5 simple steps to get your online presence working

2010-11-11T09:38:00.001-08:00

We tend to work best where we have a client that understands that something important is happening in the way user behaviour is evolving online, but that they are unsure as to how to start or even what to do.

The first thing as to understand is that although social media is free at the point of engagement - it can turn out to be far from free - Dan Martell from imediaconnect has a really good article - http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/27981.asp - on this. That everything is free is also a temptation to try everything out. In many ways this can be worse that not doing anything as the message gets diluted and confused, platforms are seen as not working and are abandoned half finished (the issue with this is the amazingly persistent memory the internet has! Your half baked experiment on Blogger may be around for very much longer than you would like - and what message does that send out to potential clients?

So here is a five step plan for developing a strategy that moves your web presence forward and ensures that you are communicating with an increasingly connected and interconnected audience.

1. Research and assess.
Don't rush in! Make sure that you have had a good look at what your competition is doing, the best examples in each platform and a good idea as to which platforms are most relevant to you.

2. Be realistic.
Your time and resource is not infinite, dont kid yourself into believing that you can service all platforms, start with what you enjoy. This is more likely to be something that you will regularly update. This is vital, updating a blog every six months or so can actually work against you, ensuring the platforms have regular, frequent updates will ensure that you have a noticeable heartbeat online.

3. Be sceptical, but be positive!
Make sure that you read through everything you write with sceptical eyes - why would anyone want to read this? Is it useful, is it engaging, pretty common sense stuff - but it is amazing how often I read articles and tweets that are either so personal as to be slightly wince inducing or so esoteric as to be baffling! It is tempting to get a little Victor Meldrewish with blogs - its human nature that to criticize is easier than to praise, but try and be positive and uplifting!

4. "Only connect"
E.M Forster had it right in more ways than he realised! Ensure that all your platforms are connected and that you are connecting externally, each connection is an important part of your overall online structure - your skeleton.

5. Engage!
Meanwhile life goes on...try and integrate these platforms into your life within and outside of work - a good idea is to install Tweetdeck - http://www.tweetdeck.com/ - on your phone. In this way you will be constantly connected to those writing stuff that is interesting and relevant to you all the time, responding to blogs, tweeting, retweeting etc... will become second nature to you. Like so much in life the more you do it, the easier it becomes!

From toys to tools

2010-06-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

The definition of social media is becoming blurred as publishing environments such as web sites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter intermingle and seamlessly interact with each other.

When looking at creating a new web site, professional services often concentrate only on the hard attributes of interface design, corporate design guidelines and visual brand delivery. This is understandable, these are easy to understand and operate, time is often at a premium and a new web site often also throws up a range of internal issues – diverting attention away from the opportunities a new web site represents.

Having a fantastic looking web is a great start – but is not an end in itself. Unless the site is visible and useful to existing and potential customers then the whole exercise is an abstract design project – interesting - but ultimately pointless from a business point of view.

We talk a lot about a firm’s digital footprint. For us this means how a firm engages with the multi dimensional web – ie the web site sitting at the centre of a satellite network of social and professional media tools.

Users are increasingly coming to web sites from these platforms – ie their experience of the web is often quite different from that of the principles in the firm. For example, most firm principles I have met think Facebook is something their children obsess about, Twitter is for odd losers talking about what coffee they had this morning and blogs – well no-one has time to blog do they?

Yet these platforms are evolving from toys to tools very quickly, how your firm is perceived and ‘filed’ in a potential customers head is no longer only dependent on the central web site – it is an accumulation of points of contact - if a researcher sees a piece of information from the firm on a trusted third party source they are likely to view the firm in a more positive light.

How a firm uses these tools together will guide the footprint they form and crucially the direction they are heading. This is a central part of thinking about a new web site and how it performs an active marketing, rather than a passive story telling, role.

The Working Web Company

5 simple steps to get your online presence working

From toys to tools