Yes, you can use a free Blogger or WordPress template or worse yet – not have a website at all! But consider the fact that every person who sees you online will judge you and your business by what your website looks like.

Would you rather do business with a professional-looking person in a nice, clean suit, with combed hair and neatly organized paperwork; or would you care if the person looked like he or she just rolled out of bed and “the dog ate their homework?” The point is that your website should be your online sales representative and serve as the face of your company just as much as a live salesperson would be in the real world.

If you are ready to take the plunge and build a new website or re-design your old website, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your customer will form an opinion about your company within the first 10 seconds of coming to your website.
• Well thought-out web design gives an impression of business stability, which means your new clients will be comfortable with making the purchase or calling you.
• An interesting-looking site will be intriguing enough to make people want to explore it.
• If you are selling products online, a professional web designer will run you through all the options of making your website secure; the safer people feel with giving you their credit card info, the more likely they are to buy.
• A good website will make you stand out above your competition.

There are so many things you can do with a website that without the help of a professional web design service you can easily get bogged down in all the minutia.  A web designer will not only make your website good-looking and functional, but he or she will also help you define your online goals and achieve them by using proper applications within your new site.

Some optional website features might include: use of social media icons on your site; email capture; live chat; “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) and targeted keyword insertion; addition of a blog; a video presentation for your visitors to see; and many other similar options, all geared toward converting visitors into leads primed for conversion into customers.

In addition, professional web design companies have lots of tricks up their sleeve as the Internet is constantly evolving and changing. Web development companies that have been in business for many years know the skills of the trade and can help businesses have a powerful web presence so that they can excel online.

According to Nielsen, 79% of large businesses are using social media “to engage their audience…build buzz, establish relationships, foster communication…and cultivate long-term brand awareness and consumer trust.”

The article claims that it doesn’t matter what type of company you are or how much experience you have. All you need is to learn a few simple rules. “Social media is not so much a new idea as it is a way to communicate ideas, and the nature of a good idea hasn’t changed. The same marketing principles from 50 years ago apply today; they are simply communicated in a different way.”

This is a very good article that offers concrete suggestions on how to use social media. There are four “take aways” that you can immediately utilize in your own business.

• Raise Brand Awareness

• Drive Valuable Traffic

• Grow Consumer Loyalty

• Build Brand Equity

In addition, the article gives a handful of very valuable examples of successful social media campaigns from which we can all learn.

1. LinkedIn

2. Merchant Circle

3. Facebook

4. Twitter

5. Yelp

6. Plaxo

7. Fast Company

8. MyWikiBiz

9. Ecademy

10. Spoke

11. 123People

12. BxBusinessWeek

13. Fast Pitch Networking

14. ZoomInfo

15. Google Profile

16. Naymz

In a blog post entitled Looking for clear-cut social media ROI? There’s an SEO for that!, the author, Hugo Guzman, claims that you can calculate the ROI of your social media efforts by correlating the relationship of these efforts with the improvement in search engine rankings. Simply stated, social media marketing improves SEO, which increases website or blog visitors, which increases leads, which increases conversions (or sales).

Truly, it’s a lot more complex than this, and Guzman lays out a very convincing case for the importance of social media marketing. You be the judge, though, and determine for yourself if your business can benefit from marketing on the various social media sites.

“WWWC was eager to set up a site that combined Encore’s product information with a way that customers could contact the company online,” said Robert Savar, President of WWWC.  Savar went on to explain that the creative team at WWWC “developed YourFloorDirect.com to reflect the same easy floor shopping experience customers found with Encore Floors.”  He added that YourFloorDirect.com “takes it one step further by giving consumers lots of information right up front, making it even easier for them to contact YourFloorDirect and schedule a consultation.”

EncoreFloors.com and YourFloorDirecct.com allow consumers to sample and purchase carpets, rugs, hardwood floors, vinyl, and laminate without leaving home.  Instead of visiting and browsing floor samples in specialty stores, homeowners can contact YourFloorDirect.com and receive a free at-home consultation and estimate by a flooring expert. 

“The new website is a perfect way for old and new customers to browse options and renovation opportunities on one simple site,” Savar said. “YourFloorDirect.com is really a great portal for Encore Floors to showcase all of its services in one unique site.”

- Website Traffic – 68%B
- Brand Awareness – 61%
- Engagement with Prospects – 60%
- Engagement with Customers – 52%
- Brand Reputation – 47%
- Prospect Lead Quality – 40%
- Revenue – 38%
- Prospect Lead Volume – 37%
- Useful Product Feedback – 26%

In order to determine the ROI you’re getting out of your blog and social media efforts you will have to decide which metrics are most important to you and determine a clear way to measure the success or failure of your efforts.

No longer is it safe to put your advertising for the product on television, radio, newspaper, magazine… then sit back and wait to “monitor” the results in sales.  No longer can we identify our demographic in broad strokes, such as femailes 18 to 35.  There is just too much information available to and from our customers for advertising agencies, publicists and marketers to take that dangerous approach.

If we are not monitoring our brand – what’s being posted or said about us on the Internet, we run the risk of negating any paid advertising that we do.  In fact, the example of Pizza Hut, where a couple of employees created a video that disrupted our concept of the brand, brings to light the accessibility and availabilty ‘new media’.

So, what’s a marketer to do?

First – be aware of channels where the brand can be mentioned, either positively or negatively.   In the case of Comcast. there is a team involved to monitor customer complaints, and take quick action to respond to them.  Other companies are jumping on that bandwagon.  Can you afford not to?

Second – take advantage of new media opportunities.  Are you on Twitter?  Do you have a business page on Facebook?Are you writing articles about the company? Does the company have a blog?

Third – Join communities and monitor the conversations.  Join in the conversations. Humanize the company.

The days of faceless giant corporations are coming to a close – those are the dinosaurs that face extinction; much like taking the corporate jet and asking for taxpayer dollars.  Today the customers are vocal and they want to be heard. They want to interract, and they want their opinion to count.

Can you afford not to listen?

In a nutshell, Twitter is used to broadcast and to monitor.  In “broadcast” mode, you can use Twitter to announce new products, share existing services, highlight case studies, ask for information or resources, and generally market your business.  In “monitoring” mode, you will be able to respond to positive or negative mentions of your brand or company, keep updated about news in your market, analyze your competition, maintain links with  your suppliers, and understand customer service concerns.

Twitter is also about dialogue not one-way broadcasting.  It’s important to respond to inquiries for information and show the Twitterverse that you are a human, not a ‘bot.  To do this, you should respond to others and create dialogue as appropriate.   To this end, a “social media policy” should be established for your organization which determines the type of information that can be shared as well as appropriate and inappropriate dialogue that the company finds acceptable.  More on a social media policy in another blog to follow.

One of the most important functions of Twitter is as an information and news source.  Even the most respected television stations, radio stations and newspapers understand that they need to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.  There is something about having the ability to communicate directly with the radio personality or the television news announcer that is undeniable.  CNN has been very smart about setting up Twitter accounts for their announcers, even reading Twitter comments in real time on the air.

News is more of a two-way street than ever before.  True journalists are ‘keeping an ear to the ground’ by watching what’s being stated via Twitter statements.  If it’s important to the news, then certainly it’s important for you.

In future blogs, we’ll examine how to use Twitter to gain credibility and also how to develop a Social Media Policy.

Last week, I tweeted  the following: that for the first time ever, a “social media” is changing the course of history.  I understand this sounds melodramatic, but the reality of what is transpiring in Iran is an amazing example of the power of the micro blog.  While the Iranian government was scrambling to shut down all communication from inside, the Twitterverse responded by requesting that Twitterers all over the world identify their account as being in Tehran, Iran.  The reason this made sense was to disguise who was Tweeting from inside Iran.  By cluttering the ability to identify who was sharing info from outside, Twitter was able to help the information that was able to be shared outside of the country from those within.

Apparently this worked well enough that the Department of Defense requested that Twitter postpone maintenance from the middle of the night our time (middle of the day in Tehran) to the middle of the day our time (the middle of the night in Tehran).  The ability to gather intelligence from the Tweets coming out was that important.

But what does that mean to you?  You may not want to read about Harry blowing his nose, or George having tuna for lunch.  I agree with you.  However, with the way media is changing due to the rapidity of information gathering, it’s impossible to ignore the power of this tool.

Recently I had the pleasure of moderating a panel for eWomen Network on Social Media and how Traditional Media is reacting to the changing environment.  It’s no secret that newspaper circulation is down, radio listenership is down, and television news audiences are down.  Many people are turning to the Internet for their news.  All three of the panelists, representing TV, Radio and Newspaper were consistent in their recognition of the need to incorporate social media as a way to reach their audience and to gather information.

As a business person, how would you use social media to effectively supplement your marketing programs and reach the audience?  I’ll address this question in the next post.  Stay tuned!