No matter what your brand may be, having a formidable website with which to promote it certainly matters in today’s Internet-driven age.
That said what does your brand’s website say about you and the message you are trying to convey as a business or civic leader in your community?
Some businesses, organizations, and others in a community use their websites to strictly promote their brands and not much of anything else. Others, meantime, have a variety of usages for their websites, typically giving them a broader appeal to more people.
So, can you look at your website in 2016 and say it is exactly what you want it to be or does it need some more tinkering?
What Does Your Website Say About You?
Start off by asking yourself what you want to get out of your website.
Is it strictly to serve as an advertising and marketing vehicle for your business or group? Are you looking for it to be an informational portal where people in and out of the community can go to learn more about topics of interest to them, be it your business or something else?
Once you’ve decided on what you truly want your site to be, making sure it is serving that purpose or purposes.
Next, is your website positioned to reach as many people as possible?
If you run a church website for example, about how many parishioners do you expect it is reaching?
One way to find out is by asking your congregation (this can be done by polling etc.) how many of them follow your site, what percentage of them find valuable information on it, and what number of them share the information with others.
Your church website can include a number of topics, including things like Sunday school and church times, topics of religious discussion, ways to raise money for the church, taking part in activities in the local community via the church, and what members are doing in the business and social communities.
Leaving a Social Imprint
Speaking of social, how much social media promotion are you putting out there for your site?
In today’s social networking age, it is all but a necessity to have a social imprint, especially in the business and local communities.
Whether you are an efficient business owner, run a local civic organization, are the pastor at a church, or just someone looking to promote local events around town, social media is one of the best friends you can have.
If you have not already, make sure to set up pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Instagram.
In doing so, you can promote all the different offerings your website has to offer. Best of all, others will typically then follow you and share some of their posts with you. Make sure to follow relevant individuals and groups, also helping to give their posts some TLC.
All Systems Go?
As good as all of these ideas sound, retrace your steps and make sure your site is 100 percent ready to go.
Check for broken links, pictures that do not appear where they should be, typos in the copy or headlines of articles, and wrong contact information (or even worse) or a lack thereof.
Your website will only be taken seriously (and your business or group for that matter) if it looks professional.
It is also a good idea from time-to-time to review your site to check for the above-mentioned issues that can crop up on occasion.
If you are not a tech wizard by any means, spend the funds necessary to get someone on board with you who prove to be.
Even if you are not flowing in money, it is important to allocate what funds you do have for certain areas of your business or organizational growth. One of these areas is having a professionally done website.
If money is tight for you, you could look at the possibly of trading out for website help, providing assistance to someone who needs your expertise to assist their business or other needs.
When you have the best website possible for whatever your brand may be, rejoice in knowing that you are showing the world how awesome the worldwide web can be.
