by John Quelch included this:

It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.

So what’s a small business to do? We have a few tips:

Know Your Customer

There are too many channels and too many ways that people get information. You cannot trust your gut or rely on the status quo. If you have a clear profile of who your customer is, you’re not guessing and not wasting money.

Basic research can be done quickly and easily to determine: demographics, psychographics, values/beliefs, lifestyle and how they want to interact with you. Try a simple questionnaire through email or in person. As you develop your customer profile, write it down.

Be Brave

Think about new ways to reach your customers. Maybe social media is a good fit. The financial costs are very low and you can try out a few tools and see what stick. The investment required is time. Need some “toe in the water” ideas, try some of these.

If you know your customer, being brave doesn’t mean being reckless. You can try new things that are in line with your current marketing and communication strategies. Give it a shot!

Be Generous

I’m a strong believer in the adage of “give and you shall receive.” By being involved in your community  and making connections through civic organizations or nonprofits, you can meet a new network of people. But more importantly, you can share your particular area of expertise for good.

Find something you believe in and get warm fuzzies just thinking about. Some of my Twitter friends said that they love helping new talent shine and enjoy seeing the difference that their time has made. Even one of my students chimed in and said that while she doesn’t always have money to give, she can donate her time and expertise.

This, too, shall pass. In the meantime, these tips may give you some new ideas for making it through with fewer bruises.

Photo by Gaeten Lee

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Don’t Fear the Negative

I was recently invited to give an overview of social media to a small nonprofit that was launching a blog. At the end of my presentation, the management discussed at some length what the process would be for responding to a negative comment.The solution they came up with – involving several layers of approval – was one that would take about seven days.

At that point I told them if it took that long, they may as well not bother. Not only would they missed the opportunity to have a conversation with that visitor and others that might share their opinion (after all, they took the time and energy to give you feedback), but depending on the circumstances, a blog storm could be in full swing.

A week on the Internet is truly an eternity.

Think about a negative comment as an opportunity to correct a misperception, understand your customers’ problems and to be human.

There’s an old school attitude that if you ignore comments, you don’t validate them. In fact, the truth is quite the opposite. By not responding and engaging, the negative feedback and the source gain credibility – after all, if you don’t tell your story, someone else will.

If you must deal with negativity, either on your own blog or somewhere else online, my best advice is to address it as quickly as possible and to do so constructively. Admit if you’re wrong and offer a solution. Of course, this means you need to always be listening.

When customers believe that you genuinely care, you’re more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. Quick response with a solution will neutralize the negativity and even turn some frowns upside down.

According to Paul Gillin’s book the Secrets of Social Media Marketing, there are a few reasons that negativity concerns are overblown.

  • Chances are, your organization is making a good product or providing a good service and has generally happy customers. The number of disgruntled are small and can be handled.
  • By listening and providing a solution, unhappy customers can be turned around and even made into fans.
  • Criticism can be useful and helps you understand your customers better. It can be scary, but it can also be tremendously helpful if you just listen.
  • Most feedback is positive. Active bloggers, reviewers and commenters are more likely to leave positive reviews. In fact, research from Bazaarvoice and Keller Fay Group show the average rating is 4.3 out of 5.

(check out Paul’s book for more info on these reasons)

What makes you most nervous about participating in social media?

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Check Your Blog’s Vital Signs

heart beatStarting a blog for your company or organization is one thing, keeping it healthy is quite another. What are the vital signs that you should look for?

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research offers several vitals that are important for success. The categories are his, and you can find his ratings on the post above, but I’ll provide a little explanation below.

  • Writing style: Be conversational and human. No corporate speak and no rehashed press releases.
  • Topics: A variety of topics that are relevant to your readers along with wider industry topics. Think about your audience and their interests. How can you be part of that conversation.
  • Humility: Openly discusses your organization’s mistakes and shortcomings (particularly if your “listening” tells you that others are talking).
  • Linking behavior: Links to others, including competitors, critics and others in the industry.
  • Customer inclusion: Includes customers in the conversation with snippets from other blogs or as a guest blogger.
  • Dialog: Comments are enabled and published in a timely manner
  • Comment moderation: Comments are allowed, even when the commenter disagrees or is off-topic with the blog.
  • Frequency: Posting frequency is appropriate for the industry and is regular and predictable.

Successful corporate blogs must maintain all these vital signs to build and maintain relationships with readers. Want to get a blog started or need a check up, let’s chat.

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Creating a Magic Moment

I spoke recently at the Healthcare Communicators of Oregon fall conference. What a fun groups of folks! If you’re interested in healthcare communications (and you’re in Oregon), this is the group to be part of.

My topic was on social media and building relationships with your key audiences online. You can check out the slideshow via Slideshare if you’re interested or click here to download the PDF with my speaker’s notes.*

In prepping for the conference, the thing that really struck me was that healthcare has a unique opportunity to create a magic moment with patients and consumers that is different from other industries. Let me explain.

According to research, between 60 and 80 percent of healthcare consumers search online for information about health and wellness. This number rivals those who get information straight from their physician. iCrossing provides this data from How America Searches: Health and Wellness.

search stats

If you look at another set of statistics that show what sources consumers consider the most trustworthy, the chart looks a little different. People may use the Internet the most of any source, but they trust their primary care physician. Internet is about the middle of the pack.

trust stats

One more bit of information: the average person searching online for health data will leverage five different sources to get information, confirming and reconfirming as they go along their search.

What if you can combine these three ways of getting information? What if you could be two of the sources that your consumers turn to? Or even three? Imagine the powerful relationships that you could create by combining the search habits of consumers, with the trusted voice of primary and specialty care providers.

Southwest Washington Medical Center is doing just this with YourBabyYourWay.com. Marketing director, Sarah Mottram, and her team have launched a very creative online portal for women at any stage of motherhood from preconception through delivery and into parenting.

I will be thinking about this idea more in the near future. How can organizations create local networks and build relationships with consumers for cardiac prevention and care or to support caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients or around wellness topics like diet and exercise? Seems to me to be a tremendous opportunity that few are taking advantage of.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your ideas.

* switch to full screen mode and enlarge the slides to best see the notes. Using the print function, you can download the slides. Please contact me if you need help. I’m happy to help.

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