Engage your users

In my last post I talked about keeping your online presence fresh and updated: The first step to getting people to visit your site more than just once.  The next step in getting your visitors to really feel drawn to your site/company is to keep them engaged. 

What I mean by "engaged" is to make it a two-sided relationship.  Make the experience one where they are not coming to your site just to "take" from you.  Interact with them.  Make it a unique experience for every visitor.  Give them a voice.

With Web 2.0 and the surge of social media, there is no reason not to have these types of features as part of your online presence.  Set up a Twitter account.  Create a Facebook group.  These are easy enough to do yourself and you can simply link to them from your company's main website. 

One of the oldest, yet still effective, methods for engaging your audience is the use of forums.  Yes, they are old-school, but with the growth of features like OpenID and RSS functionality, they are as relevant as ever in my opinion.  I would say that most if not all of the online tools I use have forums as part of their support system.  They are a great way for you visitors to not only interact with your company, but with each other. 

In this day of the Web and all the anonymity that it offers, forums can be a great way to build relationships that are less anonymous.  For example, I visit many different guitar-related forum communities and have recently made several trades with other members.  There is something about putting your trust in someone you've never met and actually making a successful deal that, in a way, restores good-feelings for other people once again.

Another real-world example of engagement in action is the forum-functionality I recently set up for GraceNet.  Martha Grace Reese is the author of a series of books on Christian evangelism.  The first of these books is called "Unbinding the Gospel", and many churches use this book as a training tool with their congregations.  Last week we launched an online forum called the "Unbinding the Gospel Community" where readers of the book could go and discuss things related to the text and process.  There is also a section where Reese can post news, thoughts, etc, whenever she has something to share - similar to a blog but within the Community.  All the forums have RSS feeds so people can subscribe through their favorite reader application.  This is engagement in an effective manner, and Reese is already seeing information from the Community members that will be useful in her current research project.

So get out there and engage.  Create an interactive relationship with your users.  Listen to them.  Adapt to them.  And most of all, value the things they have to say and offer.

 

PS - I am not a Trekkie.  But I do love Trekkies, the film.