Terrific Traffic, Part 3 of 5

Today’s Focus: Bumping Up the PR (Public Relations)

Public Relations, what is it?: Public relations is simply ensuring that your company or business responds well to customers, be it socially or via email. There are many activities which businesses will utilize in order to ensure a positive image in front of their customers.

Building loyalty and credibility via good PR is great for business, these may include responding well in emails, responding to customer complaints, sending them seasonal invitations and card etc…

No, we’re not talking Google PR, We are talking Public Relations: If your blog is your private home business or a hobby for some extra bucks then you need to run it like a business. So many people do not have the right attitude towards their readers when they are blogging, some people have the “aggressive” stance when it comes to responding to negative comments on their blogs.

The right thing to do is either ignore it or reply very diplomatically, like the owner of Not John Chow Dot Com replied to my review of his site, very diplomatically, he was NOT putting exclamation marks all over the comment and insulting me for having given his blog a bit of bad press.

Answering emails from your readers: Sometimes you may get a reader or readers who want to link exchange, want a free review, are responding to an offer of yours etc…

How do YOU respond? If you respond in a very conversational tone that’s fine, if you have some thank you’s and common courtesy that is even better. I have to tell you all, which email will you be more inclined to look at again?

The email that has two lines and is vague or the email that is filled with concise but informative data provided to you by a courteous and generous site owner…for me, I definitely think the latter.

The point that I am getting at here is the fact that we need to rethink our business concept, being slack in emails to customers and not responding to comments is one of the worst things you can do, you are telling your readers that you are not interested, they are not important and that you have better things to do, before they have even subscribed to your feed or done anymore browsing on your site.

TAKE ACTION: The next time someone emails you remember

• Do not be vague
• Provide them with exact information
• No ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’
• Be assertive and be certain
• You have to know what you are talking about
• Don’t beat around the bush
• Do not candy coat

EMAIL ETIQUETTE

• Start with a nice ‘Hey, How’s it going?’ or a ‘Dear (Name)’
• Say ‘Hope your day is going well,’
• Write you content (ensure it is up to email standard*)
• End with a ‘Many thanks’ or ‘Yours Truly, Kindly or Sincerely’
• End with a ‘Have a great day’
• Also say ‘Look forward to talk to you soon’

*EMAIL STANDARD: This was established by many, which is the process whereby the email is written to take up only 10 or 15 words per line, this is to ensure that it will be able to be read well in every browser or email reader. This is phasing out but it is still quite common nowadays.

Finally…why is good Public Relations important for traffic? Public Relations is the make or break for your visitors, if you do not take the time to reply to commentators, reply nicely to emails etc…They will probably lose interest in your blog and unsubscribe to your feed, this is what I do when a blogger is not interested in returning my emails etc…

From the Positive point of view: It is great to be nice to your readers and respond to their comments and respond nicely to their emails, it makes them feel special and makes you feel like you are contributing to the discussion, in addition to this you are building loyalty and establishing credibility with them for the future when you may need their help etc…

So, the next time you answer an email or see a comment on your blog, or a customer contacts you in some way or form, be nice to them and make them feel valued.

Posted on December 21, 2007
Filed Under Traffic Building Tips |

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