I was reading an interesting article this morning, and it got me thinking a bit about why I started this blog. I think it’s worth reiterating a few key points here, not just about the article, but about social media as a vehicle for business.
The article was about fund raising via Twitter, Facebook, and some of the other vehicles, and was called “How to turn a million tweets into a million bucks“. And it had some good points about engaging people in your cause. The part that struck a note though wasn’t about fund raising… it was about websites. And this is how it ties in to this blog.
This blog is about IT for business, and understanding the tools that are used. And one of the tools here is, obviously, blogs. (This may seem more like a marketing discussion that a techie discussion, but bear with me…) And the paragraph from the fund raising article got me thinking more about the tools, the medium, and the message. The paragraph that spawned all this introspection is this:
Banks said in the early days of ‘A Million Tweets’ he spent great gobs of time trying to build a perfect site. “But we found out very quickly that only 15 per cent of the people who engaged in this movement ever touched our site. So the old adage that: if you build it they will come, just isn’t true. You’ve got to go where people are — on Twitter, Facebook, on their PC, mobile … anywhere.”
Which leads me to the question of websites. Most companies have a website. But what is the overall purpose of that site? When you go through a website building process there are certain steps that your designer should cover. And the most important of these is “what is the purpose of the website?”. Is it a portal, a first stop for people surfing the web? Is it an information website, designed primarily to provide information about your company? Or is it an engagement site? The kind where people come and spend a period of time reading or doing things?
This all ties into the SEO (search engine optimization) project we did a while back. The purpose of SEO is to drive traffic to your website. But once it’s there… then what? What exactly are you trying to gain from that traffic? Business? Sales? Are you doing that? And can you tell how it’s being accomplished?
Websites can be mercurial things. You start off with a design, and you populate the content. And then styles change, and your website looks antiquated. What was once a cool feature starts to look more like an archaic novelty. And what’s more, how much information is on the site? Is it chock full of information, how-to’s, and a complete price list? Or do website visitors have a reason to pick up the phone and contact you? Marketing types will tell you that most research about a product or service is done on the web. And SEO types will tell you that content is king; more is better. The challenge is finding the balance between good info, and too much info. Not enough info, and visitors will search elsewhere. Too much, and they never have a reason to call you (or worse yet, will decide that you or they are not a good fit).
So how do you win? Where’s the middle ground?
The key is to define a purpose for the website. In the same way you write down a business plan or a mission statement, write down your website objective. Make it concise and to the point. Although the website itself might be fluid, the objective should be static, lasting as long as your current marketing plan. Is the website a portal? Is it an entertainment or info-tainment site? Is it an information tool? If you’re working with SEO, don’t let them move you away from the key objective of your site. If you have in-house designers, don’t let them sell you on every single bell, whistle, or plug-in that comes their way. If it’s relevant to your site and your objective, then go ahead. But if’ it’s just more pretty bells and whistles, what purpose does it serve?
None of this precludes doing a website re-design. If your site is old and out of date, then by all means update it to keep it relevant. But make sure it’s relevant to the business, the objective, and the style of the times. Connect to people where THEY are… don’t try to force them to come to you, if you can. Content is king, but relevant content is the emperor. If you don’t have an in-house designer, look around and ask questions to find the right computer services people to help you with this. They can help you define the project, and build out the tools you need to get the job done right. Like blogs, web servers, and other items that you can use to keep your customers engaged, and coming back to you.