Your inactive e-site
11/3/2011 8:43:35 AM

I have friends who lived in central Ohio for several years. I remember visiting them and driving on an interstate highway that simply came to an end. For all the years that they lived there, the highway was never completed. The story was that state highway officials tried to force the road on the locals, who resisted its completion. First they objected. Then they protested. Finally, they found backing from the EPA when a rare tree forest was found in the path of the highway construction. So the road simply went nowhere. Traffic was diverted to another road and the four lane highway simply became a connector between two smaller roads.

In similar ways, I see many web sites today that are just like that highway to nowhere. Let me be blunt about this: From a marketing perspective, there is nothing worse than having a page perpetually listed as "under construction" on your website. This is akin to putting up a billboard along a highway with the message, "We don't know what to say!" and adding your logo to the sign. What that says about your company is that you don't have your act together, you don't know where you are going, you are disorganized and you are unsure of yourselves… an e-train wreck if there ever was one. It is better to withhold the information than to put up a page that you are not ready to complete.

However, it does not just stop with web sites. If you are using social media and you are letting it sit dormant, it will have the same negative impact. Facebook has recently archived group pages that had little to no traffic. If your business site was archived, you probably received notice that there was going to be a change, and you were given the option of creating a new group. The problem is, any people who were following you were lost. You are starting your Facebook followers from scratch with the new group page. If you did not create a new group and someone is trying to link to your old page from your web site, they will find a dead end. If you began tweeting for your business and stopped, what does your inactivity say about your business? If you opened a LinkedIn account for your business, but you never update any information, what kind of message are you sending? Marketing is charged with guarding the reputation of a business, its products and its services. When you let your e-sites go inactive when the rest of the electronic media is active all around you, you are sending out a negative marketing message.

With a little discipline, this is relatively easy to overcome. First, I would recommend you fix your web site. Take down the pages that are under construction and resist putting up more pages or navigation on the site until you have all the information together. Review your content from time to time. If information is outdated, simply update it. If you are going to be a part of a social networking site for your business, find a person who will be responsible for keeping the site active. Many businesses have a problem moving beyond pure information about their company - the sort of thing they typically put on their web site - and truly interacting with people on a social networking site. If you have news about your company, this is good information for social networking. If you can integrate your marketing to a social networking crowd, do it on a regular basis. For instance, if you have sales on products or offer discounts to groups, make this a part of your social networking. If you have tips on how to do whatever service you are providing in a better way or have industry news, use a social networking site. However, if you have no news, no discounts and no tips, stay away from a business page on Facebook and Twitter. You will be creating an account that no one will follow and is destined to become inactive.

The other thing you must be aware of is that social networking offers the common man the ability to make any comment they would like about your company or its products. Social networking brought down several middle-eastern governments this past year. It has also caused corporations to do an about face with their policies and procedures. When Bank of America announced they would charge a $5 per month fee for debit card users, there was a very large viral backlash that had its roots in social networking. When Netflix decided to charge customers more for its services, there was again a consumer protest that used social networking as the conduit for speaking out against the new charges. If you are going to have a social networking site for your business, you must stay on top of the comments that are left there and act quickly to fix any problems. If you are not willing to commit customer service oversight to your networking pages, you are asking for trouble. You must be able to be proactive to respond to customers who have a problem. The marketplace demands it and electronic networking makes their voices much louder than they used to be.

The bottom line is that you have to keep all of your e-sites active and relevant. It is critical to the success of your marketing efforts and it is essential for the public perception of your business. Don’t be that highway that stopped short of being completed for lack of planning and sensitivity to your market.
________________________

Bank of America drops debit card fees by Sandra Block, USA Today, November 2, 2011

Netflix says it's sorry, then creates new uproar by Michael Liedtke, Bloomberg Businessweek, September 19, 2011

 

Comments

No comments have been posted yet.

 
Name
Email (will not be published)
Your Url

Older Posts