Web 2.0 tools
The fast rate of new developments online has become part of what customers expect from the internet. If your business website is static and not keeping up, customers may look elsewhere. But making a successful site doesn't need huge investment.
You need to think about what your customers want:
- Would Web 2.0 tools add value to the user experience and enhance your online brand?
- What are the technical, legal, financial and business implications of adding these tools to your website?
Listed below are just some of the technologies you can use and how they can help your business. In some cases you can find free or inexpensive ways to add these to your site, which can change the way your customers view your brand.
Blogs
These are websites where individuals and businesses can post opinions or news about themselves. Many businesses now use these to connect more informally with their customers - letting them know about changes in the business and promoting new products or services. Blogs are also a good way of gathering informal feedback from your customers, adding to your market awareness.
You can use your blog to create links back to your business' website. Since blogs are updated regularly, creating new content, these back links are well received by search engines and will help improve your page ranking. Also think about contributing to other, well-respected, high traffic blogs - providing links back to your site where appropriate. Either approach could help your website appear more prominently in search results, encouraging visitors to your site. See our guide on search engine optimisation.
When allowing users to contribute to your blog there are also legal and best practice issues to consider - see the page in this guide on legal implications and best practice when using social media.
Find blogging news, updates and figures on the Technorati website.
RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are an automated way of sending updates to your customers. If a visitor to your website subscribes to your RSS feed, they will automatically receive notifications whenever that particular content is updated. This feed, along with any others subscribed to, is read using an RSS reader - software that will aggregate multiple web feeds. This software can be web-based or installed directly onto a PC or other hardware device, eg a smart phone.
RSS feeds let your customers stay up to date with relevant content without needing to revisit the website. If adding an RSS feed to your site, remember that these work most effectively with content that changes regularly, eg a blog. Your customers could also feature syndicated feeds on their own websites, helping to generate even more traffic and potential customers to your site.
Photo and video sharing
Personal photos and videos can be a great way to engage people - as demonstrated by the popularity of websites like Flickr and YouTube. Instead of putting up generic images, you could encourage your customers to tell their own stories by posting to your site. But remember, there are issues to consider when allowing users to post content to your website. See the page in this guide on the legal implications and best practice when using social media.
Different types of content, like photos and video, can also contribute positively to your search marketing strategy. Popular search engines now blend their results, returning different types of content including news, video, images, blogs, product listings etc. Optimising for universal search will help you 'own' your position in the search engines results page. For more information see our guide on search engine optimisation.
Think about ways you can incorporate video content on your website. For example, if your website includes case studies on satisfied customers, perhaps this would be more engaging if it was presented as a video clip rather than text.