{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} Correct me if I am wrong, but could I be on to something when I say that President Gaddafi's "cease fire" decision is not worth the paper it isn't written on? Indeed, less than 12 hours after the announcement, the people of Libya are under attack. I suspect they are saying things like "we never trusted him anyway". How much do you believe him? Does he seem to be trustworthy? Or do you reckon he is a cheating, lying, good-for-nothing? To the outside world he appears to be only interested in himself - and therein lies the issue. People who only care for themselves, who show no care for anyone else, are the ones that are trusted and believed the least. Gaddafi's generals probably believe him because he doubtlessly shows he cares for them - he needs to do that to get them on his side. But the rest of the country? Well frankly, all the evidence suggests he actually could not care less. Little wonder that no-one believes or trusts him outside his "inner circle". The Libyan situation provides an excellent example of the fundamentals of trust; show people your care for them and they trust you - fail to show any care and they don't believe a word you say. So, how much do you demonstrate that you care for your customers? If you are showing little care, they don't really believe you - which means your marketing messages will fall on deaf ears.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: What is the best way to reach multiple audiences? This follows on from last week's question about trying to please all the people all of the time in blog posts. Often people have multiple audiences and try to reach them all through a single website. For instance, you may have a website that appeals to three different categories of customers. So you end up providing three sections, one for each. The problem with this approach is the low online attention span which people have. They want to see the immediate and obvious solution to their need in fractions of a second, rather than having to locate it. Some sites are able to achieve this with relevant imagery and buttons. For example, if you ran a dental surgery site you could have a button with an image of children with the label "Children's' Treatments" another with a picture of elderly people with "Pensioner's Dentures" and so on. Obvious, quick and easy to use. For many businesses, though, the distinctions are not as clear-cut; nor are they easily converted into pictures which instantly mean something. The result is that many websites have broad, general introductory pages with explanatory text which then has links to the more detailed information. And therein lies the difficulty - it is too slow to use for the short attention span people have for web pages. Essentially, you have less than a second to make it obvious as to what people should do or where they should go once they arrive on your web page. If you can't do that because of the complexities of your subject then you merely confuse people and they go elsewhere. In the "olden days" - about 15 years ago - businesses used brochures and other printed materials which people flicked through until they found what they were interested in. Attention spans are much longer for printed materials than for online information. In those "olden days" you could give people some printed material and they might spend a few minutes turning over each page until they found the specific item they wanted. Online, those same people now only give you less than a second. What this really means is that you have to pre-sort the material you want for multiple audiences so that within a single click they go to exactly what they want. For instance, if you run a law firm and you offer divorce law, motoring law and conveyancing you probably will find it easier to attract your multiple audiences by having separate sites to cover each of these topics. When they land on a site for a divorce lawyer in their town, the visitors know instantly they are in the right place. But if they land on a site that offers family law, property law and commercial law, they are less likely to know within a second they are where they want to be. Result? A higher chance they will click away. So, if you want to reach multiple audiences you need multiple websites - focused on much narrower audiences than you ever had in those olden days. If you want some more information on running multiple websites then you can download my free report on the topic: http://uklik.me/multiplewebsites
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Energy is infectious This week I spoke at the annual communications conference of the Association of Colleges - the organisation which represents almost all sixth-form and further education establishments in the UK. I teamed up with Nigel Morgan from Morgan PR as part of The Social Media Guys and we were invited to provide the opening keynote address for this meeting. Even though we were setting off at 6.30am to be in Birmingham well-ahead of schedule, Nigel was alive and full of beans. Once we took to the platform the audience was clearly ready and willing to learn more about the benefits of blogging and social media for colleges and once I had got them going on an interactive exercise the energy in the room clearly stepped up a gear. Then when Nigel took to the stage, he cranked the energy up another notch with plenty of questions and interaction that got the audience even more excited. The auditorium was literally buzzing with chit-chat for a long time after our presentation and several hours later after lunch as we were about to depart, people were still excitedly asking us questions about their ideas for social media. Earlier in the week Nigel and I had spoken together with our colleague Ant Hodges and noticed that there was a distinct lack of energy in the meeting we attended. It was much earlier in the day, which might not have helped, but for whatever reason few people wanted to engage. It just reminded me that energy is infectious. When people are excited and energised, you too become active and engaged. But when everyone around you is quiet and lacking energy, you adopt the same kind of demeanour. It means that if we want to be energised and inspired we need to be in energising and inspiring places.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": Get Content, Get Customers
To find out more about this book visit: http://uklik.me/contentcustomers
AND FINALLY: Keeping it local in Basingstoke Next Friday I shall be wandering around the Keeping Business Local Expo at the Apollo Hotel in Basingstoke. If you want to attend - it's free - you can come and ask me any questions you like about web success or social media. Also, you can see my colleague Nigel Morgan, who I mentioned earlier, talking about the business use of Facebook. More info at: http://uklik.me/localtobasingstoke
Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
