 Web sites
design and maintained by
VQK.Communications
Jackson Electric Membership Corp.
Site covers all
services offered by nation's second largest electric membership
corporation. 100+ page site recently completely redesigned.
Emory
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Outlines programs and provides information on grants and fellowships
and useful contacts.
Encapsulation
Technologies
Site visitors use the technical information to determine
whether the technology will be useful at their facility.
The Farris Foundation
Site gives an overview of this nonprofit organization
Piedmont Park Conservancy
Site gives visitors
basic information about the Conservancy and Piedmont Park
|
Why Web pages?
Web technology is a useful way to share information, but it is
not the answer to every communications need. Most importantly, it's not enough to just get
a Web site up. The site needs to serve your strategic marketing needs, be an integrated
part of a total communications plan and send the same message as your other
communications. For example, a company that is positioning itself as a high-tech leader
needs a site that's more technically sophisticated than the typical five-page
"brochure" site that includes basically the same information that's in a trifold
brochure.The Web is useful for information that
needs to be:
- updated more frequently than is practical in printed and mailed material
- accessed by a large number of users
- accessed by users all over the world
- available through searches
- available to your customers in an electronic format
Web pages serve different functions for different companies. If the main purpose of
your Web site is to be a place where your customers and potential customers can get basic
information about your company, the pages can remain fairly static. However, if you're
interested in repeat visitors to your site, pages must be updated frequently. Companies
often underestimate the amount of staff time it will take to feed and maintain the
voracious animal a Web site can become.
As you think about adding a Web site to your communications tools, think about these
questions:
What information would I like to share
using Web technology?
Ask the people who answer the phones what questions they answer most frequently. Is it
your location? Include a map and driving directions. Is it to find the right department?
Include detailed descriptions of the departments and a contact for each one. Do they
request a copy of your annual report? Include a Web version. The Web is the first place
many people go for information, and covering the most commonly asked questions can save
you valuable clerical time. Beyond that, ask your salesmen what customers want to
know before making a purchase. Do they want to know about your guarantee? Include a copy.
How does this information need to be updated?
Many companies put information on their Web sites that becomes dated because no one is
responsible for keeping the Web version updated. Some information needs to be updated
based on changes, such as personnel or phone number listings. You need to make sure
someone is responsible for making sure such information gets changed on the Web site --
perhaps by building that into the human resources process.
Some information needs to be checked on a regular basis -- monthly, at least --
to make sure it remains current.
Who will be available on a regular basis to maintain this
information?
In many cases, the original information on Web pages is developed by one person or a team
assigned to develop the application. After the excitement of actually getting a Web site
up, the crucial next step is to assign responsibility for long-term maintenance.
How will this information be used?
Generally, most Web information should be viewed as something that people will look at on
the screen and occasionally copy pieces out of it. If, however, the information will
probably be printed or incorporated into existing databases, it needs to also be available
in a form that makes that easy for the user. Therefore, many documents should also be made
available in Word or other word processing programs. If a document contain extensive
formatting that needs to be preserved in the printed version, it can also be made
available in PDF format. This format is essentially a picture of the document, and, using
the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, will allow the document to be printed exactly as
intended. Information that users will incorporate into databases can be set up in tables
in the HTML documents and imported as data using the table fields or can be attached in
various spreadsheet and database formats. Remember, the easier you make life
for your customers, the more likely they are to return.
What form is this information in now (Word
document, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, database)?
Before talking to a Web developer or beginning to develop your own pages, organize all the
information you want in your Web site and put it in an electronic form. There's no point
in paying someone else to type or scan copy. The most recent versions of many of these
programs will allow you create basic HTML directly from the program. For example, the
current version of PowerPoint will create a Web version of a PowerPoint presentation.
|
