Level up!

A lot of people focus on the negative in the world of PR.  They show examples of bad interviews and people saying completely the wrong thing.  Sometimes it's important to look at the people who did it right and try to follow their example.

Recently the video game company Almost Human Games knocked one clean out of the park.  They're producing a game called 'Legend of Grimrock,' which has a retro feel to it that a lot of gamers who played 90's role playing games like Wizardry will connect with.

The company does a good job of keeping the information flowing and up to date, they post constantly and are good about responding to people. On January 9th, they got an interesting question from someone on their web site.

'HarpoonIPA' asks about a custom user interface, similar to one the older games use to have.  Instead of having to click arrows on the keyboard, you could use the mouse to click arrow buttons on the screen.

Now Petri explains that they don't have the arrows on the screen because it was an underused feature, but he takes it the extra step.  He actually asks why the person wants to know and engages them in conversation.

A lot of companies social media sites forget that the sites are not just an area to shotgun company propoganda, tossing up message after message in rapid fire to bog the reader in information.  You can't over look your customer questions.  You can talk to your customers like normal people and see what they want, why they want it and if you can deliver.

The customer explains that since they are disabled, the arrow keys on the screen are easier to use than clicking the keyboard.

This is where Petri wows again.  Not only does he update the game, but he gets back with the customer all in under 3 hours! 

I can't count the number of times I've gone to a companys facebook page and saw a valid question go unanswered for days or completely ignored. 

A social media site is the perfect opportunity to get valuable feedback for free.  There are companies out there that pay tons of money for focus groups and research.  With a social media site, you can solicit feedback on commercials, posters, upcoming changes and find out what kind of changes customers want that you might never have considered.

Almost Human Games engaged their customers, listed to their wants and then acted.  The story spread across a variety of gaming web sites and without having to spend any extra money, the company got an incredible amount of free advertising.