Friday, February 17, 2012

Back to the Basics

I came across an interesting article today called “Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert” featured on Business Insider by Peter Shankman. In addition to being quite hilarious; it also covers the serious subject of current social media and how it can get in the way of what organizations NEED to do – deliver customer services and products people really want to buy.

Peter brings up a great point about the use of social media stating that at the end of the day a company’s success is not based alone on Facebook page likes or Twitter posts but is really about a simple basic driver - “It’s about generating revenue through solid marketing and stellar customer service, just like it’s been since the beginning of time.”

While social media outlets can create buzz, they should not be the only thing in your marketing toolkit as they do not make up for the basic marketing principals. As Peter states, “Do you know your audience? Have you reached out to them? I’m not talking about “tweeting at them.” I’m talking about actually reaching out. Asking them what you can do better, or asking those who haven’t been around in a while what you can do to get them back. It’s not about 10 percent off coupons or “contests for the next follower.”

The question is: How do you marry the latest buzz creating social media with direct customer interaction, innovation, and market research?

The answer is: icanmakeitbetter

I know this may seem like a cheesy plug for my own company (which it sort of is), but this article and this type of discussion is one of the main reasons we created icanmakeitbetter. While social media is a great tool, customers want to be heard and feel their feedback is shaping the products and services offered to them. We created icanmakeitbetter as a solution to do just this.

Please check out the platform and see how Dell and City of Austin are using social media to innovate, engage and actually do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. And if you have any questions, comments or ideas, I would love to hear from you!!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Sentient Services UX client City of Austin launches new acclaimed site

We had the pleasure of doing the end-user citizen UX (usability and IA) research for the City of Austin's completely redone website. Steel Advertising and Interactive did the design and knocked it out of the park.
Check out the City of Austin website here.

And the MuniNetGuide article here. Where they state "To say Austin's revamped municipal website is "impressive" is like calling a giraffe a tall animal." Read it and see why usability research pays big dividends!