I had a really interesting conversation recently with one of our clients regarding communications with customers. We were discussing the need to blog, and the need to utilize the large number of emails from interested customers they had collected.  They asked a very good question, asking what it is that they should be writing about. Thankfully I had Dawn Foster’s great post about corporate blogging tips to show them, but they initially didn’t see the real beauty in blogging for your company, activating a conversation with your customers.

The bad news is that as a start-up or small business, your existence is defined by the lack of budget that you often face. One of the biggest manifestations of this challenge is the need to be creative and selective in the way that you market. But the advantage that you have is that you’re now in the era of web 2.0. Social applications and connections are one of the defining pieces of the growth of web 2.0. Applications and tools such as blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of others are designed for users to comment, interact and talk. That means that you as a business can use these applications to comment, interact, and talk about you and your company.  So use them! Open yourself up to your customers and talk about what you’re doing. Get their feedback, get their comments. Then interact with your customers when you can. Post to them, thank them, make them feel a part of your company. Truly word of mouth at its best!

The concern that our clients had about this process was a lack of message control. Opening yourself up means allowing your customers to say whatever they want. Saying whatever they think generally isn’t what your corporate script says. But as a small business, you need to set your customers free and let them be the salesforce you don’t have.

Take a look at the success Barack Obama has had literally turning the users of his website into a nationwide network of campaign volunteers. Or the success Starbucks has had with mystarbucksidea.com. The point is that you shouldn’t be reluctant about being a part of these conversations. Your customers often know what you do and how you do it better than you do. Most importantly, their experience with you and your products can be extremely valuable as endorsements.

So, how do you do it.

Message Control 2.0 - Give your customers something to talk about. Open up and talk about what you’re working on. Ask them questions about how they used your products. Get them to tell you how you did, and what caused them to feel that way about you. But get them talking on your terms with your discussion points. You’re able to get great feedback on things that customers like and dislike, and things that they need from new launches. The Starbucks and Obama sites are great examples of this, where both companies were able to control and start the conversation, but let go of what resulted from the conversation.

Give your customers a reason to care - Now this part is a little easier if you’re Obama or Starbucks, you know, something that people are addicted to, but you can do it. You’re looking at one of the ways right now, giving out good information in your communications. Customers are far less interested in corporate schill than we would like them to be, but they are interested in solutions. And hey, you’ve built a business around helping to solve a problem that someone has, so talk about how to fix it.  Your users will appreciate it, and continue to check it. Plus you can give them a forum to discuss what issues they face, and you can get new ideas directly from them.

Don’t be afraid of putting your brand in the hands of your customers. Worst case scenario you get great feedback on what you’re doing wrong.