Nice presentation from David Gillis on why Great digital products don’t happen by accident given at Reactor Design Day 2014.

3 key concepts in his presentation were:

Ethos – What is your product’s voice and why will people trust it

Pathos – What do you want people to feel when they use your product

Logos – What problem is your product or service trying to solve

The following sentence jumped out to me near the end of the video

“Validate your problem first, and then figure out what success will look like for that, and then relentlessly focus on achieving that.”

I recommend you watch the video if you are at all interested in making products that people want and love.

Are you one of those people who cannot abide queuing? Do you stand there fuming and raging over the length of time you’ve been waiting, while repeatedly looking to the front of the line in the deluded hope that your venomous glares will hurry them on? If so, then you will appreciate that as a customer your experience of the company will be tainted with the frustration at having to wait for so long. But would this still be true if there was a little sign that says ‘You are 10 minutes from being served’?

Queues impact almost every industry at some point, and waiting line psychology, as explained by David Maister, shows how queues can affect our customers. Companies have long been using waiting line psychology to their advantage but it’s worth revisiting the idea that our pre-service is just as, if not more, important than our in-service provision. A long wait can suggest a lack of concern for the customer and can hint at poor service quality. Yet a queue for our service is the opportunity for us business owners to offer a glittering pre-service – the opening act before the headliner. Customers will gain a good understanding of a company’s effectiveness from the pre-service, and if they’re not happy with it, well, why should they stick around for the main act?

Set expectations

Anyone who has ever had to queue will understand that our expectations affect our experience. If we expect a queue to move quickly and it turns into a snail’s race we are left annoyed and frustrated. So, make the early stages of your customers’ experience a positive one by managing their expectations and you will win over the customer. Can you let your customer know how long they’ll have to wait before they reach the front of the queue? Ikea’s Customer Service has a number ticket system, a technique that’s been around for decades now, but it still works exceptionally well. Let your customers know what to expect.

Keep them entertained

Can you entertain customers while they wait? Distractions, or ‘service-related time fillers’ will divert your customer’s attention so the wait is not so onerous. Strategies such as a TV or reading material (think magazines in dentist waiting rooms), shops to browse at train stations, even the muzak we (are forced to) listen to when we’re waiting to speak to a service human on the telephone (which is actually more annoying to some than having to wait in silence) are all designed to keep customers occupied while they wait. Can you go one step further? An offer to call them back perhaps? Is there something they can be doing that will make the next step of your service run more smoothly, such as completing forms or providing entertainment as part of the wait? What can you offer your waiting customers?

Respond quickly

Appreciate what anxiety your customer might be feeling. Perhaps they need some acknowledgement that they’re waiting, rather than worry they’ve been forgotten or overlooked. Got an email query that you cannot deal with right away? You could send a reply that acknowledges the customer’s query and that they will be served as soon as someone is available. This takes the pressure off both the customer and you and in most cases can be automated.

Investing in your customer goes a long way. For instance, should there be a problem or a delay in your service, you could just ignore the customer, letting him wait in limbo, or you could go ‘over and above’ and take the opportunity to wow him with your efficiency. Love them or loathe them, a recent experience with Amazon left me in no doubt as to the time I should expect my delayed parcel to arrive. I appreciated their consideration immensely and forgave the delay.

 

Ultimately, what is most important throughout the process of dealing with customers is to manage their expectations. And every customer has expectations, from the very initial stages of his interaction with your business. If a customer is impressed with your pre-service then he’s more likely to remain your customer.

 

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Photo credit: Xiaojun Deng Follow, Nairobians queuing up for a bus.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? Actually, sometimes there is. In fact, I was treated to one just this week. I absolutely wasn’t expecting it but boy did it feel good!

(more…)

Ben is joined by Jack McCaughtrie from Core Tree to discuss what makes a tweet engaging, LinkedIn endorsements and getting personal on social media.

Episode sponsored by Be Sociable
Easy-to-follow social media tips and strategy to get noticed by the right people for the right reasons. Nick says “Ben and Helen know everything about every social media”

• New intro music ‘Goofy Vocal Groove‘ by Dave Girtsman on Free Music Archive
• Brilliant interview with Tanya and Dave, Priory inn on lean manufacturing and 30 Mile food zone
• Jack from Core Tree Social Media Marketing
• Morrells Handwriting practice workbooks
• Mini coaching – A little marketing motivation every month in 15 minutes for just £25. Contact us if  you are interested
• Marketing Fundamentals Workshop in September – Last one of the year!
• Extensive list of Twitter hours around the country
• Buffer – A Smarter Way to Share on Social Media
• Sprout Social – Social Media Management Software

—

Intro Music: ‘Goofy Vocal Groove‘ by Dave Girtsman

I interview Tanya and Dave, owners of The Priory Inn (Tetbury), on how they’ve improved quality and sustainability, by insisting on buying only from suppliers within a 30-mile food zone, and the restaurant’s continuous development using ‘Lean manufacturing’ principles.

Find Tanya on Twitter @ThePrioryInn or visit www.theprioryinn.co.uk and book a table. I can recommend the pizza.

• Lean manufacturing
• Strawberry and blue cheese pizza!
• 30 mile food zone policy suppliers at The Priory Inn
• Holy Smoked Cheese
• Priory staff visit to Uley brewery
• Barter at the back door
• Award winning Stargazy Fish Bar

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Photo Credit: The Priory Inn

As a freelance Social Media Manager, one of my first questions to my clients is often ’what do you want to achieve from your Social Media output?’ Nine times out of ten, the answer is ‘more sales’.  A relatively simple answer, yet achieving that goal can be a little more complex than tweeting pictures of products or lists of services and special offers.

The World Wide Web is a Vast Territory

Over 3 billion people use the internet (May 2015, www.time.com) and 2 billion of them are using Social Media (August 2014, www.wearesocial.com). Yet for many of us, our first ‘tweet’ is sent out to a grand total of ZERO followers, and our first blog post is probably read by exceptionally dedicated family members and friends, but not necessarily money-spending customers.

So How do we Attract that Untapped Target Market?

Take it from me, it’s not by bombarding people with links to the services that you are promoting or to a discounted product on your website. We are engaging, however virtually, with ‘real’ people, so the best way to communicate with consumers is by treating them as real people.

Don’t be the Buffet Table Bore

Imagine being at a party and someone you’ve never met before approaches you. In ‘real-life’, a few niceties would be exchanged, you’d take it in turns to ask each other questions, find out a little bit about each other, share stories that may be relevant to what you’ve learnt from your conversation. Perhaps the stranger has spent the day researching potential city breaks and you’ve recently had a fab time in Barcelona – you’ll offer tips and information on great places to visit and an awesome restaurant that serves the best tapas. It will (hopefully) be a mutually beneficial conversation. If the same person approached you and proceeded to bombard you with information about his/her life – without letting you get a word in edgeways – you’d be looking for your first excuse to make a break for the buffet table. It’s exactly the same etiquette on Social Media.

Inform, Share, Engage & Educate

In order to attract the attention of a consumer (or ‘follower’), try sharing some information. Put something out there that is useful. A café-owner may blog about the best-selling brownie on their menu; by sharing the recipe the owner is engaging with followers and asking for nothing in return. He/she is saying ‘Hey, look here – this one is on us!’ The consumer is getting something for nothing and, let’s face it, we all love that!  And in the majority of cases, that information will be passed on:

Before you know it, everyone is talking about the Café’s amazing brownies.  At some point, those followers will decide to visit the café for real and there you have the conversion from virtual blog post to real-life customer (and money in the till, ca-ching!).

Reward, don’t Repel

I decided to subscribe to the newsletter of a certain fashion brand; I liked the clothes and thought that by following them online I’d be able to make the most of the occasional sale previews or discount codes. But after a month of my email inbox being inundated on an almost daily basis with promotions, I ended up unsubscribing. It was too much of the ‘hard sell’ with nothing for me to take away (that didn’t involve spending money). It would have been much more interesting, as a consumer, to have read articles less frequently but with more take-away information – What’s in this season? Where was the spring/summer campaign shot? Who was the photographer? Rewarding the consumer with this ‘inside-information’ in exchange for their time invested in following the clothing brand would have led to much greater engagement – the consumer will look forward to the email as a welcome distraction to the day, as opposed to being annoyed at the interruption to work.

Slow and Steady Wins The Race

It goes without saying that at some point, we want our ‘followers’ to spend with us. Whether it be converting the online Twitter follower of the museum to getting them through the actual door, or converting the travel blog reader  to customer when they book a holiday through the travel blog’s website; just keep in mind the 4 out of 5 rule; inform, share, engage and educate your followers before promoting a product or service with your 5th post/tweet. We all know you can’t get to 4th base on a first date, right?!  Relationships take time to develop – listen and respond with your output accordingly – the long-term benefits will be worth the effort!

Ben and Al are joined by special guest Nicholas van der Walle from Astute Graphics. Behind his dry humour lies a business mastermind who helps us tackle topics such as click bate headlines, getting external investment, how Brexit might effect marketing and Piccolos!

Episode sponsored by Be Sociable
Easy-to-follow social media tips and strategy to get noticed by the right people for the right reasons.

• ‘Don’t like click bait? Don’t click’ Ted Talk by @sallykohn
• Netflix extracting image metadata at scale
• Brown banana advert
• Dan TDM’s Minecraft videos
• Playdoh suprise egg things (I couldn’t find the one my boys watched but this is equally odd)
• ‘How social media can make history’ TED Talk by Clay Shirky
• Astute Graphics – Makers of 14 Award Winning Plug-ins for
  Adobe Illustrator
• Sebastian Bleak speaking at Adobe Max
• Pitch Fest
• Astute Graphics Bexit blog
• Information Comissioners Office – Office responsible for the enforcement of the Data Protection Act

In a digital age when there is masses of content generated on a daily basis, it is essential that you focus your attention on what interests and engages your target audience.

• What do they want to read?
• What information do they want to consume?
• What interests them and how do you connect with them?

The rise of Facebook and other social media platforms combined with the appetite for content has resulted in sites such as Friends Reunited losing their appeal and relevance.

When Friends Reunited was reunited (sorry) with its founder Steve Pankhurst, he realised that he had over 10 million people signed up but the data was old and people were using the website simply as a message board – people weren’t interested in using the site for it’s original purpose which is a clear sign of a lack of interest.

Evolving your activities to continually appeal and then maintain the interest of your audience is integral – keeping up with the changing requirements is a challenge but a challenge you must accept and address.

You need to keep abreast of changing habits by consuming similar information to your target audience whilst also talking to them to find out exactly what they want and how they want to consume content.

Keep people interested by sharing insights into your business, provide them with tips and information that they are able to go away and use. Participate in online discussions, this interaction will help you to understand what people find interesting and how they react to it.

As children we’re told to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. As an Adult I encourage this behaviour in my children so they will be seen as polite, helpful and well-rounded. There’s a perception that when this is not said one is considered rude.

This works well in verbal communications – it’s quick and there really is no extra effort involved. But in email or other text messaging politeness can drive me to distraction.

I’m not thinking of when I thank a client for trusting me with coaching their marketing team or praising individuals at the the end of a website project (I must do this more often) but the little niceties within day-to-day communication.

Examples such as: receiving an email reply from a client after I’ve just sent them a file or some requested information and thus pinging up another notification, or yes, another email to peruse and process. Or, using what little cognitive energy I have left to decide whether or not to reply to their ‘Thank you’ message with a equally amiable ‘My pleasure’ and in doing so, cause my client to be distracted by my notification.

Don’t get me started on how much email pre-amble I should use – When does it stop!

Thankfully Basecamp, a project management tool we rely on at Rather Inventive, introduced two ideas in their new software that have helped to reduce my stress levels, thus affording me more time to focus on the important communication, where it matters.

1. Applause – Rather than thanking a person by typing a reply (thus treating the whole team to yet another message) you can click on a little ‘Applause’ link which sends a nod to the person that you’ve noticed their work. It’s a ‘like’ button for work stuff, and used sparingly it has impact.
2. Campfire – A simple real-time text message between you, your team and your client that you can dip in and out of, doesn’t notify you of every message and stays out of the way when you need to focus.

 

So dear client or friend, if you think I’m being too curt or even possibly downright rude, know that I am actually saving you time by not creating another email for you to process.

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Image credit: Basecamp 3

Ben and Al discuss the benefits of mobile/responsive web design and getting clients involved early in website development. They eventually get round to answering questions on; why keywords don’t show in Analytics, which image formats to use online and setting up monthly reports in Google Analytics.

My appologies for some of the annoying echo and cracking at the end of the audio.

Episode sponsored by Ticked Off
Your internet marketing checklist, free 30 day trial, no credit card needed – Sign up today at ticked-off.com

• Port80 2016 Web conference
• Andy Clarkes’ talk on Designing imaginative
  grid systems at Port 80, Newport. His Sketch notes of his talk by Mearso
• Helen Clark. See sketch notes of her Port 80 talk ‘Designing better websites by including clients and their customers from the start‘
• The Dell 1320C ‘trooper’ colour laser printer
• Thank you to Marius at Cartridge World in Hereford for helping me find a new printer
• Keywords report in Google Analytics
• Viewing Keywords in Search Console
• ImageOptim image compressor for the Mac
• Dancing cat GIF
• Old school email mailbox GIF
• Google Acquisition report

I thought it would be fun to share some lessons learnt while covering We Cycle UK’s WACC2016 (Women & Cycling Conference 2016). I was charged with capturing the day using Periscope, a live streaming mobile video app, by filming some of the speakers and delegates. I must admit video is not my day job but it was fun to do and I’ve learnt a lot.

Get up close and personal

When framing the shot before broadcasting Periscope only shows the top half of the video with the bottom obscured by the keyboard and broadcast button. I always felt I had framed the shot well at first but when broadcasting and seeing the full video it the interviewee looked too far away. Getting closer will also help the built-in mic pick-up their voice more clearly.

Time it right

Allow for a few seconds delay before speaking after you start broadcasting and when you finish leave a few seconds silence so that your words don’t get cut off. I constantly mis-timed this with the resulting video having the name of the person I was speaking to trimmed off, not ideal.

Front first

Periscope defaults to using the front facing camera (on my iPhone at least). So if you are going to record yourself while looking at the screen start the broadcast focused on something interesting for a five seconds or so before switching to the rear facing camera to start talking. It’s worth practicing this to get the timing right.

Tripod or not?

I used a tripod for almost all of my Periscope interviews. This worked really well to record my monologues or when I didn’t need to move the camera but given the conversation style of my interviews and occasionally filming 2 or more people moving between people speaking was slower than it would have been handheld. If I did the interviews again I would most likely hold the iPhone in my hand for almost all the footage.

Light them up

Bring a small LED light to brighten faces when interviewing. I was in a very dark space backstage for some of the interviews and didn’t leave enough time to organise better lighting. I thought I could use the iPhones flashlight but when you start a broadcast the LED get’s turned off. Eek.

Buy a battery pack

Using the camera with wifi or 4G radios going all day will burn through your battery. I used a large power pack from Anker with was permanently plugged into the iPhone but even having even a small power brick can help you relax into each interview without worrying that you phone will turn off.

Save to Camera Roll

If you have the space on your phone I recommend turning on the ‘Auto-Save to Camera Roll’ option in settings as Periscope videos currently only last 24 hours online before they are deleted.

 

If you have any other tips and ideas on Periscope please let me know on Twitter @BenKinnaird

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Masthead photo credit: Anna-Therese McGivern

In our very first episode Ben and Al discuss; the format of their new podcast, finding images to legally use on your blog, what makes a good FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, adding password protection to WordPress and finally 301 redirects to remove missing pages from your website – We do get into some technical detail in places but nothing too geeky.

Episode sponsored by Ticked Off
Your internet marketing checklist, free 30 day trial, no credit card needed – Sign up today at ticked-off.com

• Twitter poll to decide podcast name
• Boaty McBoatface
• tineye.com reverse image search
• How to use Google Image reverse search
• Be Sociable, our fantastic social media tips book
• Flickr and set the License filter to ‘Commercial use allowed’
• iStock, photo, video and music stock library
• Mathew L, Illustrator and Cartoonist on People per hour
• Morguefile.com, free (as in beer) and royalty free images
• Narrow depth of field image shot on iPhone
• Free Music Archive. Recommend artist Scott Holmes
• Orkin Pest Control little red spiders
• htaccess redirects
• Safe Redirect WordPress plugin
• Google Webmasters Search Console to find missing pages on your site

I catch-up with Becca Wild from Photopia to find out why she and partner Simon decided to create a rather unique recipe book, and in my opinion an epic project, while continuing running their photography business and expecting a child.

Find Becca on Twitter @PhotopiaUK  or visit photopiaphotography.co.uk.

• Met at Hereford Tweet Up
• Chase Marmalade Vodka. They make rhubarb flavour too!
• First book Made in Hereford with help from Jo Hilditch
• Second book Made in Shropshire, foodily supported by Beth Heath

Following my interview with Bik Lee from the RNC I came across this helpful article on accessibility in email from Campaign Monitor in my reading queue.

Blindness and other degrees of vision impairment are more common than many would think. 285 million people worldwide are considered to be visually impaired

Worth reading for those who have a hand in the design of their email campaigns. Many of the points they mention also apply to website development and copywriting.

 

Bik Lee, Digital Media Officer for the RNC (Royal National College for the Blind), explains the importance of making the web accessible for all and why using too many #hashtags in social media is far from helpful.

Find Bik on Twitter @bik_lee, follow @RNC_official or visit www.rnc.ac.uk.

• Definition of Visual Impairment
• I Can awareness campaign. Challenging peoples perceptions of visual impairment
• JAWS Screen reader
• iPhone speech reader
• What is Alt text
• My T-shirt with hashtags
• ‘How Dumb We Sound When We Use Hashtags’
• Safari Developer mode – Enable the Developer menu then disable Images and Styles
• End the Awkward Scope campaign
• Ludivine the dog accidentally runs half-marathon and finishes in seventh place

A client is just starting a webinar series and asked me for a few ideas to make sure they were on the right track.

While I had some ideas I wanted to get input from good friends Astute Graphics who have run numerous online and physical events in the pursuit of educating their customers.

Here’s Nick from Astute’s top tips

Invest in time to build up a loyal attendee base.

It’s not going to happen overnight; the first webinar may only have 10 or less attendees, but then in a year a regular group of 50 attendees or more should be within range. Depending on your goals for hosting webinars, this should be worthwhile as these attendees are likely to be your most loyal customers or advocates.

What’s in it for the attendees?

Even free webinars need to offer good content to ensure that potential attendees are attracted to the current and future events. Any sales message should be kept to an absolute minimum – people won’t make time to attend only to be advertised to. Remember that planning and preparing to present great material is not an overnight task and that each webinar could take up to a week to hone. To check that you’re aligned with your attendees’ expectations, simply ask them directly in the webinar using a polling mechanism of personal follow-up.

Build an active emailing list to inform previous registrants of future events.

Typically for free events, only 30-50% of registrants actually attend for a regular session – don’t dismiss those who couldn’t make it as life happens to everybody. Pulling those missing sheep into the flock in future events is key to building up a solid group.

 

Check out their recent webinars on AG’s eye-poppingly colourful website.

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Image credit: Astute Graphics

Designer and branding expert Tim Masters and I talk about the importance of honesty in brand and why he started his blog.

Find Tim and the team @MastersTim or visit mastersdesignandbranding.com.

• 4N Ross on Wye where I met Tim
• Lots of David Ogilvy quotes
• Tim’s blog insideoutdesignandbranding.com
• Toasted Sandwich makers, great tool, crap design
• VW CO2 issue
• Jason Fried “copywriting is interface design”

Recorded on Skype with my new Mic.

Christmas is upon you and that means hundreds of choices staring you in the face – what gifts to buy for whom, venues for the Christmas do, what to eat at the Christmas do, what to wear to the Christmas do, blah de blah. It’s enough to give you indigestion before you’ve even taken a sniff of turkey.

Christmas is just the tip of the choice iceberg, every aspect of your life; what you buy, how you work, how you eat, how you run our business is all encumbered by choice. If you don’t take control you can drown in it, and so can your customers.

Our society is built on the idea that choice is a good thing and to some extent I would agree, after all who wants to be limited to one TV channel, but we’ve taken this idea to extremes when the average supermarket now sells hundreds of different types of cheese.

Every day your customers are served by millions of people who work to make billions of products just to offer choice – everything can be personalised to our individual tastes. Decaf soya cappuccino? Double expresso light or a machiatto? Don’t want either? Well then how about a short, tall, skinny, decaf or iced Latte instead? You can have whatever you want, when you want it. The problem is that the decision becomes more difficult the more choice you have.

Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice, says that at the point where the effort to make an informed decision overtakes the benefit of having a choice, then “choice no longer liberates but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannise.”

So, are you drowning your customers in choice? Columbia Business School Professor Sheena Iyengar, a psycho economist gave a TED talk about how businesses can improve the experience of choosing. She says that because our brains simply can’t categorize and choose as well with so many options in front of us… “We choose not to choose even when it goes against our best self interests”.

When already faced by a barrage of choice at Christmas you might just be tipping your customers over the edge by adding more to their proverbial table, resulting in their disengagement and dissatisfaction. So, imagine your company makes choosing a product or service a much simpler process. Where there is no need for endless comparing and contrasting. Your customers will walk away having made a decision they’re happy with, rather than feeling overloaded, and you’ll feel that tinge of satisfaction when a happy customer sings your praises on social media.

Here are a few tips that Professor Iyengar recommends for keeping your customers from feeling overwhelmed;

Eliminate choices to make decision-making easier in your business.

Cut down the number of products and options your company offers. Keep the best sellers but cull the lowest-sellers. “When Procter and Gamble went from 20 different kinds of Head and Shoulders to 15, they saw an increase in sales by 10 percent,” Iyengar says. Less is more. If you are willing to slim down on products, sales increase and costs go down. It’s a win/win.

Help customers focus on a specific, positive outcome

Linking your customer’s choice with a concrete aspect of their life and how it may be affected will help them choose better. For example, ‘These wall tiles will help you achieve a sophisticated and serene bathroom, helping you to bathe in style’ will plant the image in their heads of your wall tiles on their walls. Customers need to see how your service will improve their lives without too much mental effort.

Categorise

If you must have hundreds of products and services, then categorise them into easy-to-follow classifications on your website to help your customers navigate their way around. Ease them in first. For example, offer one or two categories each with choices within. Make it a simple-to-navigate website. Limit the jargon and blocks of texts if possible too.

Help customers by ‘conditioning for complexity.’

Yours may be a company whose very nature is to offer a thousand choices, perhaps you sell ceramic wall and floor tiles for instance. If the first decision your customer has to make has fewer categories and options than the following ones, they will be more likely to participate in ongoing decisions rather than disengage. This is called ‘conditioning for complexity’.

In order that you don’t overwhelm your customers with choice you need to be selective in what products you offer. Avoid being that restaurant that offers too much choice. Not only because it means that by doing too much you will not do anything particularly well, but also because too much choice, at the very least, will leave customers not wholly satisfied with their decision. It may, at worst, have them running in the opposite direction.

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Photo Credit: Menu Board – Yugamama

You’ve put it off for long enough. You’re going to have to do it sooner or later, your business depends upon it. Considering that 72% of online adults use social media it’s high time you felt the fear, and well, got over it. Because, like it or not, these social platforms are where your clients are, and if you don’t have a presence on social media you can be sure your competitors do.

So what are you scared of?

Social media takes up too much of my time

Do you think of social media as an annoying time waster? You can give it as little or as much attention as you have, creating an active presence for just 15 minutes a day. Sticking to one or two platforms, those where your customers tend to hang out, means you need only login, scan and respond as appropriate, taking less time than it takes to make a coffee.

I don’t know what to say on social media

Contrary to what you may believe social media is not only for certain industries. If you have customers, then there’s value in it for you. Yours may not be the most glamorous of trades but as long as you show your human side and not be tempted to hide behind a corporate persona, people will want to listen. Show that your company has a personality and opinions that reflect your values and you’re on to a winner. Be informal, but be relevant, appropriate, and interesting to your audience.

Twitter is a good way of easing yourself in. Start by posting a few links to articles, market reports, etc. anything that might be interesting to customers of your industry. Link to other content that you think will be of value to your audience. Pose questions, or reply to comments.

I fear exposure on social media

Do you worry that every word you write will be misconstrued? Do you fear that your customers will realise you’re not as smart as they thought? Perhaps you fear negative comments or responses?

This is perfectly normal, particularly on social media networks like Twitter, where there is no control over what is posted. And we’ve all heard examples of big companies making major social media slip-ups. But there’s a greater risk in snubbing social media because with so much unprecedented access, it sends the wrong message to employees, consumers, and investors not to be part of it.  Also, social media is an excellent tool for showing your soft side and demonstrating transparency and honestly.

I fear negative feedback on social media

Customer feedback, even negative, is invaluable to your company’s growth. You may be giving customers a platform to be able to publically criticise your company, but you’re also showcasing your great customer service skills in real time, in front of an audience.  If you do receive negative feedback, listen and respond. Be honest, apologetic and transparent. Deal with a complaint honestly and apologetically and you’ll more likely make a friend than an enemy.

Remember that the point of social media is in the name, to be social. It’s not about pressure selling and blatant self promotion. It is about interaction, community and customer service. Be personal, authentic and approachable and focus on getting a useful message in front of your audience.

Have a look around to see how others in a similar business have made social media work for them. Ask yourself, how are savvy businesses using social media effectively to boost their reputations, find more customers and make more sales?

It may be scary if you’re not yet competent in using social media but the expectation on business to be transparent will only increase. As a business you have a choice, either get involved or get left behind.

Do you have a fear that we haven’t featured? Then let us know.

—

Image Credit: Shock-ed by David Goehring

I’ve worked with the Sustainable Kitchens team in Bristol for over 2 years now but I wanted to step back and get some perspective from Nicky Spear, head of development and dare I say head of “getting things done”, on how they are developing internal processes to keep up with their fantastic growth.

Find Nicky and the team @itWoodwork or visit sustainablekitchens.co.uk.

• Surfdome – “Whether it’s the beach, the mountain or the street – we feel your passion”
• Project dirt – “the UK’s most active network connecting and resourcing environmental and community projects.”
• Xero accounting package
• Asana to-do list and sheduling
• Teamweek, linear calendar to replace paper note planning board
• Kudos to @InventiveAl for designing the SK website
• Houzz – Interiors and home products articles and portfolio
• Cork flooring blog
• Cute furry animal
• The Local’s Cookbook, Sri Lanka
• Jon Lewin, food photographer
• Puppy Swarm!
• Honest living… New sister company, selling beautiful products, coming soon

Recorded at the Curio lounge in Stroud (I recommend the mid-week breakfast). Crying courtesy of SK co-owner Sam’s baby Eli.

Google Analytics has seen a recent rise in fake traffic known as referral spam ¹. This skews your stats by polluting real visitor data with links from sites that are questionable at best.

Like email SPAM it’s not easy to get rid of but there are a few things you can try.

1. Tick the “Bot Filtering” box

You’ll find this option in Google Analytics by clicking “Admin” in the top bar then under “View” select “View Settings”. I’ve not seen much effect by turning this on but I’m sure it cannot help.

2. Add a new segment to temporarily filter out potential SPAM referrers

Segments in Google Analytics allow you to split out and filter visitor traffic in a way that doesn’t damage the underlying data. You can create your own segment to filter our the offending referral spam by removing keywords for the sites you’d like to remove. To get you started you can import my Segment Configuration to test out the filter for yourself.

3. Add permanent filters to stop SPAM traffic ever getting registered

If you are happy that the traffic the SPAM cleaning segment above filters out then you can add this in as a filter under “View > Filters” to get rid of future SPAM data ². Be warned though that unlike a segment this filter is permanent and if you’re not careful you may lose real traffic data.

 

If you’ve got any other clever idea or thought on this do let me know via Twitter @benkinnaird

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1. Referrer spam involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer URL to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that publish their access logs, including referer statistics, will then inadvertently link back to the spammer’s site. These links will be indexed by search engines as they crawl the access logs. This technique does not harm the affected sites, just pollutes their statistics.” Wikipedia.

2. I also read recommendations to block countries like Russia, Indonesia and Brazil where spam may emirate from but be careful here as this could also remove good traffic data. For a more detailed guide on referral spam including how to filter out bad data read ohow’s guide.

 

Brilliant episode from NPR’s Planet Money podcast on the power of free. (for those without flash you can listen online here)

“Free has the power to make us do completely irrational things. It can drive us to break rules, and take risks we never thought possible. It can make us feel savvy and smug and exhilarated.”

It’s just under 20 minutes so perfect to listen to on your tea break.

Most interesting to me (11:38 mins in) was the idea of charging for something people don’t expect to pay for such as your mother charging for a family meal or an airline charging for customer service (one airline actually did this!). What would you expect to get for free?

I provide free advice so people can get a feel for our process but I used to struggle with how far that free advice would stretch, often into many follow-up emails and becoming a time suck, and it put me off offering anything for free at all which then in turn put off people who needed a little re-assurance of how we can help.

I found setting a clear boundary for what’s free and what’s not enabled me to offer the advice knowing there was a limit which was communicated upfront. Should people want only the free advice then they tended to use their time wisely.

I am now happy to offer my advice for free if I’m out networking or other similar event, either as a talk or just casual conversation or as a one off coaching taster session. After that, get your wallet out.

Are you charging for something people expect for free? Or are you not charging for something people would pay for? Let me know on Twitter @benkinnaird.

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Image credit: Libre Sign by Gisela Giardino

After receiving an intriguing promotional book called “I didn’t know they could do that” from Print Strategy I wanted to find out how well it’s been working for them so got in touch with MD Rob Newton¹. We also talked about the future of print and how it’s beneficial to modern marketing.

Follow Print Strategy on Twitter @printstrategy or visit their website printstrategy.eu.

• Yummy, Graze food boxes
• “I didn’t know they could do that” portfolio book
• Pact coffee – Fresher, better-tasting coffee, delivered to you as you need it.

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1. This is my first Skype interview, I’ve love to hear what you think of it on Twitter @BenKinnaird.

I stand at a networking event in Cheltenham¹. I’m not here to sell anything, simply to meet a few people who may or may not be useful to know. Initially I have to force myself to go say hello to unfamiliar people, but I am welcomed warmly, like an old friend into a mix of people who, like me, are there simply to socialise in a professional capacity.

I used to have this vision of networking events as disingenuous and very formal business environments, full of high flying, self-promoters who are there simply to sell their services. To stand in a room of unfamiliar people, drink in hand, forced smile on face and an equally forced interest in other people’s work, making small talk until the opportunity comes to sell, sell, sell, seemed more than a little false. I could never quite get over the feeling that I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t, trying to sell something no-one wanted to buy. It’s incredibly daunting. But I’m not alone – it seems that many of us avoid networking events for fear that we will be seen as being ‘fake’.

Don’t get me wrong; there are networkers like that. In my experience there are ‘takers’, those who are there simply to try to sell their services, who have no real interest in others; who strike up a conversation only to launch into a well-rehearsed pitch for their business. Most of us can spot a ‘taker’ from one hundred paces.

And then there are the ‘givers’; those who show a genuine interest in the lives of others, who are there to build mutually beneficial relationships, share ideas, ways of working, to find common ground or unexplored avenues. They ask questions, delve into the detail of another’s working life. They ask about work projects or industry news.

Most people like to talk about themselves. Give them the opportunity to talk about what they do and they will leave the conversation with a more favourable impression of you and will be more interested in following up, giving you the opportunity to offer some help².

Few of us are naturals at building rapport with complete strangers, but if we want to expand our client base, develop business partnerships, find a better job or find better staff, then it is a necessity. Thankfully, it gets easier the more we do it. And, research shows that the more powerful we become in our working lives, the easier networking becomes because we have more to offer, making our interaction with others more about giving rather than taking. So, if we were to change our mindset to one that is more altruistic, to consider what we can offer rather than take, and give people the opportunity to talk then we are likely to feel more comfortable in networking situations.

Take a long-term view and show sincere interest in the other party then there is no reason to feel like a fake. If you are a naturally caring and thoughtful person, this won’t be difficult. Provided it’s authentic, a compliment is a great conversation starter that will help build initial rapport. If you’re not, you may want to cultivate this life skill, it will reap huge benefits in the form of connections, which might, one day turn into clients.

For a more in-depth look at networking and its benefits, take a look at this Harvard Business Review article.

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1. The event was Laptop Friday if you’re interested
2. This advice also works for online networking in social networks

Image credit: Working hard at #LaptopFriday

A good web structure guide from Christian Vasile disguised as a rant. Many of the authors niggles reflect my own feelings, particularly the ones I’ve pulled out below. It’s from 2013 but still relevant.

 

You can’t expect them to search for links by hovering with the mouse on all the words until the cursor changes to a pointer.

I have a firmly held opinion that links should be underlined. Colour is less of a concern but if possible then blue works well. The most important thing is to make them clear.

 

I simply can’t understand why a hair saloon doesn’t show me how much does it cost[s] for me to cut my hair.

I’ve never quite understood not sharing prices either. Even if the price is complicated to calculate, it must be possible to provide a guide estimate in most cases. If we can articulate parts of the business in a way that will help people buy then it should be available online.

 

Make the registration forms as short as possible.

Christian goes on to explain that the more you block access to your product before people have a clear idea about whether they will like it the fewer “form fills” you will have.

I recommend you can read the full article on http://designmodo.com/usability-mistakes-web-design/.

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Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/p-534103/