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Blog posts tagged online PR
The Art Of Fighting Without Fighting... And Good Customer Service
June 18, 2009
In the film ‘Enter The Dragon’ Bruce Lee demonstrated the ‘art of fighting without fighting’ in which he shrewdly avoided a conflict by not allowing it to happen in the first place. The same idea could be relevant for small businesses who rely on customer service.
Customer service has always been important but is now even more so with the changing nature of the online environment. If people are unhappy with service they are receiving it is now easier than ever to make these feelings known online. A quick tweet or facebook group about poor service received can potentially spiral out of control and be very damaging to a small business. For example, a restaurant which has upset one of its customers through poor service might be subject to some bad publicity online in a relatively short space of time. It may be as easy as getting on an iPhone or Blackberry and letting thoughts be known to the whole internet community. Customers are increasingly looking online for information on businesses so having and maintaining a good reputation on the internet is getting more and more crucial.
Recently there was the case of two Dominos kitchen employees who managed to cause a stir with a YouTube video showing them contaminating food. This video was viewed by literally millions of people and lead to the quick dismissal of the employees involved but only after significant damage to the reputation of Dominos. In the last few days Twitter postponed its scheduled maintenance in response to the continuing developments of the Iranian Election. Twitter and other social media tools are being used to by Iranian citizens to communicate with the outside world and are bound to play an important part in the final outcome. This illustrates the power that online tools can have.
In the case of small businesses, it is now essential that they get their customer service and training of staff right to avoid possible online crises. It sounds obvious but I have experienced this myself with a hotel I stayed at in Cardiff. I received a pretty lack-lustre service from them all round and wrote a critical review the next day on a hotel review site which was read by over one hundred people at last count. While a large hotel chain may not see this as so much of an issue; it could be quite a serious problem for a small business.
Obviously having opinions about a business be they positive or negative are fair game and should be shared online but, as businesses know, there will be customers who will never be happy and are intent on creating as much of a fuss as possible. If the customer concerns are legitimate the business should take this as feedback and a chance to improve their service. However, if the comments are misguided or deliberately malicious the business should have an Online Crisis Strategy to cope with these situations.
Often the best way to deal with such issues is avoiding them in the first place but failing that it is essential to have some idea of what you are going to do when the unexpected happens.
6 Top Tips on Writing 'Top Tips'
June 04, 2009
Businesses are now increasingly turning to blogging as part of their online strategy and one of the most common types of blog posts you see around is the 'Top tips' advice post. They can be a great way of engaging audiences and demonstrating knowledge in your specific business field.
With the multitude of ’Top tips’ advice around online it was only a matter of time before a post appeared about tips on how to write tips. So without further ado here it is:
Do Your Research – It is important that each tip is well researched and well written. If a Google search on your chosen topic area comes up with some conflicting information you might not end up looking very knowledgeable!
Don’t Repeat The Same Thing – Sounds obvious but sometimes people tend to repeat themselves in these sorts of posts and end not adding much value. Make sure each tip gives something new to the reader.
Have Punchy Clear Titles – People’s attention span on the net is very limited. If you don’t get their attention quickly and engage them then they will be off somewhere else very quickly.
If Possible Use An Illustration – ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ they say and it is true. An illustration of some kind can help convey your point and engage people to your post.
Proof Read Your Post – It sounds obvious but make sure you proof read your post and make sure grammar/ spelling is correct. There is nothing more off-putting than reading a post with loads of mistakes in it. ALSO WRITING IN CAPS LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING!
Be Original – There are some many ‘Top tips’ blog posts and articles out there so make sure the subject area you are choosing is an original one. If you are choosing a common subject area try and come from a different perspective.
Real Human Interaction Is Still Important
May 22, 2009
This may seem an unusual subject to be chosen by someone who works in Online PR but I though it important to address it nonetheless. As we have seen over the last year the world of social media has exploded impacting personal lives as well as businesses. An online campaign can be very valuable asset to small business owners but not at the detriment of 'good old-fashioned' phone conversation, meeting or event.
Even before social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook businesses were heavily reliant on email. However, wherever possible the personal touch of meeting someone face-to-face can make all the difference. Organising some sort of event is still a good way of engaging customers to your product. While using social media and internet tools can be a useful cost-effective method to reach large numbers of people; meeting people face-to-face means you can understand them on a more interpersonal level.
It can be all to easy to set up business online strategies and get so sidetracked that you lose perspective. This is especially difficult with the mass of information online and the distraction it can create. The ideal scenario is create a strategy that retains some perspective and mixes online with conventional business methods to give you the best of both worlds. How you mix these will depend on your particular business and your campaign objectives.
What are YOU going to do to create a World Wide Rave?
February 27, 2009
If you’ve been keeping tabs on some of the groups of marketing professionals on global social networks over the last few days, you might have heard mention of a World Wide Rave. It describes something you’ve probably experienced, although you may not realise it. It’s also something that you should find out more about if you’re responsible for marketing for your business.
Online marketing expert and bestselling author, David Meerman Scott, is in the process of launching his new book. I suppose by now you can guess what it’s called?
World Wide Rave is all about the way in which people can start and spread a World Wide Rave about their business or cause by getting other people excited about telling stories.
Like his other books, World Wide Rave is likely to be an international best seller pretty swiftly. A quick Google search will uncover that he’s the author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and that has done very well on the business/marketing book lists, as well as being translated into over 20 languages.
Anyway, to mark the launch of the World Wide Rave, David has produced a video which itself, documents a World Wide Rave that he created. And the video itself may even become a World Wide Rave. I’ve pasted the video below, so that you can check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4KHmm566I
You can check out David’s blog post about the video here. The blog also includes a free eBook which explains more about the making of the video. Are you starting to get the drift of a World Wide Rave yet?
I should disclose that I and many of my colleagues are on the team of people involved in making the video - but there were also hundreds of people involved as you will see when you watch the video. We’re proud to have been involved, and we are certainly looking forward to watching the process of both the book and the video over time. But regardless of our involvement, this is a very interesting aspect of the huge connectivity that we can all get access to online, particularly when we find a clever way to get other people to tell stories about us!
Food for thought...
P.S. David has really thought this through. Here's a little badge to prove our involvement!
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