maine web development, web design, internet marketing

If those words in the title are thoroughly confusing, don’t worry, I had no clue what they meant a few years ago either. Since then I have had the opportunity to dive into each one and see what they are all about. Whether you are involved with your company’s website, or you work on your own, you have probably heard of at least one of these three open source content management systems (CMSs). While there are hundreds of great systems available (just check out the CMS Matrix to see), Drupal, WordPress and Joomla are typically the most talked about. Have you ever been curious about exactly what each one is and which CMS is right for your website? Starting this month, I will present a 3-part webinar series, answering your questions and giving you an introduction to each system.

Drupal

This CMS is a full scale website creation and management system. Drupal, which was released as an open source project in 2001, is built for easy web community integration and allows for large scale customizations. It has a large following, especially among developers who are very passionate about the system. Because of this, there are many custom built add-ons (known as modules) available. There are also many sites available for support and tutorials, which is helpful because of the steep learning curve associated with Drupal. Websites that require a lot of customizations will find Drupal to be a good solution.

WordPress

WordPress is another open source CMS that is often used as blogging software. With the recent release of version 3.0, there are new features that allow users to have more freedom when adding content other than blog posts, making it a robust content management system. Similar to Drupal, WordPress has add-ons called widgets that can be customized and placed in different areas on the site without having to use code. WordPress has a versatile templating system with many themes available. This CMS is perfect for blog-based websites with additional information pages and some unique functionality.

Joomla

Another popular open source CMS is Joomla, which was released in 2005. There are many free and commercial plug-ins available for the system that allow for customization of your website. Multiple templates are available for Joomla sites, which are easy to install and switch between. As with Drupal, there tends to be more of a learning curve, but it can be easily mastered with the proper set-up. Joomla can be a good solution for simple websites, member based websites, and sites that need a little bit of customization.

If you are interested in learning more about any or all of these systems then keep an eye out for the upcoming webinars on our webinar listing page. The Introduction to Drupal webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 13th and you can register for it here. I look forward to talking CMS with you!

Photo credit: Balakov

This was a question I got in one of my last webinars and I wanted to expand on it a bit here because I actually get this question frequently.

Should I have a Facebook Fan Page if my website is outdated?

As with most questions about social media, my answer is – it depends. You need to look at your specific situation and determine what is best for you. Most social media solutions for businesses need to be discovered on a case by case basis.

Here are a few scenarios and how a Faceboook Fan Page could hurt or help the situation:

Business XYZ is waiting for a website redesign but the process will not be completed for a long time. The old site is static, updating content takes months through a developer or in-house team and the content is outdated.

Situations like this unfortunately do happen. Having a Facebook Fan Page could help you generate content in a more time sensitive manner. By using the notes section you could post blog like entries about your industry. The easy to use photo upload tool makes creating photo albums a snap. You could update products in a photo album on Facebook and give each product a person to contact if someone was interested in buying it. If you are waiting for a website redesign, testing some things like blog-like entries or photos on Facebook could be a great way to see what types of content people are looking for from your business. Once you figure out what content resonates with your audience you could add it to your newly designed website.

Business ABC has found a solid success in marketing events. They attend tradeshows, networking events and even host their own events in their store. Their website is clunky and doesn’t have a functional calendar option to let their community know about all their upcoming events.

Having a Facebook fan page to organize and promote your events is an easy solution. Your attendees can also be given the opportunity to invite other people to your events on your behalf.

Acme Inc. is a small business with an outdated website. No one has any time to do anything about it. Everyone is so busy each day. They could really use another staff member to help with their marketing but they just don’t have the resources.

A Facebook page would be easier to update and add images to BUT who would update it? What content would you have time to add? You don’t want to have a stale website AND a stale Facebook page. Only use Facebook as an extension of your website if you have time to update it regularly with valuable information.

Medical Advice Inc. has a stuffy website. They do not have a blog and the only way to get more information is to call a representative. Employees are not allowed to create content to add onto the website. With Facebook they could give out advice to anyone who needed it. They could get lots of Fans and have them all talking amongst themselves to solve their problems.

Well… what are the legal implications of people reading content on your website and using that as medical advice over contacting a professional? What if something bad happened to them because of advice they read from someone on your Facebook fan page? What if their matter was personal or could affect their employment and another Facebook fan read about their problem and reported it to their boss? Sometimes websites need to just be a place for information on how to contact someone.

A few more things to consider if you are going to focus on Facebook to be your home base:

• What happens on Facebook belongs to Facebook. This is not a secure method to build your company database. Your page could be shut down at any time and you would lose it all. Your notes, photos and event listings are property of Facebook. Make sure they are backed up somewhere else.
• You should try to have your message consistent on all of your marketing mediums (website, print, social media sites, et al.). If you can promote your website on Facebook you should and if you can promote your Facebook fan page on your website, you should also do that.
• If you are using Facebook for business, keep it professional.

Good luck and just try to remember that having a Facebook fan page should be an extension of your corporate communication structure and is not a standalone endeavor. If you know of a business you think is using Facebook well, feel free to leave it in the comments… people love learning from their peers.

I was asked last week, “Why don’t you guys charge for your weekly webcasts?” and that was followed up by, “You could develop a good income steam charging $50 or $100 per webcast – I definitely would not record and archive them – they are valuable and I would get something for the effort.” My response was immediate, “You just don’t get it do you?”

Charging for this type of content in today’s internet environment runs against one of the golden rules of Social Media – contribute to the conversation. The ability to share valuable content among interested parties is fundamental to the use of many Social Media sites like Twitter, Digg and YouTube.

Reaching out in a meaningful way on a weekly basis has value but that value can be multiplied exponentially when you empower people to share that content through social networks, email and word of mouth.

We usually have somewhere between 10 and 20 attendees in each of our weekly webcasts and we have has as many as 50 signed up for really hot topics. By leaving the content open and shareable, that content can reach 100 times as many people – and has. By charging, we are limiting our sphere of influence for that valuable content to just those people who attended – missing the real value of the webcast. We are essentially selling the investment short and taking a short term monetary gain and ignoring the long term benefit of the effort.

Some benefits of sharing content:

• A great way to start a relationship – after all, a give and take relationship starts with giving, not taking.
• Expands your reach – people you shared it with will share it with others.
• Adds credibility to your company.
• An educated client or prospect is much easier to work with.

Risky Business?

I realize there is some perceived risk in sharing valuable content to the general public. And that is understandable, as your competitors will have easy access to the information you provide. If sharing information about what you do will put you at a competitive disadvantage, then you have bigger issues with your business model related to how you build relationships.

Stop worrying about opening your company up to the world and start reaching out with shareable content. Give people something to take and they will likely share it with someone else – now you are a making meaningful connections, helping people in a meaningful way and helping to position you and your company in the marketplace.

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Want to know more now?

Read: 5 Recession Busting Moves For Small Business
Read: Creating Your Own Economic Sector
Read: The Marketing Power Shift – Are You On Board Or Will You Be Left Behind?

photo credit: Shanta

I’m gearing up for tomorrow’s webinar on how search works on a technical level.

We’ve spent a lot of time as of late focusing on the people side of the web, and tomorrow’s webinar takes us to the other end of the spectrum — code and server language and indexing and algorithms, which should serve as a hearty reminder that it’s robots, not humans, who make all of this stuff work!

(Okay, it sort of takes two to tango)

Seriously, though, the heart of all of the human-powered web is hard-working, fearless robots who ceaselessly index the internet, delving into some deep dark quarries where most of us humans would never dare go.

And while we and Google agree that you should make websites for users, trying to make a successful website while not understanding how search engines work is like trying to build a best-selling car without understanding how engines, tie-rods and fuel injectors work (which I don’t, for the record).

Slick design and the features that consumers want is great, provided you can get up and get there in the first place.

UPDATE: This webinar is now online! Check out How Search Works in our webinar archives.