TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

One of the reasons blogging is such a strong phenomenon is that it takes tools such as market research and product testing from a birds’ eye view to the one-to-one human interaction level. If a blog about your company exists, you can simply e-mail the blogger to ask him some questions. If a blog post about your company concerns you, or even excites you, you can take the opportunity to create a positive experience that’s being handed to you and respond directly and appropriately. Better than all of this, though, is that if you have your own blog, you can directly ask your customers what they think. Thinking of launching a new line of beverages? Ask your customers what types of drinks they like.

Want to launch a new piece of software? Ask your customers what features they want, what features they don’t want, and how much they’d be willing pay to get what they want.

Blogs are all about having conversations just remember to contribute in a meaningful way, and you’ll be sure to create a positive experience for the person to whom you’re responding and for all those who’ll read the post in the future.

FIVE STEPS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Your customers are talking, your employees are talking, and your partners and suppliers are talking. With blogging, the conversation is potentially limitless. The challenge for most companies who engage in customer conversation isn’t obtaining feedback; it’s how best to deal with the feedback, both positive and negative. At the end of the day, you need to realize that these conversations include current customers, potential customers, employees, and partners. If you ignore these comments, you are ignoring valuable feedback, potential new marketing strategies, innovative new product ideas, and concepts that could completely transform your business. The conversation will go on either with or without you and your competitors are most certainly listening.

MICROSOFT LISTENS

The example set by JetBlue CEO David Neeleman, while rare, isn’t unique. Lots of companies talk directly with customers to get their feedback and to improve on or launch new products. Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, regularly flies customers and industry experts to its campus in Washington for fantastic powwows. The company invites dozens of key customers and partners to the event, where they all spend several days brainstorming as a group. Individual product teams gain huge value from these events they get to engage directly with customers, pitch their vision for the future, hear customer responses to that vision, and interact with customers in a way that is impossible outside the event. Whereas, once upon a time, Microsoft’s most effective customer feedback mechanism was these onsite powwows, the company is now making massive use of blogs.

It’s been said that Microsoft is slow to catch on to a new trend, but fast to apply it and blogging is no exception. Within the space of a year, more than 1000 Microsoft employee blogs featured developers and product managers talking directly to customers every day instead of just once a year. These days, many employees are reading dozens (if not hundreds) of blogs every day to see exactly how customers are responding to Microsoft products and services. Microsoft employees are also contributing to other blogs, searching for terms that are important to them that may be popping up in the blogosphere, and generally being aware of the fact that real people are talking about the company. Microsoft now is easily able to listen in and contribute to the conversation on a daily basis. The best way to engage in a real-world conversation is to go through the following five steps for effective communication: listen, understand, value, interpret, and contribute.

Listen Listening is like being a sponge, and the best sponges hold water indefinitely. Until you are ready to contribute to squeeze some knowledge from your sponge you need to be taking in a lot more that you’re putting out. Understand By understanding what is actually being said, apart from any biases or agendas especially your own you begin to value feedback. You need to ensure that you keep that value. Value the conversation, WHAT IS AUTHENTICITY? by Aaron Brazell, blogger and social commentator (www .technosailor.com) Authenticity is… Passion. It is the thing that drives people to be successful in what they do. It is the drive of a successful blogger.

Passion is the engine which powers the boat and keeps people coming back. Conviction. It is the thing that causes people to relate to the blogger. Though the topic may not necessarily be agreeable, conviction demonstrates that the blogger has fully bought into his perspective.

With these ingredients, successful bloggers will secure new readers and maintain their existing readers. There is nothing worse than a flakey writer. Readers know it and the blogger knows it deep inside. the individual, and the feedback more than you value your own opinion. If you don’t do this, when it comes time to contribute, your comments will be out of context and will hold much less value than they otherwise would. Value Valuing everyone’s contribution can be difficult in the best of times some people in any large conversation don’t listen, don’t value others’ contributions, and therefore simply don’t deserve to be talking. However, when you’re a business listening to feedback about your company, products, and industry, it’s far too easy to discount certain contributions as unworthy of your attention.

Don’t fall into this trap. Before you can contribute and properly respond to what’s going on in a conversation as big as the blog posting, you need to value everyone involved after all, the one person you value one time could well be your next big customer evangelist. Interpret Before you take the step in becoming involved in the global conversation happening on blogs, you need to interpret and evaluate what has already been said and determine whether you actually have any valuable and unique insight to offer. After all, if the only thing you have to say in a large conversation is “Yes, I agree!”, it’s probably best to live by the adage, “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent.” Contribute The final step in effective communication is to contribute something of value to the group. What valuable information can you offer? When the conversation centers on your area of expertise, you can offer authority, passion, and a unique perspective.

Unlike most parties, where not everyone gets a chance to talk to everyone else, thousands of blog readers and writers are waiting eagerly to hear what you and your company have to say. Once you have properly prepared to contribute to the conversation, you can be sure that you will not only be heard, but that you will get feedback.

I DON’T HAVE MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS!

You may not have millions, or even thousands, of customers,

but in the world of blogging, everyone has an equal voice. No matter how big or small your business, or how many people are interested in your products, blogging provides a unique opportunity for you to talk to your potential customers at least those who happen to be online and reading and for them to talk to you. Big businesses are great at yelling, but small businesses are great at talking.

Blogging allows for a balance: it allows for big businesses to talk one-to-one with customers, and it allows small businesses to gain visibility by using what they know to create big-business style opportunities and growth. Blogging can help your business grow. For example, two of my clients are small fashion boutique businesses, who, thanks to the increased visibility and customer feedback that blogging enabled, have been able to open new locations. Increased visibility and online sales, and their ability to reach out to their ideal audience and figure out the best place to launch new stores, are responsible for this growth. Blogging gave them a unique opportunity to expose their businesses to fashion aficionados, fashion editors, and newspaper columnists from around the country largely because these small stores love to tell stories and share the secrets of why they love fashion. Their passion was contagious, and soon articles were being written about them in all kinds of publications. While your business may not have millions of customers right now, you never know who you might influence, who will read your blog, and where that might lead.

Act like you’re small by talking, but think big by not forgetting that real opportunities for growth do exist. thousands of blog readers and writers are waiting eagerly to hear what you and your company have to say. Once you have properly prepared to contribute to the conversation, you can be sure that you will not only be heard, but that you will get feedback.