Jul 31

Business Interaction

As I discussed in The Future of Public Relations, blogs, social networking, and podcasts have changed the way people get ideas, share information, communicate, and respond. The web’s interactive communication style has changed how people want to learn, connect, and build relationships. Conversations are crucial to growth and the development of innovative ideas.

There are a couple of easy ways you can provide interaction on your website without having to invest in, build and maintain a forum or membership site.

Create and Maintain a Blog

Blogging forces you to analyze and organize your ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and how they are relevant to your business and market. Researching topics and developing relevant posts gives you the opportunity to evaluate current trends and design solutions for your customers.

Hosting a blog allows clients to pose questions about business topics, provide input on developing issues and engage others in conversation. Clients and prospects have the opportunity to hear new ideas not only from you, but also from others who are involved in the blogging community.

Comment sections are critical to a blog’s success and are a feature that not only allows but encourages people to post their own ideas and replies. If you reply to everyone who comments, visitors will be more likely to leave new comments or continue the conversation. Analyze your most popular topics and pay attention to statistics that show you where people are coming from, and factor all of it into your marketing planning.

It can be hard to sustain a conversation, especially on a blog, when you don’t have anything interesting to say. If you find you are getting stuck and are groping for something to write, it may be a signal that you need to draw ideas from other industries, or ask others to post their own ideas to your blog. Consider asking some of your clients to post their own topics. Not only will this give them some free publicity, but it may entice their own readers to visit your blog as well.

Develop Free Teleseminars or Webinars

If you don’t have the desire to post regularly to a company blog, you may want to consider hosting remote seminars.

Organizing and running regular interactive seminars for clients and prospects enables you to learn what is on your clients’ minds and demonstrate that you are concerned about recent industry issues. You can host and direct each session yourself, or you can invite other  industry experts and speakers to come and discuss important issues that will add value for your clients.

You can start the sessions by posing what-if questions that challenge people’s assumptions, and let the conversation develop and take on their own direction. To promote real discussions, use themes that center around “Why?” and “Why Not?” questions. Encourage debates centered around new ways of understanding client issues.

Wrap up by asking your clients if they think you should spend time developing one or more of the ideas that emerged from the session. Ask whether that would be of value to them. Consider recording each session and offering the audio files as an incentive for joining your community.

If your participants know that they are involved in developing solutions they are more likely to become loyal members of your community.

The Point: Add More Value

Nothing builds relationships better than regular, meaningful conversations. Initiating and deepening relationships is more important than conventional marketing’s goals of pushing “awareness” and generating “sales leads.”

To have these interesting, meaningful conversations, you must have something to say. Develop fresh points of view and create new metaphors and language to express them. The message itself is only the beginning. Its value exists only if you dedicate yourself to initiating conversations with clients and prospects.

P

Pamela Weir is a freelance copywriter. If you are looking for a writer with experience in creating blog posts, newsletters, coaching manuals, and seminar scripts, please visit her website Market to the Moment for information about her services.

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Jul 25

Future of Public Relations

Last week, Jason Falls sparked a debate about the future of Public Relations in his post Social Media is the Responsibility of Public Relations.

Falls points out, many companies don’t have the resources to employ Social Media specialists and must rely on internal resources to create and maintain consumer and business relationships online. He suggests that social networking must become a function of Public Relations.

In my mind, social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by component — blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts/Web TV, wikis/collaborative software — they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations — writing, corporate communications, community relations, media relations, event management.

I agree.  As people demand more from brands and service providers, Social Media is enabling us to connect with our prospects and customers in very meaningful ways. Blogs, forums and social networking are changing the way companies interact with customers. Our communications are becoming more targeted and personal. We can expand out market coverage and create the opportunity to interact directly with the people who purchase our products. Moreover, companies that make the effort to adopt current technologies will gain an advantage over their competitors.

Solutions for Small Business

So what is the solution for the small business that does not have a Public Relations, Marketing or Social Media department?

Companies incapable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of Public Relations will need to outsource most of their Social Networking functions. In the future, Social Media Specialists will be in high demand as more companies realize the importance of these activities. For those of us willing to learn new technologies and participate, we have the ability to create manageable internal social networking strategies. If we want them to be effective, we will need to acquire the appropriate skills and dedicate ourselves to the ongoing process.

As media outlets become smaller, we need to find new ways to gain publicity and get people talking about our companies. We can’t always rely on media contacts to relay our positive image. We need to create continuous strategies we can monitor and alter depending on our observed results. Through direct contact, we have an opportunity to discover what our customer wants, gather relevant ideas and present a solution to their immediate problems.  If we create valuable connections, and refrain from using Social Media as another medium for our sales pitch, we have the opportunity to use these interactions to create a positive public image and develop desirable product.

Falls predicts:

Social Media will evolve into components of a sophisticated public relations effort.

Businesses that have clearly developed Social Media strategies, and use both Marketing and Public Relations resources, will be further ahead than companies that ignore online networking, or misuse it as a form of advertising and promotion. The main purpose of social networking is to create ongoing conversations. Companies that do not participate in the conversation, or use it solely as a means to push products in the faces of potential buyers will fail.

As more and more of our potential customers are using social networks to evaluate businesses and brands, we need to learn how to start conversations, build relationships and grow communities.

What do you think?

P

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