Successful Blog

Customer engagement on a budget

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Customers typically want two things when they seek out your company online:

  • fast answers to their questions
  • someone to listen to them

If you’ve delegated your customer engagement to a “free” social network, you’ve automatically made it more difficult to accomplish either of those goals.

Have you ever tried to search for something that was posted a while ago in a Facebook Group? You know, that amazing answer you wrote to that customer who wanted to know if you offer discounts to dog owners? Go ahead and try it…I’ll wait…

No bueno, right?

Now try digging up a Tweet or a Twitter DM in your corporate account from a month ago where you solved that nagging login question.

See what I mean?

What if you had a space that you controlled, where you and your customers could easily find answers? A forum gives you a central hub, connected to your website, where PDFs, images, tutorial videos, Q&A, ideas, and more can be found.

The bonus? If you’re using your own domain, all of that useful information is also helping your SEO.

Some customers who have incorporated your brand into their identity (how awesome is that) may want to reinforce that by helping other customers. Research shows that customers who participate in an online community stick around longer than those who don’t.

revenue attributed to community members

This article will show, using Convolio forums as an example, how you can engage with your customers like a boss (even if you’re an army of one). These same tips apply, regardless of your community platform; the bottom line is to provide value to your customers.

Make Your Customers Insiders by Sharing Useful Resources

Set aside one of your forums for resources. You can attach files, embed media, and include pull quotes in your forum topics, which makes it easy to share all sorts of information in one place. It’s all searchable (including the attached files)!

Your customers will appreciate being able to comment or ask questions inline too. For example, if you post the menu for your upcoming event, they can ask whether there are gluten-free options (that’s always the first question, isn’t it?).

Collaborate with Your Customers by Getting Feedback and Suggestions

The only bad feedback is no feedback at all. Whether you’re building a product or providing a service, you should always be listening when your customers tell you things. You can give them space to offer constructive criticism, ideas, and real use-case responses. Because it’s a forum, you can actually have a back-and-forth conversation about the idea, gathering more details to flesh it out, and getting input from multiple different customers in the same thread. Best practice is to go back and let them know once you’ve implemented their idea. Customers who have contributed their own ideas to your business, and seen them come to life, become your most loyal fans.

Communicate Proactively and Specifically

You should be sorting and segmenting your members so that you can send customized emails based on their interests, or introduce them to other customers who have similar interests. When they join the forums, give them a quick dropdown menu to tell you something about themselves. That information then gets you closer to knowing them as people, and then being able to give them what they actually want, rather than just guessing at personas.

Create a New Revenue Stream with Premium Memberships

Use paid memberships to monetize your forums. Offer enhanced features or content to paid members of your forum community. You get to decide the rate, the frequency, and what is included in the membership. When you are offering so much value through your forums that members are willing to pay, you’re doing it right.

See How it’s going, At a Glance

You don’t have to be a Google Analytics junkie to see how your forums are doing. Use built-in Advanced Reports to see your member leaderboard, top topics, and more. In Convolio, it’s all downloadable if you want to go all spreadsheet on it.

How does this serve your customers? Double down on the topics that are seeing the most traction. If forum content that offers how-to information is getting the most page views and comments, make more of it!

Clone Yourself with Automation Tools

The secret recipe is….Recipes! In Convolio, you can automatically screen out posts that include specific words, take a look at posts that include images before they go live, reply to someone who’s made their first post, and ban spammers who get in the way of real customer engagement. Use your community’s moderation tools to create a fun, interactive space for your customers.

Subscribe to administrative email notifications and get alerted when new members join, when someone mentions you, or when there’s new content that needs review. That means you can spend more time working on your real job, which is making cool things for your customers, not dealing with forum technology.

Conclusion

It’s time to stop blurting out marketing messages all over the web, and hoping your customers will bump into them. Time to provide real value for them, in a place where you can give customers the experience that fits your business promise, without algorithms dictating your reach.

Convolio is the new low-cost hosted forum from Social Strata, the pioneers of engagement software. Some other forum options include Discourse (open-source software) and Vanilla Forums (priced  for the Enterprise).

How are you engaging with your customers?

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is Co-Founder of Social Strata, makers of Convolio forums and the Hoop.la community platform, and Narrative, a new social content platform for consumers.  You can find Rosemary on Twitter as @rhogroupee.

Featured Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Business Reports You Need on a Regular Basis

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By Wendy Dessler

Running a business, whether offline or online, can be a lot of work. While many people dream of becoming an entrepreneur or running a business, the chances of success are unfortunately not as high as you might hope. In fact, only around half of all small businesses will survive into their 5th year.

One of the best ways to ensure your business is successful is to make sure you remain in tune with all that is happening. To do this successfully, you will often need to see actual reports that outline your success. Thankfully, technology has made it easier than ever to produce a wide range of reports that you can analyze. These business reports can be quite important to your business for a number of different reasons.

Without any further ado, this article is going to look at a few different reports that your business needs to check out on a regular basis.

Website Analytics Report

With more and more people using the internet to shop or influence purchases, it is important to have a good business website. You should also be monitoring the various different analytics produced by your site. This can give you insights on your customers and the overall success of your business. However, in addition to knowing things like traffic, traffic sources and demographics, there are many more analytics and information that you should familiarize yourself with. For example, you should be sure to frequently check out your logs.

Your website or software will create logs, which are essentially a time-stamped documentation of events. Anything that happens on your site such as successful logins, failed logins, security threats or dozens of other events will be logged. By checking these logs, automatically or manually, you will have a good idea what is going on behind the scenes. If you want to learn more, be sure to check out the advantages of Apache Logging Basics.

A Productivity/Time-Tracking Report

The employees at your company are incredibly important to the success or failure of your business. If they are productive and on-task, you will likely be successful. However, if they are wasting time or generally being unproductive, it can hurt your bottom line. And unfortunately, while the internet has helped businesses in a lot of ways, it can also be a massive distraction for employees.

To ensure everyone is on-task and productive, you should be sure to use a software that can produce a productivity or time-tracking report. These types of reports will be able to tell you what your employees are really doing while they are clocked in at the office. This can help you address potential issues directly and ensure everyone remains productive while at work.

A Variety of Financial Reports

cartoon hands on laptop Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Of course, one of the single biggest indicator of the success of your business is your finances. Not only do you have to be making money, but you also need to ensure you are spending less than you are making, too. Thankfully, there are a variety of different financial reports that can provide you with all of this information and more.

You should be checking sales and revenue reports, expense reports, your balance sheet, your budget and even cash flow statements. Each of these reports can provide you different information about the finances of your business. They can help you notice if anything needs to be changed and can assist in making important business decisions.

 

Featured Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

 

About the Author: Wendy Dessler frequently writes about the latest advancements in tech and digital marketing. She currently focuses on helping SaaS businesses create a better world for our kids.

How to Use the Ivy Lee Method for Success

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By Kayla Matthews

In the modern world, people are very concerned about getting things done. Blame could go toward the state of the economy or the drive for more innovation, but the song remains the same: People want to be more productive to have something to show for their work. However, some are having a hard time doing it.

Bullet journals and other analog organizers are trendy, and there are plenty of productivity tips for professionals that you could follow.

But, truth be told, you don’t need something new to be productive. To-do lists are just about as old as time. Maybe you’ve tried these methods already and are still having trouble keeping up. Perhaps what you need is a 100-year-old technique worth over $400,000.

Who Is Ivy Lee?

Ivy Ledbetter Lee was a publicity expert and the founder of modern public relations in America during the early 1900s. Charles M. Schwab was the president of Bethlehem Steel Corp., the second-largest steel producer and largest shipbuilder in the United States during this era. In 1918, Schwab held a meeting with Lee to heighten productivity in his workplace.

Lee, offering his services for free, asked to meet with Schwab’s executives for 15 minutes each. During these meetings, Lee taught his method to all the executives and sent them back to work. After three months, Schwab asked for a second meeting with Lee, this time writing the other man a check for $25,000. Today, that amount is worth $420,000. That’s the price Schwab thought was appropriate for Lee’s advice to increase productivity.

What Is the Ivy Lee Method?

Lee’s method was actually incredibly simple, and most people easily overlook the basics. The secret is the psychology. The simplicity and ease-of-use in everyday life is just a bonus. Though there are other similar methods out there, this is the only one that goes to the root of the problem and removes distractions.

Here is the process as Lee taught it to Schwab’s executives.

  1. At the end of the day, write down six important things to do the following day. Never write down more than six. This means you don’t have to think about what to do that day and keeps the list small enough for you to tackle everything.
  2. Arrange the tasks in order of importance. List the most crucial task first.
  3. On the next day, start the first task immediately. Don’t go to another item until the first is completed. If an emergency or other things crop up, do them only if they absolutely must be finished before what’s on your list. Never stray from the list if it can be helped.
  4. Continue the list in the same manner. Any unfinished tasks at the end of the day get moved to the agenda for the next day. You’re not punishing or berating yourself for not getting everything done, which would be extremely unproductive.
  5. Repeat the process for every workday. At the end of the week, if you find you can’t complete all six tasks, shorten the list to five or four. Use whatever number works best for you.

The strategy sounds too simple to work, but Schwab evidently saw a lot of success and improvement after only a few months. The same could potentially be said for anyone, whether they’re looking to be more productive in running their own business or just a parent trying to be less overwhelmed during the day. Anyone can use the Lee method and see success.

Why the Method Works

There’s psychology at play here. We’ve been led to believe over the years that multitasking is the best way to be productive. In reality, it only leads to stress and distraction.

Focusing on a single task at a time results in more getting done in the long run without tripping over your own feet in a rush. If you’re skeptical, give the Ivy Lee Method a try for a week or two and see for yourself why Schwab thought it was worth so much.

 

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Featured Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

The Importance of Delegation in Business

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By Kayla Matthews

 

Delegation happens when you give at least one task to other people to handle. Many business professionals are reluctant to delegate because they want to remain in total control of their responsibilities. It’s natural to feel that way at first, but once you learn about the importance of delegation and the benefits it can bring to yourself and others, you should be more likely to engage in it.

1. Delegate in Ways That Maximize Your Value

When thinking about things you could do that could help you earn more, the things that come to mind are likely self-development or making sure your superiors know you’d be an excellent candidate for an upcoming promotion. Those things could help, but a 2016 HBR study that quantified the returns of delegation found that earnings capabilities go up when people delegate.

The research examined the payoffs from delegation occuring at law offices with partners and associates. It showed that, on average, a partner could earn 20 percent more by delegating, and top lawyers increased their earnings by as much as 50 percent through delegation.

Delegating enabled lawyers to spend more time with clients and handle complex tasks instead of routine ones. Then, the clients were willing to pay higher rates for the services.

You could apply this tip to whatever you do by thinking about which tasks you handle are most valuable to the company and the people you serve. Then, ponder which responsibilities prevent you from doing those things. By taking this approach, you should be able to see which duties are best left up to you, and how you could free up your time and excel by delegating.

Bill Gates is a well-known person who knows how to delegate. He did so by tasking his staff with going through his emails and determining which ones were most important. Gates recognized that reading emails wasn’t a valuable way to use his time, and you could do something similar.

2. Always Give Feedback

Distributing responsibilities to others can be a way to empower your employees. Delegation is an art, and you can do it better by offering both positive and negative feedback. Delegation itself can be a morale booster because it shows people that you trust them. Plus, positive feedback lets individuals know they’re doing well.

Negative feedback is just as essential, as long as it’s constructive criticism. Instead of merely telling a person what they’re doing wrong, be specific about how they could do better. Then, the worker can take action with your feedback, growing as a person and helping the company via improved performance.

Also, don’t wait to provide feedback until the person does something outstanding or makes a huge error. Continually providing feedback removes doubt that people will likely feel if they fear not living up to your expectations.

3. Take Time for Person-Task Matching

Delegation doesn’t mean assigning any task you’d rather not do to the closest person within earshot. You’ll be able to recognize the importance of delegation by carefully choosing tasks to delegate that align with the skills or goals of those who ultimately perform them. It’s also crucial to be aware of things like a person’s workload, how they handle pressure and if they work well on teams.

When people do handle responsibilities that fit them well, they’ll feel motivated and well-equipped. On the other hand, being asked to do an ill-suited task could make the person feel like you’re dumping things on them. Be aware of how certain tasks may cause a person to realize their potential and step outside of their comfort zone, too.

4. Provide Employees With the Resources They Need to Succeed

Handing a duty over to someone else requires you to give them all the authority and other resources necessary for doing the job to the best of their ability. As such, you may need to let relevant workers in other departments know that someone other than you is handling a particular responsibility.

Delegating correctly by providing resources as well as responsibility could make your company more productive overall. That’s because people spend less time waiting for you to make decisions and devote larger portions of their workdays to tackling the tasks you’ve given.

5. Give Guidelines and Ask for Input

Demonstrating effective delegation skills means setting a framework. People who delegate should be clear about what they want and need, as well as any associated timeframes. Also, if there are things a person taking care of a task absolutely must or must not do, those things should be spelled out at the start.

Additionally, it’s a good idea to ask the person receiving the task if they have ideas to improve what you outlined to them about the responsibility. The information they chime in with could make you realize that process improvements exist that could make the job less expensive or time-consuming. Seeking feedback also reminds the person that you care about what they think.

Delegation Can Provide Mutual Benefits

Psychological barriers often cause people to resist delegation and not recognize its importance. For example, you may assume you can do a task faster and better than anyone else without being open to letting someone else do it. But the information above highlights why delegation could help you and your employees alike — and in turn the whole company.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Featured image credit: Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

How Design Affects Productivity in a Coworking Space

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By Kayla Matthews

With control and flexibility in their jobs, freelancers and remote employees determine where they work. Many choose to join coworking spaces to carry out their work hours. A variety of professionals join these membership-driven communal workspaces to get out of the house or bounce ideas off other creatives.

While there are plenty of reasons to frequent a coworking space, the benefits of a diverse work area unite independent workers. After joining a coworking space, 74 percent of workers had an increase in productivity, making many people appreciate these communal areas.

With the proper design, professionals can thrive in these settings. A substantial factor in productivity involves a positive surrounding. Well-designed environments attract occupants, and the perks of the layout, furnishings and decor can help professionals stay on task. Here’s how design in coworking areas changes focus and efficiency.

Balances Distinct Productivity Styles in the Layout

Coworking spaces prioritize creativity and collaboration in primarily open office layouts, but with an assortment of people, some prefer less chatter to function at their best. Open office layouts can create high levels of stress or a lack of motivation for some, which hampers productivity. Coworking spaces that cater to both personality types help all professionals function at high levels.

Since concentration is a key part of productivity, coworking spaces are designed with the verbal and internal processors in mind. Open floor plans attract and increase productivity for interactive people and groups, while quiet zones and private alcoves allow space for others to work on their own. Members of coworking spaces are encouraged to respect designated talking and quiet spaces to help their fellow co-workers remain focused and on task.

Gives an Impression of Identity and Belonging

Individual workers who don’t have a set office may find community in vibrant, contemporary coworking spaces. They also often feel less isolated and can find belonging and recognition. Coworking spaces are more conducive for collaboration and networking, too. These components help to increase work performance and satisfaction.

Although there isn’t a set “company culture” in a coworking space, the decor can still connect workers to an overall purpose. Decorations like large-scale murals can instill enthusiasm and identity in independent workers. Adding graphics and artwork can enliven a workspace and make it a pleasant context to complete tasks in.

Boosts Moods With Visual Accents

Although it seems like a subtle aspect of design, sufficient lighting can transform a place for workers. Natural light can elevate your workplace performance because of the connection between daylight exposure at work and overall quality of life. When asked about elements of an effective workplace, over 75 percent of 250,000 employees said they feel natural light is important.

Adding more windows to the design place can help co-working spaces give independent professionals a productive edge during the workday. Thrive Workplace, a coworking community in Denver, includes natural light in their facility to cultivate a vibrant atmosphere. Greenery and office plants also help to brighten and invigorate communal work areas.

Offers a Sense of Flexibility

Certain types of stress during work can be detrimental to productivity. When you start producing low-quality work, the pressure can keep you from operating at full capacity. However, workplaces with informal breakout rooms and relaxing stations provide a chance to regroup and give your mind a break.

The right setup can amplify the freedom of independent work with additional opportunities to de-stress. Fun, versatile areas in a coworking space can diminish the burden of work, as long as they don’t impede on zones reserved for formal meetings and serious tasks. Separating the main working section from places to unwind can produce flexibility.

Incorporate Helpful Design Elements

An appealing design can set apart a coworking space and lead to further productivity for occupants. Decor, layout and accents can all form a beneficial setting that suits a diverse group of professionals. Complement the best components of communal work areas with an engaging design.

Do you use a coworking space? What would you say are the pros and cons?

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Featured image: Photo by Al ghazali on Unsplash

Book Review: Wise Guy, by Guy Kawasaki

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If you’ve spent any time in marketing or business development, you’ve certainly heard of Guy Kawasaki.

You might think of him as the ex-Apple guy, or perhaps the first person you ever knew to hold the title “Chief Evangelist” as a professional job. You might have seen him speak at an event, or heard about his famous 10-20-30 pitch rule: “no more than 10 slides, not using anything smaller than a 30-point font, and keeping presentation time to 20 minutes.”

But do you know anything about his journey to becoming “Guy Kawasaki?”

And why is he always smiling?

The introduction to Wise Guy says it’s not an autobiography, and it’s not. It’s a fantastic ride through Guy’s life and lessons-learned, as only he can write.

Read a book

In rough chronological order, Wise Guy takes the reader into Guy’s childhood in Hawaii, which laid the groundwork for both his work ethic and his love of surfing. The anecdotes from his life story are followed by one or more tidbits of wisdom, denoted by the “shaka” symbol (you might know it as the Hawaiian hand gesture that roughly means “aloha” or “right on”).

For all of the writers in our Successful Blog community, Guy recommends a great book called, “If You Want to Write,” by Brenda Ueland. Its primary takeaway is…just write! You don’t have to wait for permission, or a book deal, or anything else. If you write, you’re a writer.

The through-threads in Wise Guy are joy, kindness, and humility. That makes for a “business book” that is only tangentially about business, but all about business. I’d recommend reading this book to anyone who’s feeling a bit stuck in their career, a bit unfocused, or a bit depressed about their achievements. It’s a hit of fresh air.

In case you’re thinking it’s just a series of aphorisms and feel-good quotes, that’s not the deal. One very clear aspect of Guy’s life is his no-nonsense approach. He learned to tell the brutal truth at the side of Steve Jobs, and says that “the foundation of evangelism is a great product.” There are plenty of “evangelists” out there who are colorful foils for sub-par products, but they are doomed to fail. Guy’s mantra is all about working hard, proving yourself, and paying your dues.

I’d recommend reading this book through once, and then bookmarking the lessons that you need to hear more than once. It’s the style of book that you can refer back to, if you find yourself in a professional situation that feels daunting.

You’ll be happy having Guy’s shaka at your fingertips.

 

Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life
by Penguin Group (USA) LLC
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBPNK41/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_QecBCb2RV4X1N

Disclosure: I received a free digital copy of Wise Guy for the purposes of writing a review. 

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who is CEO of Narrative, a new social content platform coming in beta in April 2019.  You can find Rosemary on Twitter as @rhogroupee.