Small Business Website Trends for 2011 & Beyond

December 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

Is your small business website ready for the new year?  It’s often difficult for a small businesses to keep up on the latest web design trends because it has not traditionally been considered a high priority to keep ‘in the know’. If your small business website hasn’t been updated in 2-3 years, or you don’t have a website at all, the time to update (or start) is 2011.  In general, if your website contains any of the horrible aesthetics rampant during the ’90s such as animated images (including an “under construction” / “electronic mail” graphics), glitter text from MySpace, auto-play MIDI music, blinking text, scrolling marquees, a hit counter, a “best viewed in Netscape Navigator” disclaimer, or your brother-in-law designed it for free using FrontPage, the time to pay attention to the public image and brand you give to your customers is NOW.

If updating your website isn’t in your immediate future, take the time over the winter break slowdown to make sure the existing content is up to date and relevant.  We have been to many websites that have incorrect phone numbers, hours, addresses or pricing that has caused us to turn to a competitor.  Have you followed all the links in your website to see that they are still working?  Is your contact information up to date? Are testimonials from clients or employees still relevant to your current products or services?

There are great web design ideas that small businesses should consider incorporating into their sites that are both inexpensive to implement and easy for small business staff to maintain.  Some of the major points you should consider when shopping for a new small business website and company to develop it are:

Future Proof Your Website

While any technology is only good until the next technology comes along, think about using a flexible platform to build your small business website on that will grow with you in the future.  Many older websites are written in such a way that you need to understand coding to change content or update the design.  That is not a practical option for a small business that may not have the expertise – or money – to hire a developer every time they need content updated on their website.  Software platforms called Content Management Systems (CMS) are a low cost and viable solution for most small business needs.  The content and the design structure of a CMS are separate, allowing you to easily update the look and feel of a website while keeping your content in tact.  At the same time, a CMS system allows you to easily input or modify your content in an editor similar to composing an email message or Word document.  Now you can keep your customers up to date without having to hire a programmer every time you need to update your website.

Lights Out For Flash

In the early 2000′s Flash websites were all the rage.  They were visual, interactive, and well, flashy.  Today’s heavy reliance on mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, and Android devices have left many small businesses in the dust when it comes to accessing information on the go.  If your website is written in Flash, you are essentially invisible to most mobile device users.  Even the mobile devices that do support Flash don’t support it reliably.  Newer websites incorporate technology like HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3 and AJAX to to provide rich user experiences while being about to be navigated from a mobile device.  With that said, Flash is still a great technology to use when developing sites that can capture audio or video, do complex animations or run web games.

Being Social Is No Longer A Luxury

The time has passed for companies both big and small to dismiss the influence of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  Even if you aren’t ready to jump in (that is an entirely different article to write for 2011), you need to recognize that your customers *are* actively involved.  Yes, even B2B customers.  When redesigning your small business website, be sure to integrate features such as a Facebook “Like” button, a Twitter “Tweet This” button, or a “Share This” widget so that customers have one-click ability to share your information with their networks.  There is a greater chance of your content getting seen on a social networking platform with 500+ million users than anyplace else on the Internet, so make it as easy as possible to get your content there.

Content Makes Cents

How many times do you go back and look at old marketing brochures or advertisements?  Once you ‘get the message’ you really don’t have a reason to keep going back and re-reading the same piece of content over and over.  There is nothing new to be learned.  Why would your never-updated small business website be any different?  One of the most difficult tasks for small businesses is to keep a steady stream of updated content on their websites.  Developing a solid content strategy is crucial for determining what you should be publishing to your customers on your small business website and social channels.  Fresh content means more repeat visits from customers and that means you position yourself as the expert in your field – and everyone wants to do business with ‘the best’.  Shameless plug, our friend C.C. Chapman co-wrote the book Content Rules with Ann Handley and we highly recommend purchasing it.  Content Rules will help you get you started on developing and identifying the best ways to develop content for your small business website, get involved with your customers and keep them coming back for more.

Pick A Partner Don’t Hire A Vendor

When choosing a company to design and implement your new small business website, think long term.  While it may seem beneficial to go for the dirt-cheap or free option (or worse yet – do it yourself), realize that over the next few years you will likely need updates to your small business website that will require you to work with a website development company again.  The company you decide to work with is developing your brand and image to the outside world – so think about what your reputation and image means to your business, and choose accordingly.  A well run website development company will work with you to design a site that is easy for your company to maintain, easy for customers to find what they are looking for, and is functional and relevant for the next few years.  It should be their job to understand your business not just pick colors and graphics.  They should be as vested in in the process and product of your small business website as you are.

Be Human

There really isn’t any other way to put it.  Be human.  Make sure your small business website is designed for humans.  Not search engines.  Yes, it is undeniable that search engine optimization is a vital tool and tactic to use in helping people find your website, but what happens once they land there? Does your website look and read like it was written by a slick marketing company?  Try this, take a look at your “About Us” page and read it aloud.  Does it feel natural to speak the content and feel like a conversation?  Or is it full of buzz words and jargon not understood or spoken outside your industry?  While proper spelling and grammar rules still apply, the days of uptight written copy are over.  People want to do business with people – not ad copy.  How about the layout and secondary content on your small business website?  It it crammed full of keywords and tags to make search engines love you but turn people off?  Remember this, Google does not buy your products, people do.

Whether you are an independent businessperson, small company, or a small company quickly growing into a large company, it is in your best interest – and your customers best interest – to update your website and put your best image forward for 2011.  Of course Purple Stripe Productions can help you with your website, content, and social strategy and implementation.  We would love to partner with you to help your business – big or small – to get you to the next level right now.

Filed Under: info Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why is Your Mom on Facebook? – Ignite Wilmington

October 27, 2010 By 1 Comment

Facebook and social networking online is all the rage, but why do people use it besides checking up on a high school sweetheart or playing Farmville?  In this Ignite Wilmington talk, discover the five motivators for why people participate in social networking online.  By understanding what’s in it for them, you will get a better understanding of what’s in it for you & your business.

We would appreciate a vote on the Ignite Wilmington site thanks!!
Filed Under: appearances, video Tagged With: ,

Professional Podcasts Interview Lynette Young, Co-Organizer of PodCamp Philly 2010

October 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Steve Lubetkin of Professional Podcasts interviews Lynette Young (@LynetteRadio), chair of the Podcamp Philly Organizing Committee, about the changes in podcasting since Lynette first began producing the ScrapCast Podcast in 2004.  To listen to the interview, please visit the Professional Podcasts website.

Be sure to listen to all the PodCamp Philly 2010 audio interviews in Professional Podcast series including Chuck Stanley of EaglesFanCast, Paul Muller of The Caffination Podcast, Amy Childs / Happiness Consultant, Howard Yermish and Sandy Spadaro of the “10 Minutes at Exit 4″ podcast, Felicia Pullam and Ken Grant of Delaware Social Media Initiative, and Whitney Hoffman of LD Podcast and PodCamp Philly.

Filed Under: info Tagged With:

Dave Young to Speak at Podcamp Philly

October 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

October 2-3 is the fourth year that Podcamp Philly is being held and Dave Young will be giving a presentation on the benefits of adopting social networking in the workplace. The talk will be on Saturday, October 2, at 10:00am. Here is the summary for this exciting talk:

Social@Work: 10 Powerful Reasons To Bring Social Networking *Inside* Your Company

As Social Networking changes how people connect with each other, how can companies and other organizations benefit from this “new” way of communicating? What lessons have we learned from personal social networking and how can we apply them to our working lives? What compelling reasons are there for a company to embrace social networking internally – not just to communicate with their customers but with their employees? How can social networking help companies be more competitive, operate more efficiently, and provide a better understanding of how their company truly works. Come to this session and find out why Forrester Research is calling Social Networking “The Biggest Enterprise 2.0 Priority by 2013″

Information on PodCamp Philly including full program details and how to get tickets can be found at www.podcampphilly.com

Filed Under: appearances, info

Dave Young to speak at Podcamp Boston 5

September 25, 2010 By 1 Comment

September 25-26 is the fifth year that Podcamp Boston is being held and Dave Young will be giving a presentation on the benefits of adopting social networking in the workplace. Here is the summary for this exciting talk:

Social@Work: 12 Powerful Reasons To Bring Social Networking *Inside* Your Company

As Social Networking changes how people connect with each other, how can companies and other organizations benefit from this “new” way of communicating? What lessons have we learned from personal social networking and how can we apply them to our working lives? What compelling reasons are there for a company to embrace social networking internally – not just to communicate with their customers but with their employees? How can social networking help companies be more competitive, operate more efficiently, and provide a better understanding of how their company truly works. Come to this session and find out why Forrester Research is calling Social Networking “The Biggest Enterprise 2.0 Priority by 2013″

Filed Under: appearances, info

Dissecting Social Media Marketing Projects

August 22, 2010 By 2 Comments

From the outside, it sometimes seems that social media marketing is a bit like boiling a big pot of water, dumping in all the half empty boxes of pasta in the pantry, and throwing it all on the fridge and seeing what sticks.  We are pretty sure the thought of this would make our CEO faint, because she’s a cut-from-the-cloth technical project manager and thrives on Gantt charts, milestones, deliverables and deadlines. Besides, all those boring analytics and whizbang charts is how she can actually PROVE that the work actually works.

Experimentation is fun and fine in social media channels, but doesn’t make for good business.  Every project should (and does) have some wiggle room to play, experiment, fail and learn, but on a whole clients hire us for results not ‘trying a bunch of stuff and hope that something sticks.’  It takes a lot of time and energy to boil an entire pot of water to cook several pounds of pasta.  If all you are hoping for is a few pieces to stick (work), you will have a very hungry dinner table and a tremendous amount of waste.  Our motto has long been ‘we like to eat’ so you can see how producing a lot of work for very little result could keep you hungry.

As far as social media marketing goes – this isn’t our first rodeo.  We’ve been down this road before with a different set of technology and communications needs every time.  In the end, for us it all boils down to process and results, and the ability to reproduce the process and results.  Solid business development, unique and creative digital marketing savvy, and in-the-trenches social media experience are all required to produce results.  Being ‘shiny’ on Facebook is not.

Want a peek into how we tick?  The philosophies and methodologies below – along with a combined experience of over 50 years in communications, technology, business development and management – is how we kick ass and take names on a daily basis.

SMARTER Methodology

Working SMARTER is our general philosophy for GSD (getting *stuff* done) and helps define the overall structure for our client projects.  We feel that solid project skills are vital for everything from grand social media marketing endeavors to negotiating with our spouses about buying a new car.

  • Specific : When you ask the universe (or your customers) for something, be very specific.  “I want to sell more widgets” and “we need more customers” are not very specific.  Part of what causes people to not be specific is the fear of failure.  If you set out to sell 30% more widgets, and you only sell 29% more, have you failed?  No, you just sold 1% less than you planned for.  If you set out just to sell more, no number of more will ever seem to be enough.
  • Measurable : If you don’t know exactly what you are working for, there isn’t anything to measure.  By wanting to sell 30% widgets, you have concrete numbers to work towards.  This of course makes our CEO happy, because you can chart +30% on a graph, but you can’t chart more.  This is also the point in the process we point at when the bean-counters stream ‘ROI’ at us.  Showing the numbers is easy, but in the end it’s up the business to determine how much a particular action is worth.
  • Attainable : Here’s where reality sets in.  Online, everything seems to be Facebook, unicorns and glitter and everything seems possible.  If your company has traditionally experienced a 5% growth in sales per year, planning (and relying on) an increase of 45% is unrealistic and dangerous.  We work hard to make sure that planned actions and results are humanly possible, financially feasible, and within the universal constrains of time and space.
  • Relevant : Just because you can does not mean you should.  Does what you propose have a direct link to an action, outcome, or process?  Does it matter NOW?  Does it have anything to do with business goals?  These are questions we throw on the table quite often.  Nowadays, everyone wants to be on Facebook, but when asked why, most times the answer comes down to ‘because it’s there’ or ‘because our competition is there.’
  • Trackable / Timeboxed : Again, back to the idea that success, failure, and progress should be measurable, you need to show the path from A to B.  Without seeing the steps, you have no way to find a fracture point or reproduce the results.  Time is a very important dimension to our work as well.  Selling 30% more widgets over the course of 30 years really isn’t helpful to a business, but selling 30% more right before your IPO – THAT matters.
  • Evaluate : We don’t work in a system that delivers a product and walks away.  We are not advertisers (no offense).  Our medium is not a billboard that you can put up on the highway and forget about until it’s time to change it.  Our ‘product’ is a living, breathing, feeling entity that needs to be nurtured and fed.  In professional circles they call this process ‘evaluation.’
  • Re-Evaluate : Sometimes when you are in a relationship it’s hard to take a step back and see if it’s working.  It’s hard to change if you become too emotionally attached to something, social media marketing is no different.  Because we are working in a medium that revolves around relationship building and community, it can be hard to cull out the efforts that don’t produce.  At the same time, if when platforms and technology evolve, it can be seen as wasteful to change focus.  The ability to stay flexible and be ahead of the curve is what we do.

GHOST Process

Further proof we love checklists and bullet points – except for in slide decks, then it’s evil.  Our GHOST process needs to be SMARTER.  We like acronyms too.

  • Goals : WHY.  Everyone has to work towards something.  Why work if you don’t know what you’re working for?  Why is this needed for your business.  Most times, this is the hardest idea to formulate.
  • Holistic : DO.  Here we have to make sure what we do, what everything DOES, serves a greater good, not just for our company, but our clients, their clients, and honestly, the whole Internet.  Our team works very hard to make sure everything we do is fair and balanced, and produces no foreseeable harm.  Our work has to provide positive benefit for everyone involved – from our client’s bottom line to our employees happiness and well-being.
  • Objectives : WHAT.  These are very specific actions that will reach a goal.  If objectives are written SMARTER, results will follow.  5% of Facebook Fan Page user interaction per week to be obtained in 120 days.  Specific tasks that can be measured and assigned worth.  Trust us when we say this is hard.
  • Strategy : HOW. So you want to get 5% of your Facebook Fan Page population to interact with you?  HOW do you intend on doing that exactly?  Release a video per week, run a contest, give out insider tips and tricks?  This is where we bring the sauce…
  • Tactics : WORK.  This is where most people enter the social media game.  Tactics are specific actionable and assigned tasks that you can put a check mark next to on a list.  This is the actual WORK of the entire plan.  It feels productive here, because this is where you DO things.  As you can see, without Strategy, Objectives, Holistic, and Goals, no amount of work will produce results.

5C’s of Digital Engagement

Purple Stripe Productions has devised these five unique trigger points that we have researched over the past three years of working with clients that reflect the reasons people (both in professional and personal capacities) engage online.  With a bazillion people interacting online, what exactly are they doing, why are they there, and what do they want out of it?

  • Consume : One way conversion coming right up!  On a very basic level, people online want to find and digest information and entertainment.  Television, newspapers, books, movies, YouTube, blogs – for the most part these information carriers can be operated in a receive-only mode.
  • Create : People come to the Internet – social networks and social media specifically – to create content and share ideas.  Blogs, podcasts and web video are all extraordinarily easy to create.  With today’s modern soapbox of the Internet, everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame.
  • Collaborate : Coming together to create something greater than the sum of its parts is what fuels some people online to provide value through their joint work with others.
  • Contribute : To be part of a village (or a digital tribe) you need to add value by contributing.  Comments on a blog, Likes in Facebook,and ReTweets in Twitter are examples of how the general population online love to give their $0.02.
  • Connect : Drawn together by common interests, professions, hobbies, history or location, platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook thrive on the basic need of people wanting to connect with other people.  The need to connect drives everything a digital community does.

Secret Sauce

When you take a step back and look at our process at Purple Stripe, it may seem very easy to cut/paste our formula and get to work yourself. If that were the case, you should also be able to take the processes above and architect an amazing website, write a novel, build a house or even produce a movie.  The point being, you still need an immense amount of talent and experience to pull it off.  That is where we shine.

Filed Under: info Tagged With: , , , ,

PodCamp Philly 2010

August 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Tickets for PodCamp 2010 are now available for purchase!

October 2nd & 3rd @ Temple University

Be sure to sign up for this year’s PodCamp Philly 2010 & celebrate our 4th year together! For a trip down memory lane, check out the slideshow & video pages for PodCamp Philly 2007 – 2008 – 2009 to see how much fun we had! Can’t wait to see you this year!

Filed Under: info Tagged With:

Profitable vs. Popular

July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Would you rather be rich or famous?  Happy or popular?  Healthy or beautiful?  Every one is a trick question – why can’t we have both (or all) of the options?  While outwardly we may pick the answer that is more accepted by the public – rich, happy and healthy – most times people crave famous, popular, and beautiful.

Now take a step back and think of your business.  Would you rather have your business be profitable or popular?  Much of what companies do in social media is aimed at becoming popular.  If your Facebook page has more ‘likes’ and fans, you can be popular.  If more people follow you on Twitter or YouTube, you can be popular.  If you have more subscribers and comments on your blog, you can be popular.

We know it’s exciting to be popular, especially in social media and networking platforms.  You have a bigger megaphone and a higher soapbox.  ‘Internet famous‘ people mention you or add you to their very small list of connections.  Maybe you are even invited to conferences to speak.  Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman and Brian Solis like you, they really really LIKE you…

But are these things making you profitable?  Sometimes they do.  Most times they don’t.  After the initial quick hit of ‘friending’ you have to provide constant quality content in order to keep the attention of those you’ve wooed.  It takes a considerable amount of time to develop trust and relationships that lead to profits.  Being popular on social media networks has hardly ever lead to profits without a plan.

Instead of worrying about the easy things like the numbers of fans, followers, friends, hits, and click-throughs you get, think about attracting the right audience in the first place.  Operating in a frantic mode to acquire higher numbers for the sake of more numbers produces short-term success.  Why not focus on producing the very best content to attract and keep the types of people that will best lead to profits for your company?  With focus your job gets easier, you become more efficient, and your efforts will produce more results.  The climb may seem a bit slower, but it will be build on a solid foundation of people that are genuinely interested in what you have to say and offer.  With that comes profits.

Profits don’t always have to tie directly back to money, but can translate to other measurable items like downloads of a whitepaper, signups for a webinar, opt-ins for a email newsletter, and yes, even a new customer.  Of course you need to know what you want out of the system before you start on the journey and keep focused on the long term.

Now of course if your company enjoys popularity on social media outlets, you need to figure out how to convert that into profits before your audience moves on to the next hot thing – or your competition.  Have you figured out a way to pull out those people that can turn into customers while still keeping the general public feed, cared for, and entertained?  It is a difficult task without a plan.

The lesson here?  Being popular sure is nice, but without profits to back it up, your 15 minutes of Internet fame are almost up.

Filed Under: info Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How Google Works

July 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

While it’s impossible to know the inner-workings of Google search, outsiders can take an educated guess. What exactly happens when you click Search? This infographic from PPCBlog helps visualize the process – that takes just ONE SECOND to complete.
How Does Google Work?
Infographic by PPC Blog

Filed Under: info Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »