Category: General Information

 

Companies who engage in social media sometimes struggle for content – of course you don’t want to continually self-promote, but what else can you do?

 

One trend I’ve seen a couple of companies use not only provides information to customers who are engaged in a company’s social media program, but can also help with customer service.  Simply put, it appears as though companies will take a look at call center data, specifically what type of questions are coming in during a particular day or week, and provide that information on their social media sites.

 

One company Tweeted: “We’ve noticed a high call volume this week related to questions about our new mobile app. Here is some information on the app and how to use it.”

 

I thought it was great that they used the data to make the most of their social media content. This is a good tip to consider when creating social media content – evaluate your consumer touchpoints, specifically the questions and concerns posted online, via customer feedback channels, and call center/chat conversations, to see what topics are trending. From there, create content around these topics. It’s likely that if there are many similar calls or questions surrounding a specific topic or product/service, others who are not calling/inquiring may need the same information.

 

This also shows social media users that the company is in tune with what their customers need and that they are truly listening.

 

This is a win-win situation in that you have content to work with and you demonstrate excellent customer service to the public.

 

 

 

There are some days, usually when I’ve not had enough coffee, where things just don’t make sense to me. If I get an enthusiastic colleague or client on the phone when this happens, who tends to speak at a high level, using euphemisms, words that are PhD level, and tries to explain something as though they were lecturing at MIT, I’ve been known to say, “Please, talk to me like I’m five.” That usually gets the message across (and a laugh), and helps me get to the heart of the conversation.

 

On the flip side, I’ve been known to do the same thing. I can tend to be wordy and more “academic” than necessary. This is one reason Twitter and I are not good friends on many days.

 

Your company’s website is no different – it’s been long said that keeping it simple gets you further. Making things simple to understand can give potential customers a sense of trust that you “speak their language” and makes them more comfortable.

 

Sometimes, when creating web content, it can be easy to get caught up in terminology that you may use on a daily basis, but your customers don’t. Or, you can get too long winded in the heat of trying to give enough information to get your audience to reach out and become a customer.

 

A great tool I’ve found is right within Google – it’s easily overlooked, but can be useful in learning more about your writing level.

 

Next time you are doing online searches in Google, take a minute to look at your company’s website. Simply type in site:yourcompanywebsite.com on the Google search bar. Once the results come up, click on “all results” below the search bar so you can open up the drop down menu and click on “reading level”:

 

 

This is what you’ll see next:

 

 

By clicking on basic, intermediate, or advanced, you can filter the search results to see what sites or content is generating that reading level result. I’d first go to the advanced option – if your company site shows up in this search result, it may be time to rethink the content you’ve incorporated into your site.

 

In the case of Amazon, it looks like there are some links to some advanced reading reviews and discussions in the advanced tab, which is okay given the nature of the information being shared.

 

 

Depending on your industry, having your website show up under basic or intermediate search results is best. The simpler you make it, the more likely customers will linger on your site to learn more, and hopefully make a purchase!