We like to be entertained. We enjoy storytellers that can transplant us into fantastical realms and take our imaginations on rides that we’d never usually imagine.

We like touchpoints. We feel more in tune with those that directly reach out to us and hold our hands; guide us; share their experience and involvement with something, and make us feel that we’re the only people that they’re talking to at that given time.

Simply put, we enjoy being part of the experience.

The best storytellers are that because their audience is enveloped by the words from the pen or the lips of the person telling the story. The best touchpoints are the ones that leave us with a lasting impression long after the initial touch has happened.

You need to be the storyteller. The touchpoint. The connection between what is and what can be. This can be for your business, your blog, your online or offline persona – in other words, you. So how do you become the experience everyone wants to be part of?

Create and Curate

Our time is busy – you need to offer us a reason to take part in whatever your experience is offering. We need to feel that there’s benefit or relevance – otherwise, is there any point in checking out your experience to start with? Some areas to consider:

• Does it save me time?
• Will it offer me something I can’t get elsewhere (or at least be significantly different)?
• How much of a role can I play in it?
• What’s the long-term approach – is there one or is it just a one-off?

Once you’ve created the experience, your job is only just beginning. But then that’s all part of good storytelling – raise the interest then keep it going.

• Offer me tidbits and teasers as the experience draws near.
• Build excitement by offering plot points – these could be a big sale coming up, a new product’s blurred image, a special guest blogger’s shadowed profile only in a teaser post.
• Keep the touchpoints alive by using your storytelling experience to hint at future experiences – make the experience the first part of an ongoing deal (business events, sales promotions, a blog post series, etc), and ensure your audience knows this is the case.

Create the experience. Tell a story around it. Draw in the crowd with a warm welcome. Look after the before, during and after. Ask readers of your story and visitors to your touchpoints what they enjoyed, and how they’d like to see the tale(s) progress. Feedback can turn into payback – don’t lose that impetus.

We want to be entertained, but we want to be entertained honestly and feel that you mean it.

You can do that, can’t you?

image: horizontal.integration

On Creating and Curating an Experience originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

Customer service is an especially hot topic for me, as I’ve worked in improving how service is measured and improved at a few companies, where previously it was maybe in third or fourth place when it came to that company’s priorities.

Your employees are your best customers, and your customers are your best employees. They’ll defend you; market for you; endorse you; and be your voice where you might not currently have a presence.

If you look after them. Something blogging platform Posterous could improve on.

A Week is a Long Time in Business

Almost two weeks ago, I decided to stop posting short-form blog posts over at Posterous, and move all my blogging back to my blog right here. While I had enjoyed experimenting with Posterous, this is my homebase. And I wasn’t keen on a third-party “owning” my content.

So, I wrote a post about why I was leaving Posterous and made the decision that I’d delete my account there within a few days, to allow anyone to come and subscribe here if they wished.

And that’s where the fun begins.

I tried deleting my account, and kept getting an error message. No worries, the message mentioned Posterous had been emailed about it, and it’d be resolved soon. Except it wasn’t.

For a week, I tried to delete my account – I even made it my secondary one since I was informed that primary accounts at Posterous need you to contact support to delete the account for you.

Still no joy. Frustrated, I reached out to Posterous via their Twitter account. No reply there, so over to contacting their helpdesk.

In all fairness, their representative Vince got back to me seven hours later. Yet it wasn’t to delete the site right away – that would only happen if I confirmed that this was what I wanted to do (click to enlarge).

So, I mention that yes, I do want to delete my account and I pointed Vince to my post on their platform as to the reasons why.

This was on Thursday, August 12, and as of writing, my Posterous account is still live.

Customers Hate Obstacles

So now I’m pretty frustrated with Posterous. I no longer want to use their service, but I’m still “using it” if you visit my account there. And the company isn’t making it easy for me to stop using their service.

It’s like me signing you up to my newsletter, and then making you jump through a bunch of hoops to unsubscribe, in the hope you might give up and stay with me for convenience’s sake.

And it’s a shame. I’ve written before how Posterous offers an easy way in for folks to experiment with blogging, and I’ve pointed clients their way in the past that wanted to see if blogging is for them. But not now – my experience with Posterous has been soured by something that should be pretty straightforward.

As customers, we can be a complaining bunch, but at times the complaining could be easily avoided just by taking away the obstacles companies put us through. Some get that spot on.

The Gravity Forms Experience

I started using Gravity Forms recently for my contact forms. I’d heard good things about them and I wanted to check them out, so I bought the single user license. I loved how they worked, so I wanted to upgrade to the multi-site license instead.

I used their contact form to ask how easy this was, and what the steps would be. Within 10 minutes, Carl Hancock had an emailed answer and easy-to-follow steps on how to upgrade. Within 30 minutes, I had a coupon code to use that would deduct my original purchase from the multi-site one.

But what really stood out for me is that this all happened late at night. I contacted Gravity Forms at 11.28pm, and by 11.58pm I had my coupon code and purchase instructions.

Thirty minutes.

That level of service turns me from a simple customer to a brand advocate. If anyone asks me about forms for blogging, I point them in the direction of Gravity Forms. Every time.

Simple Sells

It may be that Posterous has a larger userbase than Gravity Forms. It may be that their platform needs more technical nous than Gravity Forms. It may be that there’s a certain timescale before something can get done.

But to customers, that doesn’t always matter. All we want is a simple product, and one that we can stop using at any time if we choose to do so. Making us go through hoops just ensures we won’t return to your product in future, and will probably use your competitors instead.

You could say that Posterous is a free product, and so the support doesn’t need to be as good as that of a premium product. But let’s say at some stage they’re looking to make it a paid service – how they look after you now defines how you’ll perceive paying for their service.

Marketing might sell a product, but service is the gold that repeat sales come from.

Compare the Posterous and the Gravity Forms approach – which one would you be a loyal customer of?

Update – my account has been deleted after Rich Pearson of Posterous kindly stepped in and explained the delay.

What Posterous Could Learn from Gravity Forms About Service originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

- It’s all about the dialogue.
- You have to fish where the fish are.
- You have to engage.
- You can’t measure the ROI of social media.
- Look at Zappos / Dell / Best Buy / Jetblue / Comcast as examples of how to do it right.
- Etc, etc, etc… (okay, this last one isn’t really part of the phrases!)

Now, second part of the pop quiz. How many times a day do you see or hear these phrases being used on a social network or blog? Once? Twice? Ten times? More?

My guess is that it’s quite a bit (and, I’ll be the first to hold my hand up and say I’ve been guilty of it in the past). I’ll try my best to steer clear of these areas – if I slip (and don’t quantify why I’m using one or more of these terms) then feel free to shout me down.

My point?

There are three audiences when it comes down to it – the early adopters of social media, the ones that have been using social media for a while, and the ones just starting to dip their toes in. And it’s time to bring these three audiences together. Faster. Starting today. Because really, there’s no need for differences when you think about it.

The toe dippers are looking for help and advice. Good, actionable advice. The kind that can take them from testing the water to the comfort zone that is the mid-term users. Where the theory is understood; the why isn’t in question; and the next step is the how part of the equation.

Which leaves the early adopters, who can bring bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. So let’s see that happening. Here’s how.

• Experienced folks – instead of just saying, “You have to fish where the fish are”, enable the fishermen. Show them exactly how you fish where the fish are. And, if you’re a new fisherman, question people that say this and don’t offer a boat to take you there.

• Quit using the “you can’t measure social media ROI” soundbite. If it can be deployed, it can be measured. Compare previous non-social media strategies with those now using it – did you save promotional money? Did you see an increase in website traffic? Did you reach more of your targeted audience? Was the process more streamlined? How many downloaded your mobile app? Did brand loyalty increase? Did your customer service satisfaction level increase because you had a virtual call centre? These are just some of the basic questions that can be answered when it comes to measuring ROI – but they’re good starting points.
• Change the soundtrack. Yes, it’s wonderful that businesses like Comcast, Zappos, Dell and others like them are held up as examples of social media success stories. But their stories are old now. What about the ones we don’t hear but should? What about family farms? Or innovative approaches to consumer wholesale food? Or delivery firms? Or, if you still want to talk fish, how about an actual fishing company? There’s a whole world of success stories out there – isn’t it about time we shared the small ones that are (probably) more relevant to most social media business users (at this minute)?

Everyone pretty much agrees social media isn’t a fad – it’s showing new ways to do business and connect locally and globally. So why are we still hanging on the coat tails of where it was this time last year?

We know the why – every business entering the social space is there for a reason. There’s not an awful lot of the how, though. So – let’s change that. Let’s stop accepting soundbites and the same old examples. Let’s move to actionable processes and where that can take us instead.

In short, let’s not be afraid to open up and really get this wealth of information to all users.

What say you?

photo credit: sugu

You Don’t Say… originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.