Kimberly McCormick - Bayshore Solutions Director of Corporate Marketing

By: Kimberly McCormick – Bayshore Solutions Corporate Marketing Team

As the Corporate Marketing Director, tasked with communicating the messaging around our services and capabilities,  I was recently able to listen to some client services stories that helped me better understand the difference in custom developed websites and open source website platforms (like WordPress for example) from a marketing cost and business risk standpoint.

When researching/shopping for website providers, a typical Marketing Director (who is charged with their company’s Web presence and performance) will encounter a significant price difference between an open source web platform and a custom designed and developed website.  Open source solutions do cost less.  So what are some of the things you get for the premium price of a custom developed website?  Let me share these “Lessons-learned” stories to illustrate one differentiating aspect…security.

Bayshore Solutions was approached with desperate pleas for help from 2 organizations whose open source websites had been infected by viruses. The infestation had not only hijacked the content showing on their websites, but had rapidly spread to those companies’ customers and potential customers visiting their websites. In addition, their search engine rankings were damaged – to the point that Google, Bing and Yahoo all put up warning flags on search results for their websites communicating, “Caution this website is virus-Infected!”  This situation is a corporate marketer’s worst nightmare.  Imagine how this was ruining their target customer goodwill and confidence, their SEO clout, and bringing their hard-won online marketing progress to its knees.

In both cases, our team was able to determine that the cause of the security breach was in open-source plug-ins to their website platforms that were either left vulnerable at the code level by presumably inexperienced open source developers, or were the intentional creations of malicious programmers who can easily use the open source arena to wreak havoc.  In both cases, the victim company’s first indication of trouble came too late – after infection and damage had occurred. And there was really no one for the companies to contact for remedy and support at the open source web platform.

Contrast this with a custom developed website, not utilizing open source and hosted with Bayshore Solutions.  In this hosting scenario, when we detect injection attempts and attacks, we are often able to proactively stop them, and we are able to proactively alert our customers about ongoing threats, before damage and further infection spreads. In addition, we are here in-person to support the ongoing health and welfare of our customers websites.  In the development aspect, the source code of a custom website is not “Open” and any application integrations are selected, vetted and managed through our developers and project managers.  This gives our customers better security and control of their website, as a key driving force in their market share and business growth.

Yes, a custom solution costs more. However in the customer cases above, even after detection, quarantine and elimination of that particular open source security breach, the companies are still not recovered to pre-attack market position, and the cost to those businesses of repairing the damage, lost customer confidence, and search marketing deterioration has far outweighed the price benefit of their open source decision.
That said, open source solutions like WordPress are not all bad, (We are using WordPress with this corporate blog you are reading right now) and an expert Web partner with processes in place to protect against the security risks associated with open source solutions can help mitigate your exposure. However, your expert partner’s ongoing time will have a price tag in addition to the open source platform package.

When choosing the Web partner and Web platform that your will rely on to deliver the returns for your digital investment, this is an example of the deeper cost-benefit factors that might not be readily apparent, but are decision-dynamics that a smart marketer should consider.

Bayshore Solutions offers an “Envision” consulting service that can help you identify your business’s unique web requirements, and thoroughly address this and other dynamics that will help you make your most intelligent Web investment to grow your business.

Kimberly McCormick is a Director of Corporate Marketing at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.

Kristina Gledhill - Bayshore Solutions Account Manager

By: Kristina Gledhill – Bayshore Solutions Emarketing Team

We’re all familiar with the popular photography app, Instagram, by now. The super fun app allows the average Joe to take photos on their mobile phone, edit the photo with a filter to make it look unique and more professional, and then share it with friends and followers on a variety of social networking sites (including Instagram’s own).

But did you know that businesses can also utilize Instagram? Your company can use the hip social photography app, which was recently bought out by Facebook, in the following ways:

•    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Name your photos with keywords, including alt tags, using Instagram’s editing features
•    Contests – If you sell products, ask customers to take photos of themselves using the product and then upload the photo to win a prize. Add an element of interaction by encouraging people to vote on their favorite photo.
•    Event Marketing – Ask people to take photos of an event you’re having. This gets people excited about the event and allows for more interaction.
•    Social Media – Share photos via social media. Instagram allows you to add a hashtag to the photo, which will help you keep tabs on any picture via Twitter or social networks.
•    Connection – Your customers are more than likely using Instagram, making it another avenue to form connections.
•    Location – Instagram allows you to add a location to your photo and you should definitely take advantage of this feature!

Instagram is currently all the buzz, so why not join? Although Instagram does not currently offer specific brand accounts, you can still create an individual account for your company. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to reach your customers or potential customers in a new way!

Kristina Gledhill is an Account Manager at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.

Fred Wootten - Bayshore Solutions Sr. Programmer

By: Fred Wootten – Bayshore Solutions Programming Team

WordPress is more than just a popular blogging tool.  It is also a powerful and easy-to-use content management system that allows users and software developers to extend its functionality well beyond the features that come as part of the base install.  Is it right for you and your company?

Part of the popularity of WordPress is the ability for users to improve and modify the functionality of their site through the use of plugins and widgets. The WordPress.org website currently lists over 19,000 available plugins ranging from simple photo slideshows and search engine optimization tools to complex e-commerce solutions.  WordPress plugins are also available through other sources.  If you are unable to locate a plugin that does exactly what you want, you may need to seek the support of an experienced programmer who can modify an existing plugin or create a custom plugin.  Caution should be taken to limit the number of plugins used on a site as this can slow down the loading time of the site and negatively affect your visitors’ experience.  You should also be careful to download plugins only from trusted sources as plugins can contain code vulnerable to cyber attacks or intentionally malicious code which can be exploited by hackers.   You will find that most plugins are easy to install, but some do require an additional amount of patience to set up properly.

Another attractive feature of WordPress is the availability of many free or low-cost website design templates which can be integrated into the WordPress base code to give your site a new look.  A template may contain all the functionally needed with little or no modification.  Simple modifications to the template can be made through edits to the CSS and template files.  Since the base files for WordPress are separate from these design files, you can customize your site without affecting the base code which allows you to upload any critical fixes or updates to WordPress.  Again, it is important to locate reputable sources for these templates and keep in mind that a template may not give you the competitive edge that a custom-designed website may provide.  As with plugins, you will find that not all templates are created equally.  Some templates are easier to modify than others.

Because of its collaborative nature and open-source architecture, online resources and help are plentiful.  Most users find WordPress easy to use and understand, but as with any new software, there is a learning curve to overcome before you may feel comfortable with all of the available features.  You may also find that installing and configuring a new WordPress site can be tricky for anyone inexperienced with this type of installation.

If you decide that WordPress is right for you, Bayshore Solutions can offer assistance with the setup, hosting and customization of your WordPress site.  Bayshore Solutions can also provide a custom-designed site template or integrate an existing website design into a usable WordPress template.

Fred Wootten is a Senior Programmer at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.

Samantha Munach - Bayshore Solutions Account Associate

By: Samantha Munach – Bayshore Solutions Emarketing Team

Imagine being able to get all the positive social media conversations about your brand directly in front of your consumer instead of having it live throughout multiple search engine sites.

For example, you’re a cruise line getting ready for the summer vacation season. People are visiting your site doing some vacation research but are not converting. Having a real time social media stream of people talking about their cruise experience, posting images of the boat, and videos by the pool, it’s like having a large advertisement on your site encouraging your potential consumers to convert!

Tinker Stream Ads’ let major brands create a filtered stream of real-time content relevant to their products, which can then be displayed on publisher sites. Tinker enables distribution of real-time conversations taking place on social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and more.

Tinker enables publishers to create customizable widgets to share streams on their own web sites or blogs. Publishers can select from different types of widgets including the search widget, profile widget, group widget, event widget, and news widget.

A publisher can apply filters to the widgets posts, allowing posts only from recognized Tweeters or certain credible fans. The publisher can also filter out posts to display the best ones and even exclude certain competitors and particular keywords.

So instead of searching through social media sites for positive brand reinforcement to present to your consumers, place a condensed version on your site directly in front of your customers using Tinker widgets.

Samantha Munach is an Account Associate at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.

Keith Neubert - Bayshore Solutions Vice President

By: Keith Neubert – Bayshore Solutions Management Team

At Bayshore Solutions we’ve been fortunate to work with a wide variety of companies across a myriad of industries.  We’ve delivered successful projects of all sizes, scopes and requirements based on our proven methodology.  With those experiences, I thought I would share 2 quick steps to think about when your web project ideas start taking shape and you’re about to embark on a request for proposal.

1. Defining what success means for the project

It’s important to look at your web project as a objectively as possible and not to get caught up in chasing the Joneses.  Projects that fail are those that don’t clearly define what success is to them and don’t have the requirements in place to support those goals.

When you approach your web project start with a basic question like: “If my site was up and running 6 months from now how would I know it was successful?”  There a lot of possible answers to that question and probably new questions that come from those answers, which is ok!  But eventually all requirements that are defined need to be measured back to those original answers around what success truly means for your project and your business.

As you’re working with a web partner, make sure those questions and answers are clearly defined, and if we’re thinking in terms of a proposal document,  these are right at the top.

2. What you want vs. what you need

As part of the team here at Bayshore that works with customers to define those goals and requirements I’m constantly looking for solutions in support of the key requirements but I’m always surprised at how technology does its best to try to get you to chase what’s new, what’s hot and what’s ultimately not what you need.  When developing requirements with your web partner make sure you’re clear on the difference between the ‘wants’ vs. the ‘needs’.  Again, if your gauge for success is let’s say ‘a 10 times increase in form submissions,’ then anything that does not directly affect an increase in form submissions should be questioned.  Not necessarily ruled out, just questioned, evaluated and agreed to what it will provide.  This process repeated will eventually lead to a list of ‘wants’ vs. ‘needs’.

A solid web proposal should address ALL requirements and have a plan for measurement based on the definition(s) of success.  The importance of thinking through these 2 quick steps is that it will ensure alignment to end goals, allow prioritization of requirements and allows a web partner like Bayshore Solutions to do what they we do best – deliver a solution that drives brand/creative, technology and marketing to meet your definitions of success!  Need help with this process?  Let our experts work with you through the process and maximize your chance for success!

Keith Neubert is a Vice President at Bayshore Solutions—a Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.