The study found that 42% of online shoppers “occasionally” follow a store via Facebook or twitter. Of these shoppers, their reasons were:

• 58% to find deals
• 49% to stay up to date
• 39% for contests and events

These stats don’t surprise me. I have often said that social media can be a powerful and effective tool in building awareness and interest in your business. However, these are not the only way to build awareness and interest, and more importantly, they are just the first steps of an overall online marketing process. Again, from the study:

60% of Facebook, and 70% of twitter users clicked a link to view the business website.

This shows clearly, that consumers need more than what they’ve experienced through social media to become a customer, and they expect to find this from your website. But perhaps they are already “sold” and are only visiting your site to make their purchase? The study then asked if followers would make their purchase on Facebook/twitter if they could, yet only 1/3 affirmed this.

Oddly, this is the key stat the “experts” are using to declare the death of the website. Call me crazy, but the last time I checked my math, 2/3 is a far greater number than 1/3. And clearly, 2/3 of these users wanted something more than what Facebook/Twitter provides, before making a purchase. I don’t know of too many businesses that are willing to sacrifice 2/3 of the social media leads by dumping their website.

Other Important Considerations

Despite the growing popularity of social networks, many online shoppers simply do not participate in Facebook/Twitter. These potential customers remain out of reach of the social networks. Another consideration is that many online shoppers make purchases while at work, and many corporate firewalls block social media sites like Facebook and twitter. While your potential customers can likely access your website, they could be blocked out from any pages you have on Facebook and Twitter.

There is undoubtably a lot to lose by dumping, or forgoing a company website, now or in the foreseeable future.

Reports of the Website’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated

The very study on which the reports are based, actually reveal the critical need for a business to have an effective website where social media leads can be directed.

Facebook has made positive changes in its “fan” pages but they still don’t come anywhere close to providing a safe /secure, all encompassing online environment, online purchasing, with full ownership control that a business website can now provide.

The Role of Social Media in Your Online Marketing Strategy

Social Media definitely plays an important role in your online marketing strategy. You might think of a baseball line-up, where SEO is your lead-off batter, skilled to get on base. Social Media might bat second, also skilled to get on base or advance the base-runner. Your website is your clutch and clean-up batter, with the power to hit the long ball, home-runs, and driving in all the base runners for the win. Individually, each player’s contribution only goes so far, but together, they make a powerful and effective sales producing team.

Is Facebook/Twitter Killing Your Website? is a post from: Scot A. Gallup: Web Designer/Developer, Online Strategist

I would estimate, that about 80% of these websites look largely unprofessional, with an amateur design and/or programming quality, and seems to lack any understanding of me as a customer or my reason for visiting. The website erodes any trust or credibility I had toward the company. One eCommerce site I visited was so poorly designed that I could not imagine anyone would feel confident to provide their credit card number to make an online purchase. Another poorly designed site represented a marketing consultant! I noticed a link to its web designer who, I learned after following, had absolutely no design or marketing background. Obviously, the website they designed, was testimony to this fact, but I was more shocked that a marketing professional would fail to grasp the marketing value of a well designed site!

Frankly, I know these are good, well-intentioned people who own these sites and they do an excellent job at promoting their business in face-to-face conversations. Just as a “follow-through” is important in swinging a golf club or baseball bat, as it is with our online marketing efforts. You may also think of your overall marketing process as a chain, with each link representing a stage of the sales process. Your process chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Many businesses have some common myths about website design which can cause them to make serious and critical mistakes in developing an effective website, and end up costing them far more in lost sales or reputation. Here are just a few I’ve observed:

MYTH: If You Build It, They Will Come

Yes, long gone are the days that merely building a website was enough to get you noticed and drive online sales. Depending on the industry, 5-10 years ago, much of your competition didn’t have a website, and those that did, usually didn’t have a great one. Consumers were grateful to find your information online. They didn’t have much to compare you with, and didn’t expect much from a website. Today, almost all your competitors have websites, and consumer expectations have risen dramatically as they’ve grown accustomed to well designed websites that are centered around their needs. Today a website needs to work harder to achieve good results. What was once considered to be an “average” designed site can now harm your credibility and reputation, and even repel results.

MYTH: Design Quality is Overrated (Anyone Can Do It)

We’ve heard it said that “Content is King” on the web. This is true however, design is content just as much as text, if not more. You’ve heard it said that, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If your design quality and the overall experience a visitor has when visiting your site does not match your words, design wins out. A recent study funded by Consumer Reports, found that design quality was, by far, the number one criteria most people use today when determining a website’s credibility and trustworthiness–a critical component of effective sales.

MYTH: A Low-Cost Website Is More Cost Effective

Many small businesses and entrepreneurs, often on a tight budget think that they cannot afford a high-quality website. On the contrary, a low-cost, low-quality site can easily end up costing a business far more in lost sales revenue, credibility and reputation. A high-quality, professional, custom-designed site that is focused on your customers expectations, differentiates you from your competitors, and reflects the quality of your products and services, will often pay for itself many times over during the lifespan of your site.

MYTH: Driving More Traffic to the Site Will Increase Results

Most of my clients come to me after making the mistake of taking the low-cost road, wondering why their website doesn’t produce the results they expected and ask me to help drive more traffic to the site to produce more sales. While Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media and other web traffic driving initiatives are excellent investments, it’s far more cost effective to first fix a poorly producing website, so that it converts a higher percentage of existing visitors into customers. Then additional traffic driving efforts can result in even higher sales. What is the point of driving additional traffic to a website that fails to convert visitors into customers? It is a waste of time, money, and effort.

What to Look For in Choosing a Web Designer

When looking for a web designer look for someone with training and experience in designing and developing successful websites and has a great portfolio of examples. Look for someone who will take the time to fully understand your business, your products and services, as well as your customers and competitors. They should understand the strategic process of how your website will best convert your visitors into customers. It is also important to choose a web design provider with whom you can partner and responds quickly to your needs even after the site launches. Cost is also a consideration, in that many mid- to large-size design agencies often charge much higher rates than a smaller firm or experienced freelance designer who can deliver the same or even higher level of quality and responsiveness.

So to all my business networking friends, I hope I’ve provided some good advice in helping you have a website that truly matches and follows through on your already effective outreach efforts. Your success is my success.

-Scot

Fatal Small Business Myths / Mistakes About Website Design is a post from: Scot A. Gallup: Web Designer/Developer, Online Strategist

Video certainly is a great tool in making what is often, a cold impersonal digital environment of a website and making it feel more human, intimate and personable. It can be an effective tool in presenting our organization in a positive and compelling way, even helping you standout (for awhile) from our competition. It can also be a valuable tool in providing useful demos or tutorials to your visitors. By using video hosting services like YouTube or Vimeo, you can receive added exposure.

Can video have a downside? You bet! Recently I was discussing the use of online video with one of my clients, a social services agency who helps victims of a highly personal and sensitive crime, one that usually requires a great deal of courage to reveal to others. We considered what happens when one of these potential clients views an online video, and suddenly audio pours forth from their once quiet PC, filling the room and attracting the attention of bystanders or perhaps even those in the next room. Suddenly their secrecy and anonymity is lost, as they scramble to turn off the video…or the sound…or the speakers.

To be fair, this is an extreme case where video can have it’s drawbacks to serving our online customers, but even in a corporate, often cubical environment, video can be highly intrusive to other co-workers no matter the video subject. In fact many company firewalls are setup to block video, especially if hosted by a common video provider like YouTube and Vimeo.

I believe that the best use of video, is similar to using Flash on a website. Not everyone visiting your site will want or be able to view your video. It is important that your video not take the place of any key content or messaging on the site but rather enhance it. Your site should still contain personable photos, good descriptive content, and perhaps even a transcript of the video. Video is not an effective band-aide for a poorly functioning site. And one last piece of advice, please make sure your video does not play automatically. It can be tempting to want to force visitors to see your video, but this is a fast track to losing visitors who hit the browser back-button, rather than trying to stop the video.

Go ahead and use video on your website! It has many benefits. Just don’t forget those visitors who can’t view it or consider it an audio intrusion.

Is Video Important to an Effective Website? is a post from: Scot A. Gallup: Web Designer/Developer, Online Strategist

We invited our strongest, most loyal customers to comment on the new design. Their response shocked us. They actually ‘hated’ the new design! They thought the new design failed to convey the sense of vitality and hope, which first attracted them to us, and made us stand-apart from our competitors.

In response, we then spent even more money making quick design changes, attempting to patch-in those missing qualities of our brand. Within a year, we completed another complete redesign but this time, we made sure to involve our most loyal customers into the design process.

We learned a valuable –if not humble–marketing lesson: “We are Not Our Target Audience!” That phase was often repeated many times in future marketing meetings as a sober reminder that all our marketing efforts must focus on the wants and needs of the people we intend to reach, and that we can’t always rely on basing our decisions on what we think they want versus what they really do want. As a side note, this corporation has gone on to receive recognition as a top marketing innovator within their industry.

We Are Not Our Target Audience. Whether you’re a client of a designer, the sooner we learn this humbling truth, the closer we’ll get to creating a website that provides a compelling and engaging online experience for the end user, and one that generates great results.

Let’s say it together…“We Are Not Our Target Audience.”

We Are Not Our Target Audience is a post from: Scot A. Gallup: Web Designer/Developer, Online Strategist

Problems with Using Flash

1. Search Engine Optimization.
   Internet Search engines like Google and Yahoo use robots to search for websites, and index the site’s content into their database, follow any links they find and index this content as well. Using the site content along with a number of different criteria, they rank your site based on search terms they develop. In most cases, the search engines are unable to read any content or links that exists within a Flash object, making it difficult if not impossible to accurately and completely rank your site, making it more difficult for users to find your site through Google/Yahoo.
2. Compatibility with Some Web Browsing Devices
   In order for a web browser to process and view a Flash element it needs a Flash plug-in. While most typical PC-based browsers today have the plug-in already installed, the most common problem is with mobile devices. To date, Apple has refused to allow Flash capability in their iPhone, and iPad–two of the most commonly used mobile devices today. Windows too has also given overtures that they may not support Flash in their future mobile operating systems. If your site is one that people will likely access using a mobile device, such as a restaurant or retail store, the Flash object will prevent some people from being able to read or experience any Flash contained content.
3. User Experience.
   Everyone has encountered that webpage that displays an animated graphic asking us to be patient while the content loads. Sometimes the load time can be significant and irritating to the user. This is quite typical of Flash objects. User studies show that many people do indeed leave, and move on to another website, rather than wait. Sure some visitors will love the animated eye-candy of a Flash presentation, at first. But the more they use the site, and return frequently, which you hope they will!—the Flash begins to lose its luster and can become a distraction, if not an annoyance.
4. Website Updates
   Most websites built in standard HTML/CSS/Javascript are pretty simple to update, while updating a Flash object can pose problems. At best, some Flash objects may pull content from a text file and/or database, but this is more the exception than the rule. In almost all cases, revising Flash content requires the original (FLA) file from which the final Flash object (SWF file) is developed and plugged into the site. As a web designer, it is quite common to have a client who can’t update their site because they do not have the original file, or the fairly expensive Flash software, to open and modify it.

New Solutions

It seems surprising that many web designers seem to be unaware of the interactive and animation capabilities of Javascript, especially jQuery and other Javascript libraries since they are more compatible with web browsing devices, adhere to industry standards, are search engine friendly, load quickly, and are easier to update—unlike Flash. Recent trends in browser support for the upcoming HTML5 now provides an alternative to Flash delivered video, as YouTube and other video hosting services are beginning to implement. It is no wonder that many people including Apple believe that Flash is becoming a dead technology.

If You Must Flash…

Personally, I love Flash. It can be used effectively in a number of different situations in website design. Even a site developed entirely in Flash can provide a wonderfully rich and immersive environment, ideal when entertainment is the principal objective of the site. Here are some additional considerations in using Flash effectively.

1. Don’t Rely on Flash as the Main Expression of Your Brand, Message, or Critical Content
   While the Flash element should support your brand, your site should not rely on it as the key tool to express it. It could serve as an interactive/animated demo as an enhancement to written content already on your site. If users can’t see Flash, they can’t see your key messages or content.
2. Don’t Use Flash for Your Site Navigation
   The Flash element can contain links to other pages, but it should not be the main method for which users navigate the site. Users with non-Flash browsers as well as Search Engines need to be able to read and follow these links.
3. Provide Alternative Graphics
   I am often surprised to see Flash designers who fail to use an alternative graphic which can be easily loaded and displayed to users who are using a non-Flash compatible device. Recently I visited a site for my satellite TV provider using my mobile (non-Flash compliant) device, and was presented a web page filled with several “holes”. Each of these “holes” was a Flash object that I could not view. It would have been nice to see an alternative content to fill each hole.
4. Avoid Using Flash as a Video Delivery System
   Using HTML5, YouTube, Vimeo or other non-Flash video delivery system or service will allow users of Non-Flash browsers to enjoy the experience of viewing your videos just as users of Flash-enabled browsers.
5. Provide an Alternative (Mobile Site)
   Whether your site uses Flash or not, these days with the popularity of mobile devices chances are, your site does not translate very well onto a 1-inch screen. Developing a mobile friendly site

To Flash, or Not to Flash? is a post from: Scot A. Gallup: Web Designer/Developer, Online Strategist