Do you think that having a search facility on your site is a fairly standard best practice these days?
I do.
And yet 17% of the FTSE 100 do not have a search box (or link to a search page) on their home page. Why is this?
[Read more…] about Search the FTSE 100 – if you can
No matter what size of company you are, details of your registered address should be available on your site. This is a legal requirement here in the UK (reminder) – but is good practice anyway. Larger companies often also provide further details of their various locations – sometimes in the About Us section or in the Careers section.
Tell potential recruits what it is really like
Providing details about your locations can help potential recruits make their decisions. Successful applicants will not only have to work in one of your locations, they will have to live there too. No-one wants to hire someone who decides they don’t like the area you work in and leave; providing information about the area can help avoid losing a recruit later.
[Read more…] about Show the world where you are – and what you are doing there
I recently discussed what should be included in a competent media section. Today I want to look at what you need to step the Media section up a gear.
A good media section
The better Media sections contain a range of additional elements to make it easier for the visitor. This includes additional information that might be useful, easy to access and packaged in helpful bundles, and some tools to help them get their job done. These elements include:
[Read more…] about Going up a gear – Media (part 2)
Increasingly, listed companies are providing their share price and news available to people on their desktop, PDA or mobile.
This means that investors and journalists can find out the latest information without necessarily being tied to their computer. Aviva have had this service available for a while now – as have some others.
As a rather different approach, Reckitt Benckiser offer a desktop share price tracker on their corporate home page. This stays on the desktop when the original window closes, and updates periodically when the share price changes. So you could move on with the day’s tasks, without having to return to the mother site.
I was interested to see that Nexxar have been assessing the size of Annual Report PDFs from DAX-30 companies.
Marco Schueller is right to point out that bandwidth is still an issue – though I think this continues to affect desktop-internet to some extent, not just mobile-internet. In many areas here in the UK, at least, broadband is still only up to 2MB max, not the superfast 20MB version available in cities. And in a very few places, broadband is still not available at all.
The large file-sizes that he points out (10MB-11.6MB) would indeed take a while to download.
Of course, downloading the entire file isn’t always what visitors want to do. Many companies offer indexed versions, so that the desired parts of the document – such as the financial statements – can be selected for download. Some offer the option to add individual sections or pages to a print/download basket, or to be collated into a single PDF; usually this is from within the online annual report. BMW is an example of this service; I was intrigued to notice that BMW suggested additional sections of the report that might be of interest to me, along the lines of Amazon’s well-known cross-marketing software.
A few – very few – offer a printer-friendly version of the complete annual report (see Standard Life, for example), which seems like a good idea. After all, we don’t really need the decorative images, although they do help to convey the corporate brand and messaging. One option that Deutsche Post uses is a print-page facility, so without the background and purely decorative graphics, but with the additional option to print with/without images. (Of course, it would take a long time to print the whole report like this, so a print-whole-report facility like this would be great).
Does this mean a company should come up with three versions in addition to the online annual report? One for hard-copy glossy print, one lightweight for download and one for individuals to print out on their desktop printers? Or more: large-print, audio, braille…
Once the hard work of developing the annual report is done, I think a lightweight version and a printer-friendly version should be relatively straightforward. I’m excluding the online annual report here; I know that’s a significant piece of work. And I can see that versions in alternative formats are also a significant exercise. But I think that providing multiple options for the reports serves the needs of different visitors, such as those who want:
And that, surely, is user-friendly.
Your brand is probably already represented on Facebook. It probably has a Facebook Page, and one or more people from your company probably publish content on that page and respond to comments published by other users throughout the day. You might even place ads and hold promotions or other marketing campaigns on Facebook. But is your brand truly leveraging the social impact of Facebook?
According to the Social Media Update 2013, from Pew Research Center, social networkers have been significantly impacted—psychologically, behaviorally, physically, and socially—be social media tools. A study of adult internet users from the United States found that social network usage has improved social relationships and reduced isolation. For example, the average social networker is half as likely to be socially isolated than the average American. According to the data, nowhere is that shift more apparent than Facebook.
There are several social effects that brands can leverage on Facebook. By understanding varying social behaviors and how Facebook users’ social relationships and support systems work, the more successful brand marketing investments in Facebook will be. Here are four of those social effects that brand managers can leverage.
The Pew Research Center report found that Facebook users are more trusting than users of any other social network studied (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn). Building brand trust is essential to brand growth. Knowing that Facebook audiences tend to be more trusting than other social network audiences should be factored into your marketing decision-making.
The report also found that Facebook users have more close relationships than users of any other social network studied. In other words, there are fewer arms-length relationships on Facebook and more personalized and committed relationships. People are more invested in each other on Facebook, and that closeness can lead to stronger word-of-mouth marketing.
According to the report, Facebook users get more support from their social relationships than users of any other social network studied. This social support can lead directly to powerful brand advocacy and word-of-mouth marketing.
Facebook users are significantly more politically engaged than most people, which is very important if your brand is tied in anyway to politics (directly or indirectly). The Facebook audience is more likely to be interested in and interact with politically-relevant brand content. Tread carefully in this area, but for some brands, it’s a natural fit.
Of course, you need to analyze your brand and target audience to ensure the content and conversations you publish on Facebook are representative of your brand promise and help you reach your goals. Use these Facebook social nuances to develop better brand marketing initiatives and your results should improve.
Image: Iwan Beijes
