Category Archives: Internet

Tips for Interacting with Customers Online through Social Media

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There are already numerous posts on this blog about interacting with customers online through blogging and social media is one of the best ways to improve customer retention, and brand reputation and recognition. It’s a bit of a cliché, but the number one rule in business is to give the customer what they want. Unfortunately, many businesses seem to forget this idea when engaging with customers online. Often in a effort to track and quantify advertising campaigns or increase readership et cetera, many websites and blogs often employ outdated and frustrating elements of design or promotional gimmicks that can often drive away the customers that they are hoping to attract. There are many elements of design that are appropriate and even required for some businesses, but others these same elements can be disastrous.

Splash Screens

A splash screen is a screen, image, or webpage that precedes the content that a person is trying to access which inform the person what the content is as well. Many operating systems and video games have splash screen that are considered to be unobstructed and necessary because in most cases the splash screen associated these products often hide the fact that product is loading, or preforming computational tasks in order to create the appropriate environment for the person using it. For example, Microsoft’s Windows operating system has a splash screen that displays the Windows logo along with stating the operating system is loading which is considered somewhat necessary as a person’s computer takes time to bring all of the system’s individual components online before someone can use them. However, much to the dismay of internet users there are still several websites which are also using splash screen.

Splash screens are largely irrelevant on the internet because most websites and web content is delivered practically instantaneously to internet users. Internet users don’t want to want have to wait for a splash screen to finish presenting especially if its on a website that they frequently visit. Some websites host content that require age verification which can necessitate a splash screen, but in most cases there is simply no real reason to have a splash screen on a website and, in many cases, a splash screen can lower a website’s rating with search engines. If you want to present information to your website’s visitors without stopping them in their tracks then consider adding an animated carousel using either Flash or Javascript. An example of a website that uses an effective animated carousel is Marlabs and the Marlabs Blog.

Online Begging

Another marketing ploy that companies will often use online is asking their customers to get other people or follow or like the company on social media sites. This approach is actually effective in many cases where the goal is to increase a social media profile’s followers, but the problem with this approach is that it can often alienate existing customers. Many people feel like by asking their friends and colleges to follow a certain brand or person’s social media profile in order to win a contest or get a deal that they are effectively begging, which in turn makes them feel cheap and can lead to a lesser opinion of the company’s brand over time. Instead of relying on online begging just try to attract users to your online social profiles like Twitter and Facebook by posting relevant and interesting information like Marlabs on facebook.

What to Include on Your Company’s Online “About Us” page

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It should be a rule that every business website should include an “about us” page. It should be a rule but unfortunately it’s not – in fact, there are numerous businesses operating online without an “About Us” page, unfortunately leaving their customers little in the way to find out more about the company. An About Us page is the best way to educate customers about your company; there are a few key points that should be included on any About Us page.

Services
The services section of an About Us page should at the very least include on overview of the services that your company provides. It’s good practice to not list out every single service that your company might provide but instead to highlight the main services that are either of the most use to your customers or the services which attract the most business for your company.  Many sites have a one page About Us section while other sites like Marlabs Inc have separate pages that address the company’s main offerings. There’s no wrong way to list the services that your company provides but in most cases unless you are operating a national or global enterprise there is little reason to have separate pages explaining your businesses’ offerings.

A sample About Us page for a website

Where your company is located
While it can sometimes appear as a separate page on some websites, many companies choose to include their location info as part of the About Us page. Not only do consumers like to know who they are choosing to spend their money with but also where that money is ultimately going. A list of locations can be particularly helpful to customers that are trying to find the correct contact information fora global company like Marlabs worldwide. Including a list of company locations will put many customers at ease, and listing the locations of your company’s offices, warehouses, et cetera will help establish credibility online. People feel comfortable knowing a company’s physical location if only just so that they know where to send their complaints, if necessary.

You should also consider adding a Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQ, section where visitors to your site can quickly get answers to common questions, such as how much does a service cost or what is your company’s return policy for instance.

Photo by Gustavo Pimenta

Facebook’s new Video Chat a boon for CRM

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Skype and Facebook thumbs up

Facebook announced Wednesday that through a partnership with Skype they will begin offering their users free video calling in addition to a group chat service. These new communication features are sure to be a hit with the average Skype and Facebook users, but can also be used to improve a company’s customer relations management. Facebook and Skype have laid the groundwork for company’s to freely and effortlessly communicate with customers that “like” their page through Facebook.

Instead of relying on dedicated video chat programs, business could theoretically rely on Facebook’s new free video calling service. For instance, a business like Marlabs on Facebook could theoretically establish a Facebook video chat support line for customers or invite customers that have recently posted questions to the company’s Facebook wall to a video chat. Although, there is has been no word if multiple users can connect to the same Facebook video chat, but a company could still use Facebook’s video calling service to connect with a few users on an individual basis to bolster their reputation. On the similar note, a company could use Facebook’s new group chat service, which can accommodate multiple users, to hold Question and Answer (Q&A) sessions for customers.

Group chats and Q&A sessions are an effective way to engage a community and since Facebook will allow users to save the transcripts from group chats sessions, even the people that are are otherwise unable to attend a chat session can still find the answers to important questions or concerns. Question and Answer session are useful for customer relationship management because it is a quick way to address what are usually common concerns for a customer base that might have only recently become an issue. Not to mention that Q&A sessions are one of the easier ways to effectively disseminate information. The truth is that many users will not check a company’s website directly or for support if they have a question, but Question and Answer session are usually popular online and are usually reposted on social sites (e.g. forums, blogs, et cetera) or in the media. One of the main pillars to good customer relations management is interacting with customers and today Facebook may have just simplified that process for thousands of businesses and over 750 millions users.

Find out more about Facebook’s group chat and video chat services at the official Facebook blog

Content is King on the Web

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With everyone and their cousin putting up sites it’s much harder to get found and recognized as an outstanding site, even if you’re just trying to appeal to a small, niche audience. What makes sites stand out and develop loyal followers is content. Good content may be informative or entertaining. It must engage visitors so that they feel they are getting something from the site. If you can achieve that, then those visitors will not only recommend the site to their friends, but they will return to the site over and over again.

The first rule of Web content development is freshness. You should be adding new or fresh content to it on a constant basis. This applies to regular sites as much as blogs. Visitors are going to stop coming back if the site is never updated.

Next you want to make sure that the content is easily digestible by web surfers . In the case of written content, this means breaking the text into easy to skim segments using lists, section headers and shorter paragraphs and sentences. For video or audio content, make sure the clips are short, with longer pieces broken up into parts, and that they instantly engage the viewer’s or listener’s attention.

Most important of all is relevance. It may be fun to put crazy videos or weird news stories on your site, but only do so if they fall within the overall theme and intent of the site. Drawing traffic to the site with irrelevant content may get you traffic, but it won’t translate into sales, customers, or loyal visitors. Instead you’ll just get a bunch of lookers with no connection to your site’s purpose.