I’ve just started reading the copywriting guide ‘Words That Work’ by the political consultant and speechwriter, Dr. Frank Luntz. As you’d expect from a book on this topic, the main theme is masterfully condensed into the strapline “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”.

I was barely three pages in when I read a passage that really caught my attention:

“The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener’s shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives you is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself.”

Even though the words above are about speechwriting the advice is just as valid for crafting web content. Further than that, it applies well to other aspects of what we do as web designers and publishers.

Know your users and give them what they want

As the man says, there’s no substitute for knowing and understanding your audience. Research them, their needs and their habits. And when you’re done, research some more. This will help you ‘stuff yourself right into their shoes’.

If your offerings are relevant, your web content is clear and says what customers want to hear, you’ve a good chance that they’ll find you. Once they get there, if your site is intuitive and creates a satisfying experience – you’ll keep customers happy and keep them coming back.

In the age of the Experience Economy user research is vital to making that happen.

Your brand is what your customers think of you

In the last sentence quoted above Luntz claims the way others perceive you is more real than how you perceive yourself. The explosion of social media, online product reviews and digital word of mouth have made this ring true in the world of branding.

Companies are realising that they can’t fully control their brands online – but they can participate in the conversations that shape them.

I hope this riff on user-experience and branding has given you a few ideas, but I wouldn’t like to throw up this call-to-arms without suggesting how to act on it. Well, where to start?

Social media to the rescue

Your customers are out there on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. and they are talking to each other. Whether or not they are talking about you, they are certainly talking about offerings just like yours.

The opportunity is there to spectate, to learn about your customers and what they think is important. If you’re not already then start monitoring social media discussions for:

• What they are saying about you
• What they are saying about your competitors
• What they are saying about the products and services they buy

There is also great potential to participate in these discussions – talking with your customers rather than talking at them:

• Getting meaningful customer feedback
• Discovering new product ideas or developments
• Managing your reputation and encouraging customers to engage with your brand

That’s barely brushing the surface, but hopefully enough to whet your appetite. We’ll be covering these topics in more detail in the coming months. So look out for more on social media here in the future.

We’ve since come across some fascinating statistics detailing the top ten countries that Twitter receives traffic from. Our international audience may find this rather eye-opening. Check it out…

The most interesting stat here has to be Japan. Making up 39% of the international Twitter traffic, which is 60% of the overall, Japan equates for 23.4% of total Twittering.

This came as a surprise to us here at Tactic Group, but we’re certainly going to look into it further.

Read the report on the Twitter blog for more information.

A new mini-series of posts from Tactical Thinking about how Social Media is being used in the Snow Sports and general Adventure Tourism Industries.

It’s always nice to associate things with the beginnings of another calendar year, but I think I’m a few weeks late on that note.

So here it is; post number one in our new series and in it we’ll be discussing last years big social media development Twitter. Now if you don’t know what Twitter is, don’t fret…

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

… in other terms it’s a free micro-blogging platform that allows people and businesses to communicate short and simple messages quickly to their audience.

Rather than explain all the benefits and intricacies of Twitter itself, we thought it best to just show you how others are using it in the many different ways it can be applied.

It’s about keeping your audience up-to-date

Every company that offers some form of outdoor sport as a product is dependent on one major thing: the environment. And we all know how rapidly this untamed beast can change it’s mind.

Here’s how Mammoth Mountain, in California, keep it’s patrons tuned-in to what’s happening on the mountain. Notice the quick references to temperatures – they’re dangling the carrot nicely and making the updates (or Tweets as they’re known in Twitter circles) very easy to scan through.

Heavenly Ski Resort uses Twitter for similar purposes, except they use their Tweets primarily to bring in additional traffic to their web site and blog. They also push their photographic content well, directing people to images that really speak a thousand words.

Twitter is setup so blog content or RSS news feeds can be automatically pulled into your Twitter stream. Snowboardmag uses this technique well, as does Powd3r – a very informative snowboard news site.

Integrating Twitter into your own web site is also possible to automate. Here’s how The Adventure Travel Company uses their Twitter account as additional content on their blog – check the sidebar.

And here’s how the New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance have just begun to use Twitter as a simple mechanism to post notices for their membership on the home pages of two of both their Ski and Snowboard divisions – a Tactic Group design implementation we’re fairly proud of.

There really are quite a few Snow Sports and Adventure Tourism businesses utlising this new social media channel. You’ve even got the likes of the Daily Mail’s Ski/Snowboard web site Metrosnow.co.uk using Twitter.

Look out for our second post in this social media mini-series, coming soon.

For the first time senior executives and bloggers stare into their crystal balls to second-guess the events which will shape the industry over the course of the next 12 months

Now before you delve right in, be aware: this is a very long post! There’s some interesting perspectives to be read and a few clashing views (always fun!), but it’s a good insight none-the-less. To save you a bit of time we’ve picked out the six most relevant points for our specific audience…

From Graham Donoghue, Travelsupermarket

“Customers will be more promiscuous. Whereas they may have looked at four websites before making a decision on their holiday in 2008, they will be looking at probably at least eight in 2009.”

Good news for any sites not appearing on the first page of Google!

From Francesca Ecsery, Cheapflights UK

“People will be more prepared to shop around for a good deal. Price will play a vital role in securing consumers in 2009. As the world’s economic position continues to dominate the news, people will think smarter about where their money goes and will be prepared to take the time to find a good deal. Consumers are expected to cut back spending on items such as clothing, new home furnishings and cares, however recent reports show holidays are the one thing consumers will resist giving up in a recession.”

Bookings may come later, but they’ll still come. At least, we hope so.

From Neil Mason, Foviance:

“The seamless integration of Web 2.0 content to provide a richer customer experience will also be key in 2009. The multi-channel silos that create the barriers between web, mobile, call centre and high street physical store (for those that are still around!) will no longer be tolerated by consumers and organisations that fail to deliver a consistent customer experience will begin to suffer the consequences.”

Experience, experience, experience! Note that word.

From Steve Evans, lastminute.com

“Usability – people are going to start to recognise the massive ROI to be had from making your site and particularly your booking flow usable. Given the economic climate I think we’ll see less ‘ground-breaking’ new functionality and more improvement of what exists to make conversion easier for customers.”

Hmmm, yes – improving what’s there already. Certainly seems more valuable right now, than splashing out the big bucks on, I quote, “ground-breaking new functionality”.

From Mel Carson, Microsoft AdCenter

“More brands will be getting into social media, and I don’t just mean Facebook and Twitter, but understanding and valuing online feedback from blogs and forums and acting on it will pay dividends.”

We agree. Low-cost online interactive marketing will become crucial this year.

From Justin Cooke, Fortune Cookie

“User experience budgets will double as companies realise that experience is everything.”

Ah, there it is again; Experience. Want to know our predictions for travel industry in 2009?

Providing your customers with the best possible experience (online and offline), giving a ‘money well spent’ feeling, will be the a-factor in this year’s game.

I addressed the concern by discussing constructive feedback and by pointing out that complaints or negative comments made by customers are not always a bad thing. On the plus side, they provide the business with an opportunity to respond publicly and they often bring up concerns that the management may not have been previously aware of. David Alston, a guest on Lee Odden’s Top Rank Online Marketing blog summed up the social media complaint responding benefits (wow, that’s a mouthful) very nicely in his last post Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media.

“A complaint is an opportunity to demonstrate problem-solving abilities. A posted complaint may also draw out other comments from people with the same concern, which provides an opportunity to reach out to them as well. And who knows, impressing customers with great customer service may generate some positive posts about how you resolved the problems.”

David goes on to describe the intricacies of brand monitoring with sections on Competitors, Influencers and Auditing, among others. Whilst this is all relevant for larger corporations, our readers here at Tactical Thinking may find this a little excessive – but interesting none-the-less.

Actively acknowledging mistakes

What I’d like to draw your attention to in this post is how many ultra-savvy web professionals utilise social media to actively point out their problems to their audience. Unusual? Maybe. But silly – definitely not!

Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger recently wrote a post titled Apologies to Newsletter Subscribers [and What to Do When You Stuff Up On Your Blog]. To any logical mind, pointing out that you’ve made a big mistake seems almost ludicrous. But that’s the beauty of social media.

In the past, actively acknowledging your mistake and responding publicly was reserved for major catastrophes only. These days, through the use of blogs and other web 2.0 platforms, one can turn the smallest of problems into a subtle marketing tool. As Darren demonstrates with the three steps in his post (acknowledge the mistake, respond personally, then look for positives), it’s quite simple to do.

Ultimately, we’re all human and humans make mistakes. Recognising and admitting these mistakes is the hard part. Solving them should be much easier. By doing this on a social media platform you’re giving your business a more humanistic approach. It’s just as easy as saying: “Hey, sorry about that. Here’s why it happened and how it’ll be avoided in the future.”