Making the most out of a small web team

There are a lot of companies out there in less tech-savvy cities like my own that for one reason or another have not built up the proper staff to truly benefit from their website and online marketing.

Large companies often have the budget, but may not always have the foresight. Small companies usually have the opposite problem.

Web professionals know that to have the most robust online presence you need more than one "web guy." You need staffers with various talents and specialties. The ideal situation would be to have teams working on each type of online marketing--usability, SEO, e-mail marketing, social marketing--and another to monitor analytics and make reports back to these teams to increase conversion and improve on your processes.

However, this is almost never the case. So what can you do if you only have the budget for one or two business-side web people?

1. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize!
If you have one person who is supposed to do it all, he or she obviously lose it if you expect results in every area. The best way to approach your web strategy is to prioritize what you want to do by determining where you will get the best bang for your buck. The best plan is to prioritize based on your goals for the year.

2. Spread the love.
If you have a print writer, graphic designer, PR person or media buyer, you're in luck! There are a number of ways these people can help ease the load. Let the writer take care of the message and ask the web team only to edit for scannability online. Get the designer's help with layout for the site--don't count on your web person to know everything about layout. Usability and layout are not the same! A media buyer can be come your PPC/online advertising expert and take care of placing and tracking ads on search engines and in social media.

3. Hire the best and trust their judgment.
If you only have the budget for one or two people to run your online presence, go for the best. You want people who understand the web...not just people who can write content. A good test is to check his or her personal online presence. Is the applicant engaged in various levels of online tools? If you find the right people, you will be able to trust them and know that they are making the best recommendations.

4. Good analytics software.
If you can't afford another body to work on analytic reports and recommendations, then make sure your software can run itself fairly well. You may want to take the time to train stakeholders in viewing their own reports and translating them to actionable items. This way, the responsibility is spread throughout the organization.

The Video Dilemma

We recently launched a video campaign on our website. Our developer found a great player and set up the media to stream from our site. While this was a great solution and works well, in the background both of us were screaming, "just put it on You Tube!"

If you really want a video to be seen, you pretty much have to put it in the social space. Don't expect people to come to your website for random content. They might be interested, but how will they know you provide that information (especially in our case where we hadn't before).

Looks like I'm not the only one with video-hosting woes. Ragan's forum has some good tips from PR pros on You Tube v. Hosting. You can also check out this blog that describes one company's switch to all You Tube hosting.

Mirroring Sept. 21 Message

Ad Age ran an article about the reasons corporations WON'T use social media. It's a nice complement to my Sept. 21 blog on company newsrooms.

"Listen up: Every person with a computer and even a tiny skill level has the tools to make their opinion about your brand heard by other people. They're already talking about you.

Message control is an illusion. Give it up."

Like I said, you have to take control of your social media presence, or someone will do it for you.

Navigation Challenges

I'm on the verge of a major web redesign for my company, and my biggest problem is not content or figuring out what all our stakeholders want. What's really weighing on my mind is NAVIGATION.

Navigation is tricky and is the make or break of any site. So much is riding on a short list of words that in all actuality aren't very descriptive.

This article from Smashing Magazine offers some basic guidance and examples of "good" navigation, but there is a lot missing. The challenges of your navigation will go way beyond layout (although good design is key as well).

A few things you have to consider:
- What are the main categories of my links?
- Are there enough categories in which to arrange all my pages?
- Are the categories and link names universal or only internally relevant?
- Is it intuitive to click on A to get to B? (for secondary navigation)
- Does my primary navigation fulfill my audience's basic needs?
- Will I need to build upon (expand) my navigation in the future? (more challenging to do so with a horizontal format, generally)
-What's my competition doing, and does it work?
- What politics or legal issues may result from the wording used in navigation? (This always seems to be a roadblock for me)

There are no hard, fast rules for navigation. As with anything that falls in the marketing arena, you have to "know thy audience." What are they looking for and how do they use the web. If you know that and tailor your navigation to the audience's needs, you'll get the most benefit from your navigation structure.

Company Newsroom Redefined

One thing my company has been in dire need of is an online newsroom. Our current system of static pages of news content is so antiquated it's needed an overhaul for years. But, as with many companies, more important projects and lack of funds to upgrade have always stood in the way.

Perhaps there is a simple solution. Mashable offers tips for creating a Facebook newsroom. http://mashable.com/2009/09/18/facebook-newsroom/

A Facebook fan page is quick to set up and offers you a wealth of options to integrate blogs, RSS and more. You can even tie to a Twitter feed to get daily, time-sensitive updates in quickly.

Slick PR

A friend of mine was talking to me about her previous boss and his PR preferences--make it "slick." As with many Boomers and to some extent, Gen Xers, I have a feeling he still thinks of PR as a room full of smooth talking spin doctors who can make any message sing.

If you are reading this, I don't have to tell you that disseminating a message has changed. The days of slick PR and lengthy press releases to get to a mass audience are over.

Today, people want to be on the "inside." They don't want to just think they are getting the whole truth, they want to KNOW they are getting the truth. They want companies to be open and honest with all communications. If you don't give them the truth...they will find it. Or, they will follow some opinion leader on twitter who will.

Social media will give PR professionals the exposure they have long salivated for...but it will only work if companies learn that being open with your public is the only way.

Elementary

There are a number of guidelines for how to make your web content better. But let's start at the beginning and build from here

1. Web content is NOT print content.
   Copy and paste jobs will leave you branded "brochureware." It's an ugly word! Readers may need the same information but they don't want it in the same format.
   
2. Know thy audience.
   As true for web as it is for print.
   
3. Think about the TASK.
   What is your user trying to do? What are they looking for? Can they easily find it or does your content hinder them?
4. Keep it simple, stupid.
   People want to know, but they don't want to have to wikipedia everything you write. If you can combine brevity and clarity you'll have the best content!
   
5. Bullets, bullets, bullets
   Don't overdo it, but bulleted copy can make for an easy reading experience and help users quickly determine if they've found the right content.
6. Use simple, yet descriptive words for navigation headers.
   Easier said than done. Pretend you don't know what the site is about and ask yourself: Does this word mean anything out of context?--more tips on this later.