By now, it’s no secret that virtually every internet marketing expert is recommending that businesses use social networking sites as marketing tools. I’ve heard this for a few years that it’s important to “friend”, “tweet”, “digg”, “linked-in”, and “buzz” etc… But why?
I have blogged about the vital importance of using useful and informative content on your website. It doesn’t matter whether your posting data or descriptive copy, make sure you have a purpose for what you’re showing your audience. Entertaining your audience is one thing, but if you you have facts, data, or trends to share, by all means share it. If there is limited usefulness to your content, people will see the transparency and move on.
When I first began developing websites, the trend was to show as much stuff as you could put on a page and then add some more. The web was so new and it was so cool compared to print. Hey there’s no limit to the amount of stuff or pages we can have, lets add more pictures!
So if we’re still living in the “Information Age” what is the most important thing that a website should offer? Information. Who, what, why, where, when, how? As the amount of information increases, so does the importance of it being readily available. Is the data understandable in its current format? Can data be gathered quickly and easily? Are there tendencies that can be formulated from the data? Is the data useful?
I read an article recently on Wired’s blogsite about Douglas Bowman, Google’s design visual lead leaving the giant because “an obsessive, engineer-heavy, data driven-culture made it impossible for him to work there anymore.” Wow, I’ve been there too. I have worked for companies that would hold meetings to plan for follow up meetings.
In today’s Advertising Age’s “Digital” section, Nat Ives wrote an article about the huge media companies whining to google about not having leverage over organic search engine rankings. It’s an interesting article and despite my background in advertising, I definitely don’t agree with their side of the argument.
