So, last time we learned:
- Social networking is all about developing effective relationships.
- The Internet is a great way to engage conversation about your business and manage these relationships.
But where do we begin to learn how to control our media message and online presence? Keep reading for tips on how to be a more effective online communicator.
- Before the design stage, establish a clear purpose for your website.
Writing without establishing the point of why you are writing is pointless. It doesn’t provide value to your customers and it won’t provide value to you. When establishing your website purpose statement, Harvard Business Review recommends asking yourself these questions:
- Why will my customers come here?
- What do I want them to do on my site?
- Why should they come back?
- What do I want them to get from my site?
By answering these questions, you will discover what your customers want from you, and then you can design your site to deliver your customers’ wants (i.e., providing VALUE to your customers).
- Focus on consumer behavior—not consumer demographic.
When people come to your site, you have no way of knowing their age, race, or sex, so why use demographics as your main factor in communicating to them? Appeal to the behaviors and motivations that bring people to your site, and you will have more success at reaching your audience.
- What are the reasons and ways people would be directed to your site? Tailor your site to meet their needs.
- What information would they want to glean from you? Make that information prominent.
- Navigation is key.
People need to be able to get the information they need and FIND it quickly and easily. If the info your customers need is there, but it’s not in a format that is easy to understand, people will go somewhere else.
- Keep your navigation bars consistent.
- At minimum, people need to know how to get forward, back, home, what the main sections of information are, and how to browse through it.
- Write how your typical customer would talk. Use the same conversational tone and language that your customers would use and understand.
- Make things easier to read. Consider using bigger print, less text, and breaking up text into smaller sections of information, putting different sections of information onto different pages, and separating blocks of text with video, audio, or pictures.
- Make sure customers will have the same online experience as they do in other aspects of your company. The same experience customers get when they call your business, visit your store, or attend your events should be simulated in your online brand. People like consistency, and providing the same visual or sensual cues online as well as in person gives your customers a trusting, comfortable environment and online experience.
- Build Credibility. In human interactions, we build rapport with people so they will trust us, interact with us, and create a mutual relationship where each party gives and receives value. The same rules apply for online.
- Use other people’s comments on your site to establish trust. If other people comment on how fabulous your event was or how good your tips are, more people are likely to trust that information and use you again.
- Provide an online resource for customers to interact with the brand (e.g., online chat, comment features, e-mail, phone, or webcast). This can build credibility to show that you are a reputable company, that you care about developing relationships with consumers, and you care about meeting consumers’ needs and being accountable for your writings.
7. Don’t Become Overzealous. Especially when it comes to social media sites, think quality not quantity. If you become the company that sends a million messages and floods people’s inboxes, your media message is less likely to get read, more likely to get deleted, and people are more likely to drop you as a ‘friend’ or ‘contact’ on the site.
Always tailor your online media message to your audience. Think about how your e-mail, e-blast, message, or tweet fits in to their day, and make sure you craft your words so that they bring value (i.e., importance or helpfulness) to your main consumer.
8. Tailor the type and quantity of message to the purpose of each site. Blogs, informational websites, retail websites, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have different purposes or reasons as to why people go on there. Keep that in mind for the types of writing you want to send out.
For example, Twitter is used to instantaneously communicate and transfer information to a selected group of people. If your organization has continuous information that you need to inform your public about, consider those types of sites.
Facebook and LinkedIn are sites primarily used to learn about and connect with organizations/people who have similar interests. Consider this type of site if your organization is building a following, needs to gain contacts, and/or wants to inform the public about long-term interests, the goals of your organization, or allow the public to view a more interactive side to your business.
9. Stay mindful of your online brand. Monitor what is being posted on all sites affiliated with your company. Be especially cognizant of any harmful or untrue information out there about your company. If there is negative information, contact a PR representative to issue a neutralizing statement addressing these issues, personally respond to any complaints, and take necessary action within your company to correct the underlying issues or effects these media messages had on your other consumers.
