Make It Work’s Web Wednesday is focused on providing the most up-to-date information and tips for using the web and social media for business.

Whether it’s about recent news, trends or technology involving social media, we’ve got your business covered. Tune in Every Wednesday for news, tips and essentials!

Anyone who’s used  Twitter for a little while is familiar with the “Fail Whale” image that pops up when the social media site is down.  While trying to reload the page, the following image shows up (below right), temporarily replacing the most recent stream of tweets.

Numerous businesses have followed Twitter’s “Fail Whale” example and developed fun outage messages.  Since outages are usually inevitable, why not personalize them?

Tumblr posted a similar one today (below left).

Crisis communication has become increasingly important; more and more people have turned to the web for business purposes.  We need to know when sites are down, and we’d like to know when they’ll be back up.  Most importantly, we psychologically need to know you’re working on it, so we can shift our focus back to the important stuff, or at least the things we can control.

The Bigger Picture

The internet has inevitably replaced commonly accepted forms of communication and interaction.  You no longer need to walk into a real estate office to find out what’s on the market; you can even order and engrave iPods online.

Based on these technological developments, humanization of the web is more important than ever, especially for business.  While we enjoy the ease of doing things quickly online, we also greatly appreciate any chance we have to interact with businesses about their products and services.  As consumers, if we believe our opinion is taken into consideration, we are much happier with our overall experience. Websites like Twitter and Facebook allow businesses to personally communicate with customers, so be sure to take advantage.

Here are some tips to personalize your web presence.

Tip #1: Add a profile photo. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, make sure you have a picture; people like to know who they’re talking to.

Tip #2: Be sure to allow your customers/fans to post things on your Facebook fan page.  After all, communication is the purpose of social media.

Tip #3: Engage.  Don’t underestimate the power of responding.  You can also “like” (Facebook) or retweet (Twitter) to share information posted by your connections.  This will help spread the word about your product and encourage customers and fans to continue communicating with you.

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Have any other tips or tricks you’ve used to engage on the web?  We’d love to hear from you!

If you’d like help humanizing your website, call our web services department at (877) 625-3489

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