Monthly Archives: May 2014

Launching a New Page

2017: This is an old post about a long ago change to my website.  I leave it available but please note the links lead to old pages that are no longer current.

So, what have I been doing over the last fortnight?  Three Fridays ago  I suggested taking time off is a good idea.  I took some time out of course.

I also took the opportunity to review my website.  It launched in November and so has run for five to six months.  I always knew it would take time to get it to how I want it.

My approach with my clients is to show them how to set up a simple site and then to develop it at their own pace.  For many voluntary organisations, regular posting can be challenging.

Many people don’t understand how website development has changed in recent years.  They don’t appreciate how dynamic websites are or how easy it is to do things that were impossible, difficult or expensive a few years ago.  They don’t know what is possible and need help to figure out how they’re going to maintain and grow their website.

So, my plan is to report changes I make to the site, why I’ve made them and what I hope will happen as a result.

Over the break I made small changes to various pages.  I also added a new page about the web consultancy services I offer.  The reason I’ve added this is to help visitors understand my Community Web Consultancy offer.  (If the truth be told, it amazes me how slow I am working out my offer myself.)  This new page outlines the types of things I offer my clients.  I shall develop this further as I find out what customers value.

I’ll draw attention to the changes I make so that you can see what I’m doing and perhaps adapt them for your own site.  My aim is to help you figure out how to make your site work for your organisation.  The best way I can do this is by showing you how I’m doing it for my site.  In time and with their permission I may write about how I’ve worked with customers to help them optimise their sites.

Remember, this is not always about selling things.  For many organisations, their message is more important but there’s little point in having a message if it is not reaching its target audience.  So, marketing is important for your organisation, whatever it is you’re trying to do.

Anyway, do have a look at the page and let me know what you think.  What could I do to improve it?  Would you contact me for more information?  If not, why not?

Linking your Website to Social Media

This sequence about guiding your web designer or consultant as they set up your website, aims to help you identify the issues you encounter as you develop your site together.  (All the posts about building a WordPress site can be found in the CMS category.)

There is a lot you can do on your own. You ask for help because you’re not technically minded, or you want help from someone more skilled than you are or else you don’t have the time. Whatever the reason, you need to understand what is going on.

Using Social Media

Social media may be one area where you feel you don’t need a lot of help. Indeed you may have already set up a Facebook page, for example, and used it to test your market. Some businesses seem to use social media and don’t bother with a website.  This is not an approach I recommend.

Alternatively, you may be bewildered by social media.  As an older person, I find I don’t have an instinct for social media.  I suppose having lived most of my life without it, it is harder to add it into the natural rhythms of life.

On balance my view is social media has its uses but there are limits.  Whether you are a natural user or struggle with it, you need to understand its limitations.

Disadvantages of Social Media

So, let’s start with the disadvantages of social media. They explain why I would always have a website. I’ll then go on to the advantages of evolving a social media strategy with your website at the centre.

  • Never forget that social media are proprietary applications. They may be free to use but you pay in various subtle ways. This is not necessarily a disadvantage, once you understand how each social media application works, you can make informed decisions about whether and how you use it. The owners of social media are under no obligation to provide consistency of service. They can withdraw a service and material you have accumulated may be lost. Whatever you and your followers or friends put on the site belongs to the site owners; they can use your material in various ways, eg for advertising. You take part with their permission and they have the power to remove you from the site should you misbehave.
  • Their rules about what you display can seem arbitrary. I’m currently building a Facebook business page.  I don’t understand why their rules cannot be more flexible.  So, I must display a postal address, which is not very helpful to me but there is no way I can display my website address with the same prominence as my postal address.  I can understand why people might want to know where to find me.  Whilst they may find the postal address reassuring, not many people are going to use it.  A web address would be used by more people, which is probably why Facebook doesn’t want to display it directly, because it will tend to take visitors away from the site.
  • Whilst data security and privacy is much improved, your material is no longer yours. The site owners use the data you add to their site in various ways, eg for advertising. Once you understand this it is not normally a major disadvantage but it seems reckless to build a business on data controlled by someone else.

Advantages of Social Media

  • First and foremost, social media can drive traffic to your website. You can arrange to feed your blog posts directly to your social media sites. If someone clicks on the link to read your post, it takes them to your site. They may like a post on Facebook or follow you on Twitter but the most valuable thing is if they sign up to your email list on your site. Once they have done this you can build a relationship with them.
  • Some social media offers valuable services, eg YouTube is brilliant if you have videos. You might not want to use YouTube for every video, eg you might sell access to some of them, but for videos you use to publicise your site, YouTube is the place to keep them. Not only is it an excellent platform for videos, if you look after your account it can be very effective driving traffic to your site.
  • Advertising is a growing area and by all accounts can be very successful. Until a year or so ago, most online advertising took place via Google Adwords. Facebook has been very successful because it can offer a targeted audience. Adwords uses the search term to target ads, whilst Facebook allows you to describe your target audience, using data provided by Facebook members. I would sound a note of caution here. If you are interested, find out about best practice before you start advertising and generally it is best to build an organic following before you pay for advertising. This is something to discuss with your web consultant.

So, what has been your experience? How have you used social media successfully?

Next time, I shall show you a better way!

1 2 3