Each time a business magazine touts a new website trend, my phone starts ringing with calls from newer clients asking, “Adrienne, should we add a blog (podcast, RSS feed, widgets) to our site?”
It’s an understandable phenomenon; conscientious business owners are looking for any competitive advantage to help their businesses online. Most of the callers have a basic understanding of the new trend or functionality (blogs, or podcasts, or widgets) but not a clear picture of how it actually works in practice. Nonetheless, they have read numerous accounts that these new elements are doing wonderful things for the companies that use them. Anything “new” sounds like it may be the thing to make the difference. Perhaps it is, but my advice is to evaluate all elements and website functionality (new or not) from the perspective of how it will serve and be used by your web visitors, and how it will achieve your business objectives.
Many times, decisions are swayed by the ‘cool’ factor; the allure of having the latest, hottest functionality on your website. Being trendy is tempting, but any decisions regarding your website should be a practical, strategic choice. So how do you evaluate functionality? One of the first considerations to evaluate is the reason that you would consider adding the functionality. Will the additional element add real value to your viewer’s experience? Does it help you achieve the goals of your website? Does it help position your business in the marketplace? Establish you as an expert? Help build sales? Differentiate you from your competitors? Educate your clients?
If you believe that a particular element (such as podcasts) will be of value to your business process, the next consideration is what ongoing responsibility the chosen element requires. The key factor in most of the new technologies available is that they all center on providing current, relevant, and often portable content.
For example, podcasts are radio, talk shows or any audio or digital media files which are created for distribution over the Internet (often using syndication feeds) for playback on portable media players (like an iPod) or computers. This sounds great, and many are helpful and entertaining, but successfully incorporating podcasts into your marketing program requires both planning, preparation and work. While getting started is low cost, the bigger consideration is the time required to create the podcast content. In addition, your podcast (and any other web additions) should be of the same quality as your website and the marketing materials you use. With that in mind, you may want to consider professionally recording your podcast so that the listeners come away with the perception you intend. Using cheap equipment to record yourself, or your director of sales, rambling on about your product or service may not do that. Here’s my litmus test for podcasts: Do you have something of value to convey: special information, training seminars, case studies of how your customers have grown their business using your products, etc.? Do you have enough content to do a full series of 12 or more podcasts? Do you have someone on staff to manage the podcasts? Do you have the equipment or can you afford to hire someone to produce a professional podcast?
Second only to podcasts, are questions about starting a blog. What is a blog? Blogs are websites that offer regular, frequently updated news or online diaries about a specific subject. They often contain commentary, images, and links to other sites of interest. Everyone is talking about blogs and the “blogosphere.” There are so many blogs now—112 million according to December 2007 data—there are now even blogs about blogs. Bloggers are the hottest ticket in this year’s presidential debates and the user-generated content they contain played a major role in Time magazine naming “You” as the Person of the Year in 2006.
Here’s what you should answer if you’re considering a blog for your business: Do you have someone on staff to manage the blog? Do you have enough to say to keep it fresh and update it frequently (daily or weekly)? Are you opening it up to posts by the general public (most do)? If so, who will moderate the content? Will you allow negative comments about your company? If not, will readers believe what you say? Moreover, how will having the blog impact your business? How will it impact your prospective clients’ perception of your business?
The bottom line for podcasts, blogs and any other new functionality that can be added to a website is: “New” can be good, but may not, necessarily, be the best option for your business. Analyze the addition in terms of what, if any value it adds for your clients/customers, your commitment level to updating and content, how you can make it reflect your company, and your current resources to make the process work. If you’ve answered all these questions and there is value in adding the component, by all means, take the leap!