Your Content Is a Social Actor
Your content is a social actor. [1] Actually, it might be a few social actors. It’s your sales person, your customer service representative, your tech support guru, your concierge, your nurse, your news reporter, and more. It’s whoever your users expect to interact with. Your content, not your technology, is creating relationships with your users.
Your content is a social actor. How well is it performing? Is it speaking as a likable sales person or an obnoxious one? Is it speaking as a helpful customer service rep or a nonchalant one? Is it speaking like your brand or any brand? Is it drawing crowds or crickets?
Your content is a social actor. What are you doing to ensure it succeeds? Are you investing in the right scripts and the right words? How are you adjusting the words to fit the different stages—website, IVR, kiosk, mobile, and more? How are you adjusting the words to reflect the right emotions and suit the right purpose?
Your content is a social actor. It’s one of the most powerful ways to influence your users. Bruce Temkin, a Forrester customer experience analyst, recently declared at MX 09 that “brands are dying” because we have “sucked the emotion” out of them. In this age of automation, what better way to bring emotion back to the experience than through well-crafted content? [2]
Your content is a social actor. Treat it like a star.
[1] Social actor is one way technology persuades according to Persuasive Technology by B.J. Fogg.
[2] Daniel Pink noted we’re in an age of automation in A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
