The Internet can be like an auditorium, with many conversations are taking place, all the time. People are talking about life, pets, sports, everything. If you run an organization, and you have customers, people may also be talking about you. What are they saying? Are they complaining? Are they talking about how to improve your service?

A major aspect of running an online business is being able to engage with these conversations. The people are talking about you, but they would love to be talking with you, too, but if you’re not there, then you can’t contribute.

There are two ways of engaging with people online… you can find them and talk to them on some remote internet property, or you can help them find you, and give them a forum for these discussions to take place. If they’re talking about you, why not provide them with this forum?

This forum could be a commenting system on your blog, a discussion package installed on your web page, or via a number of other ways. Quite often these ways are very cheap to install, but provide a great source of value to you and your customers.

If they’re talking about how to improve your service, then you can contribute and receive the equivalent of a cheap customer focus group. If they’re complaining, you can publicly address the complaints, and make things right.

Bring the conversations in, and own them. In all cases, your organization will be seen as a trustworthy group of people, and build authority.

July 30th, 2007 by Jeremy Sisson | Trackback