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By Neptune Moon, January 23, 2012 5:55 pm

I’m annoyed this afternoon and I thought it was worth a blog post. WHY would you ever send an email that could not be replied to – especially if that email is in response to a customer support issue? This practice continually both amazes and infuriates me.

Case in point, web hosting companies that send you email updates on a support issue but if you try to email back a response to their update, put your message in the great void. How do you think you are making your customers feel when they are trying to communicate with you and they get an email back that says something like this:

Thank you for contacting Company X Customer Support.
The mailbox that your message was sent to is unmonitored, and as a result your e-mail will not receive a response.

If you require support for problem A go here: www.companyx.com/problemA
If you require support for problem B go here: www.companyx.com/problemB
If you require support for problem C go here: www.companyx.com/problemC
ETC…

So, now I have just spent time writing my message in response to the email you sent me (usually telling me how you have not yet solved my problem) and now I can’t just reply to the email to continue the thread and get my issue resolved. Why must I wade through 10 options to figure out where I should go next? How is this servicing your customer? The answer – it is not.

Even companies who are well-known for their customer service can fall into this trap. Southwest Airlines, which is generally a fantastic example of customer service, uses this same type of system for Customer Service emails. We had an issue on a recent flight experience and after receiving a long and thoughtful reply from their Customer Service Department, with a case reference number, I had to go back to the web site and fill out their comment form again, to send a follow up to their reply – not very user-friendly!

We could probably all benefit from taking an objective view of our communication and customer support practices. Try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes – is your customer service department easy to contact and quick to respond OR does it function more like a complicated choose-your-own-adventure story?

It is worth taking a look at your process and discovering if you’re treating your customers the way you’d want to be treated if you had an issue. If we all took the time to follow the golden rule when designing customer service responses, the world would be a much less frustrating place!

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By Neptune Moon, January 11, 2012 12:00 pm

Have you seen the ad campaign the NFL is running these days for its women’s apparel? If you watch any football at all, they would be impossible to miss, even if you DVR the games! As a lifelong football fan, who happens to be a woman, these spots drive me nuts.

If you haven’t seen the ads – they all go something like this:

1. Woman having argument with her boyfriend or husband as she angrily throws NFL apparel at him, and often storms out
2. “You Don’t Own Me” plays in the background
3. Boyfriend or husband arrives at girlfriend or wife’s door to find her looking adorable and happy in her very own female sized NFL apparel
4. Joy to the world!

Does the NFL have any women working for them in their marketing department? Seeing these ubiquitous ads, it is hard to imagine that they do! Who are they marketing this stuff to – men or women? I assume it is being marketed to women, as they are the ones who purchase the actual items in the ads? If this is the case – how does this premise sell to female NFL fans (who make up a solid 40% of the fanbase and purchase 46% of official NFL Merchandise*)? It is problematic on several fronts:

1. It assumes that women are only football fans if their husbands or boyfriends are – and that you root for the same team!
2. Why the fake fight then about the men’s jerseys – is it not a strong enough premise to let women know that they now have options beyond men’s sized apparel or the awful pink and/or bedazzled NFL apparel previously marketed to women?

This ad campaign is a classic example of not knowing your audience. If women are your target audience, then these ads do not understand what would motivate said audience to take the desired action – in this case, purchasing NFL women’s apparel. Why is it cast as an act of defiance to buy your own jersey or t-shirt? I’m thrilled to know that the NFL is finally starting to make licensed apparel that is actually sized for women and not pink or glittery. But these ads make me not want to buy any and I’m pretty sure I’m in their female demographic sweet spot.

Lesson for all businesses, large and small – take the time to get to know your audience(s) and create offers that genuinely speak to their needs. I guarantee you’ll be pleased with the results!

* From she-conomy.com.

View the ad on YouTube here.

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By Neptune Moon, December 7, 2011 10:14 am

Managing your online reputation can be challenging enough, but in the past week or so, emails alerting you to fake Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaints have begun circulating. If you receive one of these emails do not open it or respond to it. It is not the BBB’s practice to send complaint notices via email:

Better Business Bureau is issuing an urgent SCAM alert cautioning businesses and consumers about an email that is purporting to be from a bbb.org email address about a recently filed complaint. The email contains a dangerous attachment regarding a complaint and appears to direct recipients to the BBB website. This is a scam – BBB does not send complaints as attachments via email.

The email has a subject line of “BBB Complaint Activity Report” and looks like this:

BBB Scam Email Screenshot

It is important to monitor your online reputation and the real BBB still carries weight with consumers. To monitor your status with your local BBB, schedule regular visits to their site to view your listing and have a response plan ready should you find any negative reports.

When in doubt, if you receive an email that seems suspicious – I got two of these same emails this morning – do a quick Google search on the topic. I searched for “bbb email scam” and had a page full of results outlining this scam.

You can read the full BBB Scam Alert here.

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By Neptune Moon, September 29, 2011 1:14 pm

The web does not need to be homogeneous. Usability is important and making sure your site is meeting visitor expectations is critical, but I think we are losing our ability to create sites that are appropriate for OUR audiences. Case in point – the redesign of the Slate web site. Haven’t seen it yet?

Here’s a look at the new home page layout:

Not so bad or different from how it used to be, but scroll down further and it is a disaster:

I don’t even know where to look?

I am getting a little exhausted by what seems lately like every web site’s attempted reinvention into some type of social media experience. Not everything needs to look or feel or function like Twitter or Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are great tools and can play a really important role in your relationships with your customers and potential customers. A web site is not a social media outlet – why do we keep trying to make them into one?

Even Facebook is arguably trying to turn itself into some strange Facebook Twitter hybrid with its new design.

Enough already.

Today’s web sites should be about integrating your web site proper with your social media efforts. Turning your site into a real time experience with constantly refreshing content and comment streams, well, takes away from the experience most visitors are looking for when they choose to visit your web site – instead of your Twitter feed or your Facebook page. There is still room for a well designed, user-centric web site in your internet strategy. Let’s make the most of what a web site can be and stop trying to make it do everything.

The comments about the Slate redesign have been overwhelmingly negative. Look, I know people aren’t generally great with change, but the criticisms of this redesign really resonate with me. And they should resonate with anyone who is still designing and developing web sites for clients in today’s climate.

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By Neptune Moon, September 20, 2011 9:46 am

So, obviously I know the importance of positive reviews on the web – especially for businesses that are consumer driven. I work with a number of clients to help them manage their online reputation, create positive buzz and address the inevitable negative rant that will appear online about them or their business. So, imagine my surprise when I recently wrote two stellar reviews for places I love on Yelp only to find that my reviews had been filtered and were not displaying in either business’ listing? What gives?

According to Yelp’s FAQ:

Does the filter only target positive reviews?

No. The software applies the same analysis to everyone. It sometimes affects more positive reviews simply because Yelp users write more positive reviews in the first place. In other cases, it affects positive reviews that appear to have been solicited by business owners (a practice which may seem like a good way to generate more reviews, but which tends to create an unintentional bias). In any event, the filter affects both positive and negative reviews — feel free to check out a random sampling of businesses listed on Yelp to see for yourself.

In my experience with Yelp, it does filter or remove positive reviews much more frequently than negative reviews. To me, this is nuts. Trust me, you do need to encourage people to take the time and go online to post positive reviews. Customers may rave about your business in person, but we’re all busy and very few people will take the time to go online and write up their positive experience. Contrast that with the speed and ease with which an angry customer (or non-customer!) can post a nasty rant about you or your business? An angry individual can post right from your place of business when armed with a smartphone. Talk about no filter! Their complaint doesn’t even have to be true to be posted.

So, why does Yelp penalize businesses who have customers who love them? I don’t get it. Should I not be truthful in my praise for a place I love? That seems nuts and like it would make their site less useful, not more. Congratulations Yelp, I won’t be posting any more reviews on your site for the businesses I want to promote. I will write my glowing reviews on Google Places instead. I also won’t be using your site to find reviews either.

You can read more about their Review Filter here.

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By Neptune Moon, September 1, 2011 10:58 am

I haven’t addressed this topic in a while, but it is critically important. Who controls your web site – you or someone else? Are you even sure? I’m reminded now, as I am working with several clients to reclaim control of their domains and web sites, just how important this issue is… You must be in control of your web properties, period.

What do I mean by this? When you have a web site, there are several components that you should control – the domain(s), the hosting account and the web site itself (design & content). Let’s look at each of these elements and why they need to be under your control.

Your Domains

A domain is a web site address, such as www.neptunemoon.com. Are you or your organization the registered owner of your domain(s)? Do you know how to find out? At the most basic level, you should make sure that your organization, not an outside provider, is the registered owner of your company’s domains. Only the registered owner can make changes to the account. Only the registered owner gets the renewal notices. You spend lots of time and money building your web site and brand online – make sure you control the domain.

How can you tell if you own the domain? If you don’t have your domain registration account information on file, a quick search at Network Solutions’ WHOIS tool will show you who is the registered owner of the domain. If you are not the registered owner, contact your provider who is listed as the registered owner and ask them to transfer the account to you. They will need to authorize the transfer as the account holder. Do this now, while relations are good between you and the provider. It is your brand, you should own it and control access to it, not an outside party.

Web Site Hosting Account

Every web site has to be hosted somewhere. Do you know who your hosting company is? Do you control the hosting account? Many web design and development firms insist on setting up and managing the hosting for their clients. I could not disagree with this policy more! Again, your web site is mission critical to YOUR organization, not the design firm’s. The hosting account should be in your or your company’s name. You should control access and grant it to your chosen providers, not the other way around.

When you let an outsider control your hosting, you are setting yourself up for unnecessary potential problems. If you don’t control your hosting account, you could find yourself in any of the following situations, with little recourse:

1. Your web site could be taken offline at any time and not be accessible to customers or clients
2. Your vendor could fail to pay the hosting bill and your site could be suspended
3. You cannot end your relationship with an unsatisfactory provider because they won’t relinquish control of your site to you
4. Your provider could cease to exist and it is very difficult to get control of an account set up by someone else without their cooperation

What can you do? If you don’t know where your web site is hosted, find out now. Ask your provider for all hosting account access credentials. Ask them to work with you to transfer the hosting account ownership to you or your organization ASAP. You should have control of the account and make sure you keep the access credentials on file. If your provider refuses to transfer the account to you – you might be in trouble. If you followed our advice about the domain, you can always set up a new hosting account and copy the site to the new account.

Your Web Site – Design & Content

Who owns your actual web site – both the visual design and the content? Don’t assume that the answer is you. Your original web site project contract should clearly spell out who owns what. In general, most reputable firms will transfer ownership rights to you, the client, after the project has been approved and its invoices fully paid. Not all firms do this, so make sure that you have a clear understanding of what you own and what you don’t.

Assuming that you own the site, design and content, you should be free to move it wherever you want. Sometimes firms make it difficult for you to move a site – that should be a warning that they are not putting their customers first. I’ve worked on projects where the previous firm made it really difficult for the client to get access to their web site components. I don’t understand this behavior. I understand wanting to make sure that the hosting environment is a good one and that it has all of the technical components that the site will need to run smoothly. I don’t understand locking a site down so that a client cannot access it or move it away from you.

If you need to lock your clients in that tightly so that you retain them, perhaps you want to take a look at your business model and customer service practices? Clients should be free to do whatever they want with a site once they have paid for it. Be wary of a firm that insists on total control and refuses to allow you access to the actual site files. You could find yourself in a hostage situation.

Web Site Common Sense

No one likes to go into a new relationship planning for it to fall apart. And, I’m not suggesting that you have that pessimistic of a view. I am, however, suggesting, that you make sure that you and your organization are fully in control of your web properties so that the choice of where you host your site and who works on the site is always yours. It’s your business – protect it!

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By Neptune Moon, August 12, 2011 5:36 pm

So I just saw a tweet from Avinash Kaushik about three settings you will want to change in LinkedIn to keep your profile information from being shared with third party sites. I am pretty big on privacy and controlling access to my various online profiles, so I was surprised to read about this and took action right away!

Item One: Social Advertising

According to LinkedIn’s own preferences box:

LinkedIn may sometimes pair an advertiser’s message with social content from LinkedIn’s network in order to make the ad more relevant. When LinkedIn members recommend people and services, follow companies, or take other actions, their name/photo may show up in related ads shown to you. Conversely, when you take these actions on LinkedIn, your name/photo may show up in related ads shown to LinkedIn members. By providing social context, we make it easy for our members to learn about products and services that the LinkedIn network is interacting with.

What does it mean? It means that advertisers could use your profile information alongside their ads if you have interacted with them in some way. Just because I follow someone or a company, does not mean I endorse them.

How to turn it off: The default is that you are opted in to this. To opt out, go to your Settings Tab > Accounts >Manage Social Advertising and uncheck the box that says “LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising.”

Item Two: Data Sharing with Third Party Applications

What does it mean? It means that you are giving LinkedIn permission to share your profile data with undisclosed third party applications.

How to tun it off: To change this setting, go to your Settings Tab > Groups, Companies & Applications > Data sharing with third-party applications and uncheck the box that says “Yes, share my data with third party applications.”

Item Three: Partner InMail

According to LinkedIn’s own preference box:

LinkedIn Partner InMails are messages from our partners with informational or promotional content that is part of a marketing or hiring campaign. These Partner InMails are sent to LinkedIn users based on non-personal information, such as the title of your current position, your primary industry, or your region, and are not from individual recruiters using LinkedIn. Your name and e-mail address will not be disclosed to LinkedIn’s marketing partners.

What does it mean? It means that you are agreeing to allow LinkedIn’s marketing partners to send you unsolicited emails.

How to turn it off: To change this setting, got to your Settings Tab > Email > Turn On/Off Partner InMail and uncheck the box that says “LinkedIn’s marketing partners may send you informational and promotional messages.” and uncheck the box that says “LinkedIn’s hiring campaign partners may send you informational and promotional messages.”

The problem isn’t necessarily that LinkedIn wants to start making itself more social – which it clearly does. The problem is, it automatically opts users in, without any notice. Have they not learned anything from Facebook and their privacy outcries after making similar changes to their network? I realize that the point of being on a network like LinkedIn or Facebook is to share information and I am all for that. But, I am also for utter transparency in what is being shared and for having control over what parts of my profiles are shared and with whom. I don’t think I’m alone in this!

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By Neptune Moon, July 27, 2011 3:31 pm

What does it take to really engage with “fans” on Facebook? This has been an open question since Facebook became a part of many of our daily lives. Just how much time do you need to spend in it? How often do you need to post updates? What should be in those updates? What do fans really want from businesses or organizations (hint: discounts!).

ComScore is out with another one of their always enlightening reports this week and this one focuses on Facebook and how individuals spend their time while logged in. Not surprisingly, people spend the biggest chunk of their time on Facebook reading their Newsfeed. Of particular interest are their figures about just how often a Page (or business) needs to post updates to potentially reach even a small portion of their fans. Would you believe that less than 20% of your Fans will see your content in their Newsfeeds – even if you are posting 5 out of 7 days a week?

From the ComScore Report (available for download after you fill out a brief form):

Despite the dominance of consumption in the Newsfeed relative to the brand page, a minority of Fans see content from a brand in a given week. A Facebook analysis indicates that, on average, 16 percent of Fans are reached by branded content by a brand that posts five out of seven days.

That is both fascinating and a little depressing! It is not hard to understand why this is though – Facebook uses a complicated (and closely guarded) algorithm that determines what is actually displayed in any given user’s Newsfeed. Ever wonder why you see updates from some friends more often than others? It has to do with how often they post, of course, but there are other factors that impact what makes it into your feed. The greater the number of Friends or Pages a user has in their network, the more crowded their Newsfeed space becomes.

So what is an organization or business to do if you want to engage on Facebook? Now, more than ever, it takes time and a well planned strategy. Not surprisingly, ComScore suggests that the Friends of your Fans are a great group to target. Engaging your Fans is important, but finding ways to have them share your posts with their Friends is even better. Get creative, but remember to be genuine. And, as always, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that Facebook is the right social media platform to reach your target audience. If it is, then go for it, but be prepared. Successfully managing a Facebook page and strategy takes a lot of time, creativity and effort.

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By Neptune Moon, July 8, 2011 10:46 am

How do you feel about making purchases directly through Facebook? Are you concerned about the privacy and security of these transactions? If you are, you’re not alone.

According to a survey conducted from May 20 – June 1 of this year by NY advertising agency JWT, people of all generations are concerned about the safety and privacy of ecommerce happening directly through Facebook. Nearly three quarters of the adults surveyed (1,000 total) felt that Facebook was not currently secure enough for them to feel comfortable making purchases. The concerns were pretty consistent across generations, which you may find surprising. We all tend to assume that Millennials (currently 20 – 33 years old) are completely comfortable doing and sharing everything online. Not so according to this survey – it is Millennials who worry most about privacy. I found that surprising.

I am not quite sure that we are at the nexxus of online social activities and ecommerce. Facebook seems to have had too many privacy issues for most people to feel completely comfortable entering their credit card information into their system. It seems that most people, of all generations surveyed (Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers) do enjoy browsing for products during their Facebook and social media time online. How will these attitudes change over time? A lot depends on how Facebook and now Google+ evolve.

You can read more about the survey results at ClickZ.

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By Neptune Moon, June 28, 2011 2:19 pm

With technology advancing at what often feels like warp speed, it is easy to forget that on the other side of any type of communication is still a human being. We have so many opportunities to instantly express our thoughts and opinions and so many outlets to post to, I think we may have lost sight of why we engage in the first place – to communicate.

So much of our business communication is decidedly one-sided and often, a little ego-centric. Think about it – how do you communicate most often with prospective clients or customers? Email? Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? A blog? There has been a lot of talk in the past couple of years about how push marketing is dead and it is now all about engagement. While I agree that engagement media (think Twitter and Facebook) have certainly risen in popularity and sophistication, there is still plenty of room in your marketing mix for good old-fashioned push marketing (think Email or blogs).

Whatever channel you choose to communicate with your customers, make sure that you are always putting THEM first. It is so easy to forget this simple philosophy and just bombard people with messages that are all about you and not all that interesting to them! I often suggest to clients that they think about their own behavior when we are discussing a new marketing concept or delivery method. Granted, your target market may be very different from your client and those differences are important to recognize, but there are certain types of behavior that are pretty universally annoying.

Are you guilty of any of these?

1. Obnoxious Frequency. Sending the same email blast out every other day for two weeks because your open rates are low. Tweeting about every little thought that comes into your head all day long.
2. The Hard Sell. Are all of your communications all about how wonderful your company or product is?
3. Not Listening. Do you ever reply to people who do try to engage with you or do you leave them hanging?
4. Being Intrusive. Social media can be tricky – just because you or your company was mentioned, does not always mean you need to jump in to a conversation.
5. Not Asking for Permission. Do you add people to your email list, or worse text message list, without asking? Do you get permission for one thing and then automatically sign them up for everything else?
6. Abusing Trust. Do you share email addresses with other companies?
7. Not Taking No for an Answer. Do you make it easy for people to disengage with you if they so desire?

Engaging in great communication starts with you and it is easier than you might think. How can you avoid being guilty of the above offenses?

1. Take a hard look at your email content and/or your email list segmentation. If you have low open rates, ask yourself why. Perhaps your information is not all that interesting or useful. Make it better!
2. Ease up on the blatant sales language. Start to build a reputation as a connector of people or a source of useful and topical information.
3. Build social media listening into your social media strategy – spend time reading what others are writing and when appropriate, join the conversation.
4. Use some restraint and avoid being creepy! Just because you or your company were mentioned in a post does not automatically mean it is appropriate or welcome for you to directly engage and jump into someone else’s conversation.
5. Follow sound opt-in procedures and be clear about your policies when someone is signing up to receive communication from you.
6. Treat your email list, followers and connections like gold – because they are! If you’re not sure about a particular behavior, you probably shouldn’t do it.
7. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe and if you do step over the line in the social space, apologize quickly and sincerely and then go away.

If we all take a moment to think about our audience and put ourselves in their shoes, our communications can’t help but be better!