Practical Conversations

When working with any emerging approaches to business (and technologies), understanding what’s working for people and where things are going is a constant challenge. There are self-professed experts willing to sell you a “package solution” to get you up to speed. I’ll skip getting into a discussion of the pitfalls and ethical questions people raise about some of those offerings to focus on the alternatives instead. 

In this age of social, there’s no better way to learn than socially.  There are events all over the country (and around the world) where people are meeting, expanding their networks, and learning from each other.  Some events, like Social Media Breakfast brings people together monthly to meet and learn from speakers. Others, keeping with the heart of the social web, are “unconferences” where you have the opportunity to connect, learn, and teach without the rigid structure (or incredibly high costs) of a traditional conference. 

Here in NH we have the second PodCamp NH coming up the weekend of October 23-24 in beautiful Portsmouth, NH.  Last year I met many incredible people from all over the region, some I learned from, others I helped. Most important, I had time to spend, in person, getting to know more people. I always see a shift in the quality of the online relationship when I’ve had a chance to spend quality time face to face, “in real life”. 

I’ll be at PodCamp NH again this year, offering some sessions and trying to catch as many others as I can. If you have any questions about PodCamp NH or if you’re planning to go, let me know. I’m looking forward to meeting you (or seeing you again)!       

When you’re engaging with anyone online, rule #3 is “Be The Gatekeeper”

You should never be a roadblock. Give customers a clear path. Just being there isn’t enough. Communication has to go both ways. You now have access to incredible feedback you used to have to pay a lot of money for. Lead customers to where they need to be, and listen to what they have to say.

(if you missed it, see Rule #2: Address The Need)

Rich Millington, on his FeverBee – The Online Community Guide blog shared two posts recently about a following vs. community: Why Most Organizations Shouldn’t Try To Create An Online Community and Clarity – What’s a Community?

• A Following = an audience that interacts with you
• A Community = an audience that interacts with each other

I see people confuse the two often (and I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of it myself.)  Rich says “organizations that sell sociable and highly engaging products/services” are suitable for community.  There are benefits to each approach and significant pitfalls from pursuing the an approach that’s not appropriate for your audience.

Does your audience want to know about your products or about each other?

When you’re engaging with anyone online, rule #2 is “Address The Need”.

Everyone needs something.  We listen, we may even understand what we’re being asked — but it that what they really need?  If you’re engaging online, make sure you’re actually addressing the need.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently after a discussion with a support rep.  A customer on Twitter asked if the upload timeout could be increased.  The rep very diligently found the answer to her question — “Unfortunately, no.”  I asked the rep why the customer was asking for this.  A little investigation showed that the customer was trying to upload a file and it was failing.  Was file size the issue?  No, it wasn’t.  So she really didn’t need someone to increase the timeout, she needed someone to figure out why the upload was failing for her.  Armed with that, the rep was able to work on addressing what the customer needed, not just what she asked for.

(if you missed it, see Rule #1: Be Real)

When you’re engaging with anyone online, rule #1 is “Be Real”.

The world is full of bots (both human and digital.)  Your customers are people, it’s ok to be a person t00.

• Be a face, not a name (or logo)
• Don’t just broadcast, have a conversation
• Be open and honest
• Be Yourself!

Communicating your organization’s message, whether that message pertains to a sales, marketing or support function should always take your audiences needs into consideration. The problem tends to be that professionals write professionally. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a place for technical jargon, buzzwords and catch phrases – but unless your message is specific to a technical or niche market, your audience may be more inclined to walk away and choose other options. This has the potential to damage your brand image and bottom line.

Clearly defining your goals and understanding that your audience’s goals and your organization’s goals need to be in tune with one another is very important, yet the needs of your audience are more than just ‘widget A’ or ‘concept B’, they are driven by issues of belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization.

Creating a sense of belonging makes your audience feel valued.

Enabling deeper and more personal relationships with your audience has the potential to make them active participants in the defining and creative processes of products, services and solutions. Setting clear standards for your ‘Brand Personality’ and simple directions for your employees and co-workers, if done with your audience’s perspective in mind, allows your organization to develop brand trust and customers to develop brand affinity.

When your audience is looking for assistance with finding a solution or resolving an issue, the last thing that they need is someone communicating in language that is technical or using language that implies a lack of knowledge or experience. Though this tends to go both ways, using language your customers don’t understand may turn them off to your brand, but simplifying the language too much may wind up insulting them. Conversational language beats jargon any day!

Creating avenues for your audience to respond and communicate in a perceived real-time way develops a sense of ownership and true brand trust. This empowers your audience to:

• understand and embrace the realities of your products, services and brand
• spontaneously contribute to conversations with the organization and other potential audience members
• proactively find answers to problems and openly share their stories and experiences about your brand

In the end, your audience is depending on you. They are looking to you for solutions, support and recognition – yet they are also looking to find a home for their personal fulfillment, even if only on a professional level.

When I was studying interpersonal communication at Ithaca College in the early 90s, one of the concepts we looked at was whether your environment encouraged or discouraged communication.  The terms I learned were: sociopetal (environment encourages communication) and sociofugal (environment discourages communication.)

Sociofugal Environment

Sociopedal Environment

Determining if a physical environment encourages or discourages communication is a pretty straightforward process.  You may look at how the chairs are arranged in a room or where the food stations are placed at a party.  Evaluating how we’re encouraging/discouraging communication online can be more challenging.  It’s obvious that a blog post with comments closed discourages communication.  But what if your goal is for blog commenters to interact with each other?  Does it make more sense to have threaded comments so it’s clear which comment someone is replying to?

When designing your blog/community/site/app, you need to know your goals to determine if you’re getting what you need.  Are you looking to encourage discussion among your customers?  To encourage conversation directly with you?

A form to rate content and submit comments that doesn’t show previous ratings or comments like in Microsoft support articles (at bottom of article) will encourage communication with you directly, but not among customers.  While an approach like Amazon customer reviews, encourages some interaction among customers.

It’s worth stepping back (or getting someone with fresh eyes) to look at how you’ve designed your blog/community/site/app.  Are you encouraging or discouraging communication?

For the September, 2009 Social Media Breakfast NH (#smbnh) at the Manchester, NH Public Library I gave this talk about my rules for community.  I call it ‘Kev’s Rules for Community’.

I try to live these rules every day–whether I’m engaging online via twitter, blogs, or any other tools.  The rules are simple:

1. Be Real (don’t be a bot)
2. Address the Need (not just the explicit ones)
3. Be the Gatekeeper (never be the roadblock)

These rules are part of a project I’m working on to get the Dimdim support team on Twitter, directly engaging with customers.  My goal was to go beyond just teaching the tools.  Anyone can create a Twitter account and jump into the conversation.  I wanted to make sure we are consistent in our approach.

I personally have a hard time following rules if there are too many to remember.  What are your rules?  Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter (@kevinmic)

-k

[Special thanks to Matt Turner (@onmatt, www.onmatt.com) for helping to pull all the examples together for this talk, and Leslie Poston (@geechee_girl, www.uptownuncorked.com) for the opportunity to speak.  I do so love to talk.]