Your web strategy, Facebook, Twitter, or not?

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If you are a follower of Widex Ireland, you know that we post some content and tweet a lot of links pertaining to social media and web presence. In my recent posts here I have been concentrating on web presence pertaining to your website.

Whilst I was writing the last post I touched upon the concept of web presence strategy, or online strategy. I actually realised that some people neither have one or completely understand what the phrase means or how it refers to their online presence.

For instance, my strategy is to connect to both my customers and indeed end users through several online media channels, this blog, facebook, my space, youtube and twitter to be exact. Oh and probably Google Plus when they realise they forgot to invite me, they’re busy, probably just slipped their minds! The underlying strategy and overall long term goal is to build a community of both Dispensers and end users for Widex internationally.

I also wish to positively affect these peoples buying decisions and increase their perception of and loyalty to, my adopted brand. Those are my long term goals and overall strategy, in order to attain this I have to apply and follow clear tactical guidelines and actions.

Chief among these guidelines for me would be:

• Honest, human interaction with all my followers
• Good, well written, factual and clear content
• Content that is of interest to my target market
• Honest and immediate interaction with my followers
• Educational content

The tactical actions I take pertaining to these guidelines are:

• Regular tweets of own content
• Regular re-tweets of content of interest
• Cross platform posting of tweets to Facebook
• Regular posts on the blog
• Cross platform postings of the blog to Twitter
• Uploading of videos to youtube and cross platform posting of same
• Clear

My online presence is multi platform because this allows me to reach as many possible followers as I can. However, this approach is time consuming and challenging. There are several tools that allow me to reduce the time I spend on our presence, however, they do not reduce the challenge of posting diverse and intelligent content. Stop laughing at the back please, wesley Miller said I was intelligent, although, he was giggling at the time?

Do not forget, I am endeavouring to cater to two very different audiences, Dispensing professionals and end users.They both demand differing information around the same topics. This is a constant challenge for me, I need to design content that will be of interest to both audiences on a regular basis if I indeed want to carry both audiences along with me on my travels.

It is indeed not always possible, for instance this post and the last few preceding ones have been part of our business support ethos, something that is very strong in both Widex Ireland and Widex Internationally. Your average end user has no real interest in applying an online strategy. The closest they tend to get to online strategy is remembering not to post on facebook drunk, although that is indeed one of my own closely held strategies.  The average Dispenser probably would like to know about online business strategies.

I have barely touched the surface of my online strategy and indeed the use of social media, it is a subject that is exhaustive. I wish just to give bare outlines and indeed the points I think are imperative. 

Before you move forward with any online strategy, I would caution you to think carefully about what the long term goals of that strategy are? I would then clearly lay out the steps that you will take to attain those long term goals. The question you should clearly ask yourself is, why do I want a website, or facebook page, or Twitter account? If the answer is because my competitor has one, then you will do yourself a great disservice by obtaining one.

The initial step that should be taken by any business is the fundamental one, the foundation that all of your presence will be built on, your website. You need to treat your website as a living document, it should constantly change and evolve. Acceptable webpage design even as little as two years ago is now very dated looking. Has your webpage been updated in the last year, if not, why not?

I am speaking of your content here, not even your site design, your business regularly has events in its yearly life cycle, such as marketing campaigns, product offers, new additions to your price list, changes in your price list etc. These are ideal opportunities to update your site, keeping your content fresh.

In fact, in order to keep your site high on page one of the search engines returns, you need to update your content regularly with a view to constantly changing keywords and tags to reflect current search terms. This alone should drive you to tend your website carefully and often. These regime should include careful and honest assessment of your site design.

If it looks dated, change it, include a news segment that is regularly updated with cross links to an offers page where you keep your latest practice offers updated. Add a blog page that you update with content on a regular basis, the content you can use is endless, but always put your own spin on it. A viewer will spot canned content a mile away and their perception of you will be affected.

Always remember, you are dealing with the perceptions of not only existing, but prospective customers. Their perceptions of you are implicitly your top priority. their perceptions are what will make them pick you as a provider or indeed move on to somebody else.

The foundation step, before you move into any social networks is to ensure your website is right for you, ensure it represents you as you would like it to.

Included in the preceding paragraphs is an outline of how I utilise several on line platforms, my web-presence, to achieve my long term strategy. The question is, what is your long term web-presence strategy and how will you achieve it?

Tips to help you with your website or blog.

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I have been thinking more and more about web presence and the perceptual effect that a site has on a prospective Patient. The following is a summation of my own thoughts and some of the elements that I have noted on the web.

There is a lot of information out there in relation to business web presence and strategy. From using keywords to optimise your site for search engines, to your actual ongoing strategy for having a web presence. The latter is something that a lot of companies just do not think about in a in depth manner. Simply put, why are you on the web and what is your long term strategy for your web presence.

If you do not think clearly about this question and then utilise your strategy effectively, you are wasting your time. I will come back to this subject and explain further the concepts and practices that pertain to long term web strategy in another post.

The overall goal for your website is to attract and keep visitors. If you have undertaken the hard work to have your page highly ranked in the search engines, or indeed you have undertaken some marketing to increase your web traffic, it makes sense to ensure your visitor stays on your site. These tips may assist you to accomplish that goal.

What are some of the ways you can improve the overall chances that a customer will stay on long enough on your website, to become interested in a consultation or purchase?

• Make your call to action obvious on your home page. There must be a clear and concise call to action on your home page. In the case of our industry it could be  a headline such as “Free Hearing Test Provided”, “Providers of Bespoke Hearing Solutions”. Be sure to include the solutions that you are providing also, however, do not get text heavy, detail the solutions as links. If they want more information they can click through to a more in depth explanation. The place to click needs to be obvious, practically shouting “CLICK ME, CLICK ME”.
• Write great headlines. Attracting readers is a big part of your motivation. But don’t write outrageous headlines that do not match your content. Like traditional advertising, you need to ensure that you are not entering into any false advertising.
• Improve readability. Add white space and ensure you are using fonts that are clear and attractive. Get rid of any clutter, think clean lines. Readers are more likely to stay on a site where it’s easier to see the information that they wish to see. Include clear high res pictures on your pages.
• Have videos on the site. In our industry it is relatively easy to source high quality videos from manufacturers, embed them in your site. Several people within the industry are making their own videos, if you do it, make sure your production quality is high, the content is good, the presenter has a relatively decent screen presence and the finished video is edited and outputted in a relatively high resolution.
• Include Patient testimonials. Ask your Patient’s for testimonials, if you have indeed treated them properly and provided solutions to their problems, they will be happy to provide them. Don’t be embarrassed to ask, a large proportion of your Patients would normally be happy to help you in some way. These testimonials will add authenticity and allow a prospective Patient to begin to trust you and your claims, they also may increase the chances a prospective Patient will look a bit deeper around your site.
• Have a blog page on your site. Ensure the content is good, of interest to the potential customer and well written. Your blog the information provided and the tone it is provided in tends to be more informal, it is where your prospective customer finds out about your knowledge and ability to provide advice.
• Keep the important information above the fold. Users need to see the core of your message without having to scroll down.
• Make it easy to find information. Do not make it difficult to find information on your site. If somebody can not find what they are looking for easily, they will go back to the original search and try another company.
• Have a prominent Search Box. Users need to have an easy way to find just what they are looking for. Make your search box enormous, ensure that any and all permutations of a search entered will lead them to what they are looking for on your site.

Look at your site from a prospective Patients point of view. What do you honestly think of your site and what elements on your site would drive you away?

The changes in our Patients.

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I recently read an article pertaining to the changing nature of Patients, and stop harrying from the back, Widex Ireland contrary to the rumours can read, but I digress. The article was actually in reference to the changing knowledge profile of Doctors’ Patients, however it was thoroughly valid to our sector. It really started me thinking, and after we identified what the burning smell was and the fire brigade had been sent away, this is what I come up with.

When I first entered practice, only a short few years ago, Patients who attended my practice were not particularly knowledgeable about either their possible condition or any of the many instruments that may be available to them. Questions of this nature where nearly always answered with what could be termed a generic answer. If you asked what do you know about hearing instruments? The answer tended to be not much, but I know there is the small ones that go in the ear and the ones that go outside the ear.

Again, if you asked the same question about hearing loss, you would either get a not much or again a generic answer pertaining to age. Over the years I began to notice this changing, it was initially a slow affair, with one or two Patients a month surprising me with more specific knowledge. It still really amounted to slightly more targeted but generic knowledge, such as a brand name in the case of the hearing instrument question or perhaps a clearer definition of a hearing loss.

Usually when I discussed this with the Patient, it transpired that the source of knowledge was usually the internet. At that time it was unusual for our Patients, our Demographic to utilise the internet for anything, let alone searches pertaining to hearing loss and instruments. But I believe that this has changed radically.

I no longer practice, can you hear the sigh of relief?, but in my function with Widex Ireland I get to speak to practising Dispensers every day. What I have found is that Dispensers report that more and more prospective and existing Patients express opinions with real knowledge. Thoughts about their particular pathology of loss and perhaps its’ aetiology, they also express much better knowledge about the instruments that are available, mentioning not only brands but also platforms or indeed instrument configurations.

With this in mind and also my experience on the multiple social platforms that Widex Ireland uses, it has become obvious to me that a large part of our customer base is not only web literate but that number is increasing exponentially daily. They are being taught their new skills through active retirement clubs, government initiatives, even by their sons, daughters and grandchildren.

So where am I going with this, wait for it, wait for it, have I ever let you down before? Ok there was that time, oh yes and that other time, oh yes and that….., again I digress. What this means to us is that a large and growing part of our customer base is now online, not only are they online but they understand how online works. They are searching out information pertaining to their ailment and the possible solutions that may be available. When they search for the centres that may supply them those solutions, you want to be there and you want to dress to impress.

Every practice should sit down and devise a strategy for their internet presence, at this stage, although there is a headlong rush towards social media, social networking is not yet key to our business. Don’t get me wrong, it is important and will become more and more important as time goes by. What is important right now is your traditional web presence and how you use it. Your website!Start with your website, before you enter into any social media networks.

If I have clicked through to your website from a search link, you have about five seconds for me to decide to stay. What will make me stay? Level of production quality, clarity, my first thoughts. With this in mind, your landing page and indeed all the sites pages need to be designed with this in mind. It must look professional, it should have high quality pictures of high resolution. The chosen colour scheme and font should speak of professionalism and sophistication.

So, your page has all of this and you have grabbed my attention, I want to get to the information I need quickly, I want a decent summation of the information with the facility to click through to a fuller explanation. I want the click through and summation to be clear, I want it to wave at me. If I click through to the more in depth information I want a back button, a big one so I can see it and I don’t have to think about it.

I want your site to be intuitive and easy, because if its not, I am sure your competitor or his competitor has a site just like that. If you have a web shop on your site or a blog and you should, because again, they may not be a big part of your business now, but that will change. I want easy links, again in the shop I want big high res pictures of what I am going to buy with clear outlines of what it is. I also do not want to jump through hoops to pay you, you make me jump through hoops and I is taking my money elsewhere.

Your site including your blog and your web shop should be easily searched, even if I put a stupid miss-spelt reference, I want your search facility to offer me the option of the right product or blog post.  I do not want to dig through your site for information, perhaps because I am lazy, perhaps because I have the attention span of a goldfish or perhaps because I am just learning this damned new fangled rubbish and your failure to make it easy for me has irritated me enough to go back to Google to look for another vendor.

I finally get to the point, the most important web presence you have is your website, it tells all your potential customers who you are. Its look and presentation tells of your professionalism and the experience while browsing it psychologically affects somebody's perception of you. It can be a fantastic tool for you and your practice or it can be an insidious presence working against you, you need to decide which.

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AS Heard On TV, or not in this case.

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A unique study for Voice of The Listener, funded by Widex, finds 53% of over 65s have trouble hearing what is being said on TV and have pinpointed why.

Lack of speech intelligibility on TV programs, especially for the over 65s and those with a hearing impairment, is a growing problem. This research has thrown up some surprising causes and led to a BBC initiative to resolve it.

The key findings were as follows:

• 45% of programs watched by those with poor or very poor hearing gave them spoken word problems
• 53% of over 65s could not hear speech in 22 identified problem programs
• 29% of programs posed speech audibility problems to 10% of over 65s52% of respondents said that background music “reduced their enjoyment”

The study sample was made of 8500 over 65s, who completed a TV diary that asked detailed questions about their viewing. The results were then analyzed and 22 problem programs were identified with which a significant number of the viewers had issues.

Recordings of these programs were subjected to rigorous sound testing. It was found that background music was indeed a contributing factor, but poor recording and sub standard artist dialog levels negatively affected a greater proportion of programs.

Six programs had added music that masked the voice of the presenter or actor. A further six had poor microphone placement recording indistinct dialog. Seven programs had artists whose vocal performance was at too low a level to be recorded adequately by the microphone.

To its credit, the BBC has responded quickly, it has launched an industry wide training initiative through the BBC Academy. A series of training modules based on the findings are being made available to the whole broadcasting industry. They will also be used in college courses including the National Film and TV School.

Acknowledgements:

Dick Bates, Peter Meneer and David Walker (all former BBC executives) initiated this programme

GFK NOP was both the research company for the BBC Pulse Online panel and the supplementary VLV paper diary project among the over 65s

Louise Wilcox MIBS (Partner DWS Associates volunteered her services to analyze the programs.

Story first Published in Listen, The World of Widex, issue 03, 2011

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The Widex Clear 330 and Clear 330 Fusion

The mid range Widex Clear 330 platform is a strong instrument range with the new Clear processor and Widexlink technology and the inclusion of some of the renowned Widex strategies. The 330 platform is a full family from custom to BTE including the Passion and the new Fusion form factor.

At present we have available all of the BTE instruments and we hope to have the custom instruments within a few months. I shall of course keep you informed of our progress with this.

The instruments are ten channel instruments as opposed to the 15 available on the Clear 440. They retain several of the inter ear features available on the 440, such as IE Feedback Cancellation, IE Zen, program synchronisation and volume control.

The instruments, were applicable, have multi channel adaptive directionality with the HD Locator and also the digital Pinna. Whilst it lacks the extra localisation cues given by the IE Compression system, the HD Locator combined with the Digital Pinna will give front to back localisation cues. The HD Locator system is already a fantastic directionality system, combined with the new processor in the Clear platform it will excel even further.

The instruments will also have the Free Focus feature if paired with an M Dex. The noise reduction system supplied is the Speech Enhancer, the noise reduction system that was utilised in the Widex Mind 440.

The Speech Enhancer is still the only noise reduction system ever shown to effect signal to noise ratio without any assistance from directional strategies. That is several years after its release in the Mind 440.

Applied in tandem with the faster and more powerful processor available in the Clear platform the Speech Enhancer should be even more effective in dealing with real world complex sound situations than it currently is in the Mind 440.

The Widex Clear 330 also has the two Widex Cornerstone audiological strategies the Audibility Extender and Zen. The early feedback on the latest generation of Audibility Extender is extremely positive with experienced users of the strategy reporting that it is the best one yet.

The instruments will have 4 programmes + Zen and will also be able to utilise compound programs as with the 440. The Zen as mentioned before will be the new Inter Ear version. The 330 will have connectivity to the full Dex Range.

On the programming side, the Widex Clear 330 and 220 platforms can only be programmed and fine tuned with Compass 5.4. When connecting to the instruments it is imperative that you give it certain information. Particularly the acoustic properties and receiver selection if applicable. This information is vital for the efficacy of the instrument and can be input in the selection screen

 

 

the Widex Clear 330 platform has access to the expanded sensogram, giving you the ability to undertake the sensogram across 14 frequencies. My opinion would be that if you can, you should undertake the sensogram across the 14 frequencies, it will make a difference to you and your Patient. Your Patient will have an instrument as closely fit to their hearing loss as is possible and the pay off for you is reduced follow up and fine tunes. A win win for everyone I think.

In the Fine tuning sphere you also have access to the channels for fine tuning purposes. Again this feature was first introduced with the Clear 440 and it has been included for the 330 platform. the occlusion control feature has been included to assist with those difficult fits.

I think this touches on the main run down of the instruments, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.      

The launch of the Clear 330 & 220 Instruments

 

We at Widex Ireland have just finished launching the Widex Clear 330 & 220 instruments to the Irish market. The launch was very successful and the devices were well received by customers and non customers alike.

With the introduction of the full Widex Clear technology range run in tandem with the existing Widex Mind platform offerings we feel that we are finally offering a strong balanced series of instruments to our Customers and their Patients.

Some of our Customers were in fact worried that we were going to allow the Mind platform to slip from our offerings. I was glad to assuage their worries telling them that the Mind platform and particularly the Mind 220 family were some of our most successful instruments ever and were here to stay for the moment.

In Ireland, just like other areas in our world, economic times have been tough for business. Our business is no different and has been effected by the prevailing economic climate. For our Customers the introduction of the Mind 220 family occurred at exactly the right time.

It meant that not only could they offer a hearing instrument to their Patients at a low price but they could have faith that it was an outstanding instrument with Widexs’ renowned sound quality and the efficacy that they had come to expect from the Mind series.

But I digress, the launch of the new products is what I should be rabbiting on about. The new downgrades were really well received, particularly the Clear Fusion 330 and Clear Fusion 220. We think the introduction of these devices will deliver un-restricted versatility to our customers in fulfilling the needs of a large proportion of their Patients.

The Clear Fusion has exceeded our expectations in every market that it has been launched in and has caused quite a headache for our manufacturing and production teams. I believe the expression is flying off the shelves, our manufacturing team are working at full tilt to supply demand, so if you are having difficulty acquiring one, don’t fear, Fusions are winging their way towards you as we speak.

We also gave the Dispensers a sneak preview of the Phone Dex, a landline wireless streaming solution which I will be sacked for mentioning here! But hey, I cant resist :) and Widex have come to expect it of me :) I shall just throw in a “sorry Mike”, “I prostrate myself before your towering benevolence and famed forgiveness, oh and you’ll miss me if you fire me”, “I shall never do it again until next time” here. Have to hedge your bets right.

Our customers where really impressed by the Phone Dex, oh those words again, and felt confident that it would be an ideal solution for more than one or two of their Patients. As I spoke about the instruments and the connectivity options I could see several of the Dispensers thinking about the Patients they would fit them to.

It brought me back to when I was in practice and product launches I had attended. It is easy for Dispensers to get jaded by product launches, you would also think that it would be easy for us to become jaded giving presentations. But there is real excitement around the Clear platform, both at Dispenser level and internally within the Widex family.

We at Widex feel that we have made a huge leap forward in technology with the Clear platform, laying the foundations for even more advances based on that technology both in hearing instruments and other possible applications for near field wireless connectivity.

I am really excited that the full platform is now nearly released, with the exception of the custom devices, the technology utilised in the platform across the different technology levels is outstanding giving truly strong instruments in every technology level and price point. Each tech level of the Clear platform represents itself well within that market segment and dare I say it is a front runner if not the leader in its market segment.

Below is a quick comparison sheet for the Widex Clear platform, I shall detail the devices and technology utilised within in separate posts.

The Irish Launch of the Clear 330 & 220 Families.

We have begun the launch of the Clear 330 and 220 to the Irish Market. The kick off event was yesterday in Belfast and the instruments were extremely well received by all of the Dispensers present. As always the Widex Ireland back office staff and frontline audiology staff had everything set up to perfection and everybody present got a chance to play with the devices extensively.

 

The Downgrades are strong devices and I feel they are best in class, however you would expect me to say that! :) I would urge you to try them yourself if you have the opportunity. All agreed that my presentation was mercifully short, I am not sure why that would be a good thing? I shall put up aforementioned presentation towards the end of the week.

 

I also plan to write up a run down on the instruments and their features on the blog in the next week