Infinite Path » Client Communication

The Queen’s Facebook page could teach businesses a thing or two

admin — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:43:10 +0000

For a well-known figure or brand, venturing into the world of social media for the first time can present a whole host of pitfalls. Although it offers them a great chance to interact with fans and customers, it can also provide a platform for their detractors, as the Queen has just discovered.

Well, perhaps not for herself – it seems unlikely she would have had much to do with the establishment of the British Monarchy page on the social networking site. However, whoever has been given the task of looking after the page has certainly found out the internet is not always a friendly place.

More than 150,000 people have “liked” the page since it was set up on Monday, but the site has become a hotbed of political debate with the issue of republicanism, the Falklands and Cornish nationalism all featuring among the comments.

So how has the royal page decided to deal with this? With something of a softly, softly approach, it seems. Although offensive comments have been deleted, a large number of critical ones remain.

Speaking to the Guardian, a spokesman from Buckingham Palace said: “Spamming is a common problem on Facebook. The site has systems in place to report and block spammers and the web team is using the tools available to block offensive comments.”

So is this the right approach to Facebook criticism? In the case of the Queen, yes. The monarchy is unlikely to be abolished because of a few comments on a social networking website, while deleting them could lead to a bigger storm if people feel they are being gagged. Engaging with the posters would only legitimise the comments and besides they are plenty of pro-monarchy supporters willing to fight the Queen’s corner.

The lesson for firms to learn here is not to overreact to online criticism, although in some cases it may be appropriate for them to take a more proactive approach to things. Social networks are a great way for brands to spread their message, but companies have to remember they are a two-way street and, where appropriate, let people have their say.

Gap logo fail shows why social media can’t be ignored

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:28:07 +0000

Think about social networking websites and you probably picture a dynamic, ever-shifting sector where people are keen to embrace the latest trends. In some ways, you’d be right – users of these websites are often early adopters when it comes to new technology and are quick to switch to new methods of communication. However, there’s also one other common factor – they don’t like change.

This may seem somewhat unusual given the other defining characteristics, but there are plenty of examples – just look at the outpouring of anger whenever Facebook tweaks its design. It seems that although these people are quick to embrace the new, once they’re used to something they like it to stay the same. This is something US clothes retailer Gap has just found out to its cost.

Last week, the company decided to replace the logo had used for more than 20 years as it looks to freshen up its brand image. The firm quickly discovered that the new design (pictured above) wasn’t to everyone’s taste. To be honest, it’s a pretty basic logo – the font is Helvetica and the blue box appears to be a basic piece of clipart, but it seems likely the reaction would have been the same no matter what they’d chosen.

Comments from consumers on Gap’s Facebook site branded the image “cheap” and called for the return of the classic logo – a blue box with GAP written in white. The company backtracked and announced it would hold a crowd sourcing exercise, giving the public a chance to submit designs for, and vote on, a new logo. A great idea, right? Surely consumers couldn’t fail to love an image which they’d played a part in selecting? Well, as it turns out Gap hadn’t quite got the message its fans were trying to send – they didn’t want a new logo, full stop.

The firm has since backtracked again and announced they will be bringing back the blue box. Some will argue the whole thing was a publicity stunt and it’s certainly true the company would have been unlikely to suffer any long-term problems had they stuck with the new logo and waited for the anger to die down.

However, Mark Hansen, president of Gap Brand North America, sounded surprisingly contrite when he announced the move back to the original image.

“We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back,” he said.

He added the firm had “missed the opportunity to engage with the online community”, comments which should act as a warning to any company that has ignored the benefits of social media interaction.

How to keep (Facebook) friends and influence people

admin — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:05:36 +0000

Remember that person who used to be your friend on Facebook but suddenly disappeared? Well, perhaps not. If you’re anything like me you’ll have barely registered that your friend count had dipped by one. However, if you did stop to think about it you probably came to one of two conclusions – either they’d decided the site was an evil, corporate, privacy-compromising waste of time and left all together, or you’d annoyed the hell out of them.

Fortunately, there’s always someone around to do research on this sort of thing. A study conducted at Colorado University revealed the number one reason people “unfriend” someone is because they had been subjected to a torrent of “useless” posts. The posts can controversial topics such as politics, race and religion, or mundane matters such as what your favourite band is.

Obviously, the more controversial the topic the more likely someone is to sever an online connection with the person whose update it is. However, when it comes to the duller things quantity becomes a big issue. As the researchers put it: “The 100th post about your favourite band is no longer interesting.”

And this is something businesses need to pay attention to. Once you’ve built up a sizeable following on Facebook, it may seem tempting to keep them informed of every little development, but as we’ve seen that’s a sure fire way to annoy them.

There’s no problem with posting several status updates in one day, but make them they’re interesting and informative. Furthermore, ensure the updates you post are not all “me, me, me”. Give consumers the chance to interact with you by asking them what they think of a development or offer. Not only will this give you a valuable insight into what’s going on in their heads, it’ll also help you check you’re not shouting into the void while everyone wishes you’d just shut up.

Twitter and Facebook might not change the world, but they could transform your business

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:17:32 +0000

For all their talk of bringing people together, social networking websites can be incredibly divisive – not least when it comes to the burning issue of what they’re actually for. To make matters worse, the very nature of Facebook and Twitter means that anyone who sticks their head above the parapet and dares to suggest they’re not a panacea for all the world’s ills finds themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of criticism.

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell is the latest person to suffer this social scorn after he used an article in The New Yorker magazine to argue such websites aren’t much use when it comes to campaigning on, and protesting against, major issues.

I don’t want to get into the whys and wherefores of his argument too deeply, although his suggestion that social networking can’t aid a cause because the American civil rights movement was a success without Twitter seems a little specious. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, for example, managed to get to the top of Everest without a cable car, but I’m sure the journey would have been easier had one been installed.

Gladwell does have a point when it comes to the effectiveness of online campaigning though. A significant number of Facebook users have joined groups supporting one cause or another, and very few of them seem to have a major impact.

However, the area where social networks win through is communication. As anyone who has ever witnessed a flashmob first hand will testify, the web allows you reach a huge number of people in an incredibly small amount of time. It’s this that leads to so many people joining campaign groups, and it’s also the reason why businesses should embrace Facebook and Twitter.

People who are linked to one another via social networks will undoubtedly have shared interests and the ease with which they can pass on information that has amused/intrigued/upset them means news stories, blog posts, and video clips that had had just a handful of views on Monday can reach hundreds of thousands of people by Friday.

Gladwell is right to say it’s easier to communicate with people than get them to act, but this is nothing new. The important thing for campaign groups and businesses is getting the message out there in the first place. Facebook alone has 500 million active users and it would be nonsensical to ignore such a massive potential audience just because you’re worried about apathy.

Behavioural advertising – the black hat of online ads?

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:33:49 +0000

A few weeks ago I had a rather strange experience. Having quickly checked train times on a well-known website, I suddenly found that my browsing experience was dominated by adverts offering to sell me tickets for the journey I’d just looked at. Although it wasn’t my first experience of behavioural advertising, it was certainly one of the most intrusive. It also seemed rather pointless – showing me ads for a site I’ve just visited without making a purchase is like employing someone to chase me down the street shouting “buy something” every time I leave a shop empty handed.

It’s this intrusiveness that makes behavioural advertising so unpopular. Yesterday, I talked about how some big brands seem to think they can get away with pretty much anything when it comes to online marketing, and the fact certain businesses seem happy to plunder what is arguably private information in an attempt to boost their sales is further evidence of this. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on which side of the argument you’re on, the European Union looks set to take action on the issue.

Without going into too much detail, the practice of gathering browsing history data in order to target ads has already been given a clean bill of health under UK law. However, the European Commission feels these laws may not go far enough and could be in breach of EU rules, so it has referred the case to court. Ultimately, Britain could be forced to change the law and that could make behavioural advertising campaigns much more difficult to conduct.

However, it shouldn’t take a court ruling to highlight just how pointless the ads are in the first place. The train banners I was subjected to appeared on a football website which had never before carried anything by the firm in question. My suspicions were immediately aroused and, after a few clicks of the mouse, I discovered what had happened and opted out of the “service”. My opinion of the brand in question declined as a result. Had the banners appeared somewhere else, a newspaper website for example, they would have been less obvious, but that would have made them no more effective – I would have simply ignored them.

Clearly neither result is what a brand would want from a campaign and it amazes me that businesses still seem to think online consumers can be tricked into engaging with them, especially as there’s no need to take this approach in the first place. The nature of the internet means people connect with things they like and brands they trust. If someone joins a firm’s Facebook page, then the company in question pretty much has a direct line into their lives and can keep the person informed about news and special offers. Likewise, a well optimised website will attract people who are searching for what it provides, generating traffic and customers. With this in mind, there seems very little point in snooping into people’s browsing habits in an attempt to attract consumers. If you’ve got things right, they’ll find you.

Spammed to death – how email marketing could be killing your business

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:47:26 +0000

Right now, my personal email account has 248 messages in its junk mail folder and given the it’s automatically emptied every ten days that’s a fair amount of spam. Not all of it is irrelevant of course, although much of it is pointless – a significant amount of it consists of notifications from Twitter and Facebook that I can’t be bothered to disable. Then there’s the genuine spam with questionable subject lines and details of lost fortunes, the kind of stuff it can be dangerous to just to click on. Finally there’s what I consider to be the most baffling category of all – the legitimate offers from big-name brands which end up clogging up the spam folder and never get opened. Which seems rather odd, given I must have expressed an interest in the firm in the first place, right? Well, as it turns out things aren’t quite that simple.

Figures released by research site Spam Ratings have revealed the UK’s top brands aren’t exactly covering themselves in glory when it comes to their email marketing campaigns. It found that 51 per cent of such firms breach best practice guidelines, meaning a staggering proportion of them seem happy to run the risk of annoying consumers. The guidelines, which were laid out by the Direct Marketing Association, state that businesses should gain “positive consent” for their emails – that is to say people should have to tick a box to opt in, rather than having to uncheck one to opt out.

Richard Gibson, chair of the DMA Email Marketing Council, had some damning words for businesses that duck the guidelines. “Email marketing that breaches the guidelines not only brings the medium itself into disrepute but also has the potential to massively damage a brand,” he said.

And it’s hard to argue with him. Consumers find spam just as annoying as the unsolicited junk mail which is pushed through their letterboxes on a daily basis. By constantly emailing customers, firms are acting in the same way as that dodgy takeaway no one ever visits. People aren’t going to order a meal just because 12 menus have landed on their doormat, and they’re not going to buy something from a website, no matter how reputable it is, just because they have 12 emails about it sitting in their inbox. In both cases the recipients are just going to get angry at the business in question, and that defeats the point of advertising.

Of course, email marketing is a very cheap way of doing things and it can be extremely effective. This makes it tempting to take a scattergun approach to things, but that’s exactly the opposite of what businesses should be doing. The other great benefit of online marketing is the ease with which results can be monitored. If you’ve just emailed your entire customer base with what you think is a fantastic offer and the click-through rate is pitiful you’ve certainly wasted money and you’ve probably alienated a significant number of people, yet a huge number of firms seem to be happy to do this again and again.

As the DMA points out, you want people to opt in to your internet campaigns, rather than feel they’ve been roped into something they’re not interested in. For that reason email marketing should just be one part of your overall strategy. There are plenty of other ways to woo online consumers and they are at least as effective as email. Search engine optimisation and a well-thought-out social media campaign will attract customers and also ensure they engage with a brand in a positive manner. That’s a combination more traditional channels can’t always offer.

Facebook and the death of the company website

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 11:06:25 +0000

For those who don’t keep up with that sort of thing, there’s been a lot of talk about the death of the World Wide Web in recent months. That people are even discussing the end of something which is a fundamental part of our lives right now may seem shocking to some, but it’s important to understand the terms we’re using here.

Although they’re often taken to be the same thing, the Web and the Internet are, in actuality, separate. In fact, if you own a smartphone you’ve probably already accessed the Internet without making use of the Web at least once today. An app which lets you check your email, for example, would fall into this category – and we all know how popular apps are getting.

So what does this mean for businesses? Should they simply shut down their websites now? Clearly the answer is no – that would be an overreaction to a trend which is still in its infancy. However, a new survey from Beyond suggests firms need to have a serious think about the way they are interacting with their customers. It found that more consumers (23 per cent) would prefer to receive information about companies and brands via Facebook than a business’s website (21 per cent).

It’s hardly a mind blowing fact, but it’s certainly an interesting one. So why are people so keen to stay in touch with brands via social networking sites? Well, the fact 23 per cent of people said they preferred to receive information through direct marketing may provide part of the answer. Consumers typically want to know two basic things about brands and companies – what special offers they have and news about products and features. If that’s what you’re interested in, why would you bother checking a company’s website on the off chance something had changed?

Facebook, like direct marketing, means customers don’t have to do anything to receive the information they’re looking for. That’s why it’s increasingly popular and that’s why businesses should be taking advantage of all it offers. If someone has a Facebook app on their phone and they follow your brand through the site, it essentially means you have a way of contacting them, in an unobtrusive manner, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.

However, websites are clearly still vital. After all it’s the preferred information source for 21 per cent of people and that’s a significant proportion of customers. There are a couple of other things to consider too – not everyone who uses the Internet has Facebook and those who prefer to receive information via social networking sites may well have connected to a brand via their website in the first place.

Right now, having a high-quality, well-optimised website is just as vital as having an impressive presence on social networking sites. If you’re neglecting one at the expense of another, then you’re missing a trick.

The Importance of Goal Setting

Infinite Path — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:09:28 +0000

With online marketing there is often a lot left to chance. Much of the work you do is hard to measure and working out ROI can be very difficult. Then there are the different people working on a project and their accountability for each task.

A lot of search engine marketing can involve trial and error. You never know whether something you try will produce the desired results. Similarly, you may know that a particular technique has worked for one person, but it may not work in the same way for you. When working for different clients, who operate in different markets and in different industries, the various techniques and initiatives available may work well for some and not so well for others. There are so many variables to consider.

Whenever you start a project, whatever it may be, it is imperative to set some goals so that you know whether your efforts are succeeding. Set a time after you start the project to see if you have reached your goal. Many elements of online marketing take time, so don’t set the goal time limit too close to when you start, but similarly don’t set it too far away. If you leave it too long, it will be harder to see what is working as there may be other factors contributing to the result. When you get to the job of assessing what has been done, and what effect it has had, make sure you know what your metrics for analysis are. These should be set at the start of your campaign. If you don’t do it at the start you may adjust your metrics to fit more accordingly to the results, hence giving you a blinkered view.

Make sure you don’t set your goals too high in the first place and similarly don’t set them too low. It needs to be something that’s achievable in the time you have allocated, but you don’t want your results to be skewed by anomalies in search engine behaviour. For instance, a ranking position may jump around between a number of points in the results page which will be nothing to do with any SEO efforts. This, you can’t account for. So if you set your goals too low you might not be able to notice anything.

Whatever you do, bear in mind that it may have a negative impact on search results, conversions and marketing. This can happen, even if you have a thorough plan in place. If this does happen, it is time to set a goal again and try and improve the situation.

The last thing to note is the need to be transparent. If your client has their own goals that you don’t think are achievable, explain this and encourage them to be guided by your goals at first. Don’t promise to reach theirs unless you can be entirely confident it’s possible. If you do, and you don’t succeed, this is a significant failure. You won’t have delivered on what you promised; and delivery is crucial.

Would we ever Twitter it?

Effective Client Communication

Infinite Path — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:54:25 +0000

Communicating with clients effectively is vital to long-term business success. Clients are the most important element for any company to consider, which is why your relationship with them must be exceptional.

All clients generally have one person with whom you have the most contact. It is this person with whom you must develop the best relationship. That person may not have an in-depth understanding of what you are doing for them, but they will want to know as much as possible and, more importantly, they will want clear and concise reports and updates delivered to them so that they can make decisions personally or pass on information to someone else who may understand even less.

Explaining everything to that one person is extremely important. You may think that a quick email with some salient points will suffice, but always remember that those points are most likely the points that you consider to be of most importance; and you understand them because you wrote them. The contact you are sending updates to may be utterly confused if you have used some industry-specific language that means nothing to most people. This will alienate your contact and they will instantly feel lost. Explaining things clearly in language that they will understand will benefit you immensely because even if they don’t understand the full workings of the project, they will feel like they have a good enough idea so as not to be concerned that they’re losing control.

A ‘problem client’ can, quite often, arise from ineffective communication. They start off perfectly reasonable as they will feel that they have a handle on things. However, if correspondence from your end becomes more convoluted and ambiguous (or so it would seem to them), their attitude will swiftly change. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, the easiest way to carry out all communications is by following a similar format each time.

For example, an email could be laid out like this:

Intro:

Description of Situation/Problem:

Action Required from You (Service Provider):

Action Required from Them (Client):

As long as you are clear and you don’t use too much in the way of complex, technical language, the communication is very simple. Everyone knows what their responsibility is, and everyone has been supplied with the necessary information to move forward successfully.