Keep Your Users Informed - Ziller Web Marketing Blog

In recent times, Facebook has been at the centre of criticism when introducing new changes which included changes to the user interface as well as general changes to the core functionality. The criticism came from a large majority of their users, who really felt the new changes were not in their best interests – a Facebook group was even set-up to argue against the changes which attracted hundreds of thousands of users. I myself have liked all the changes Facebook have made to date however it was obvious the large majority of users, including some of my friends did not.

If you are a Facebook user you would of noticed recently that a new layout with a bunch of changes has been introduced, however this time I feel that there will not be so much fuss made about them as in the past few updates. This time Facebook have done something very smart, they have kept their users informed. When logging into your account for the first time since the changes have been introduced, right at the top in the prime position is a banner which explains that there have been changes along with why those changes are helpful.

If you click on the link in the banner, you are then taken to page which fully explains each of the different changes.

In any area of your business, keeping customers informed / updated should be one of your top priorities. This is no different to running a website – if people or users are kept informed they are going to be happy or at least happier then if you didn’t. I guarantee you if Facebook had of taken the same approach when rolling out their last few updates there would not of been such anger from users.

Why should my company waste time by writing and managing a blog?

If your company currently does not have a blog, or if you do have a blog but do not pay much attention to it, you should be asking yourself, what can a blog do for me?

Having an up to date blog attached to your company website, or even as a separate website, will allow you to gain credibility from your clients, as it will show what goes on behind the scenes of your business, help describe your company philosophy and also keep your own staff up to date on what each other is up to.

A blog will also allow you to be able to choose what relationship you build with your client:

• You can choose to show the human face of your company
• Way for customers to ask and give opinions on new products and or services
• Be a place where customers can share information and insights on their favorite products / services
• Alternative communication media to more friendly distribute information and knowledge to your staff

From a marketing point of view, a blog can strengthen your image and increase awareness of your products/services, and additionally if it is kept up to date and all content is well written, it can act as link bait and help increase links to your website which will significantly help with your search engine rankings.

So, ask yourself again, why not start a blog?

In my last post I wrote about a few tips on using using the social networking tool Twitter.  Although this post was relatively simple and explained a few tips, I have receievd feedback that some people still don’t get what Twitter is about. They know kind of what it is and how to use it, but don’t really see the point. I found a good little video that does explain how Twitter works, and is well worth a look. Check it out.

Twitter is quickly becoming a very big and very powerful social networking website as more and more users start to embrace it. Massive in the U.S., Twitter is yet to fully take hold of Australian’s however according to recent stats this will quickly change. Sandra Hanchard a Hitwise analyst recently blogged how Twitter achieved a record usage in Australia for the week ending on January 10th.

Now even though I am sure most of you reading this post have heard of Twitter before, for many people there is still much mystery about it and exactly how it works. Put simply, Twitter is a social networking service that allows users to post updates, and receive other users updates by entering a text based post of no more then 140 characters, if you are on facebook It is very similar to updating your facebook status. You can follow users on twitter, and other users can follow you, you only see updates from users you are following, and vice versa.

Even though it seems really simple, there is a little more to it which I will try and explain here.

1. Updates

These are your standard updates. You log into twitter and write an update which everyone following you will see in their main timeline. When someone you are following writes an update you will see it in your main timeline.

2. Replies

If you start a update with an @ character followed by a users name, and then your message, this is called a reply. Its like talking to a group of people however addressing a certain person in that group. When you reply to someone, that user will see it in their main timeline, if they are following you. They will see it under their reply tab regardless of if they are following you or not.

3. Direct Messages

If you start a update with a d and then the users name, this is a direct message, and is similar to whispering – only that user will hear you. This will only work if that user is following you.

4. Links

There are times when you may want to post a URL in your update, however considering you only have 140 characters to work with, you may be able to see how this could become a issue, as many URL’s are more then 140 characters by themselves.  To fix this Twitter uses a service called TinyURL which automatically shortens URL’s when you enter them, so if you see a URL like http://tinyurl.com/bcajs4 you will now understand what it is.

I hope this post has helped clarify a few things. Ziller has a Twitter profile and if you are on Twitter do check us out. We will be updating with most of our blog posts and latest Ziller news.