Websites As A Communication Tool

written by jpaul
10-04-2009
2381 views | 2 comments



Well if you don't already know it, communicating effectively is work. However, a website that is built for managing and sharing your message can make the job of communicating much easier.

Maybe those who feel blogging is work also feel that relating to their prospects, clients or staff is work. Think about it for a moment. What is the difference between typing a memo and emailing it out to your intended audience vs. typing a blog which would automatically be distributed to a subscriber list? There is absolutely no difference in the time it takes to create either the memo or the blog, but the fact that blogs allow for shared comments and are centrally located is vastly more effective than email, fax or paper dropped in an inbox.

But blogging is only the beginning of the potential for websites built as a communication tool.

What about sharing presentations, tutorials and demonstrations through integrated video and audio? How about uploading and sharing of word docs, graphic files and spreadsheets or creating unique groups for prospects, clients, vendors and staff to share content for specific group members?

Why are these features important?

As small business owners face more competition and an increasingly sophisticated marketplace, they will be forced to work more efficiently and effectively.

How management, employees, prospects and customers communicate plays an extremely important role in the viability of any business model and can be overlooked all too often by smaller companies.

How would these tools be used?

• Write a blog about a product and encourage feedback from customers while adding your sales and service staff to the blog subscription.


• Record your best sales rep giving a presentation and upload the video to your website. (Very inexpensive yet effective)


• Collaborate with staff members by sharing files and creating a blog around the collaboration then using the comments to help shape the project.


• Create a restricted page for a new page on your website, invite a group of staff members to review and comment. Once finalized, make the page public by removing it from the group.

Who pays for your business?

Every dollar you earn is directly attributed to your customers and the people who work for you. Is what they hear and say important to you? If so, how are you managing the feedback loop? How are you filtering the input and most importantly how are you sharing the information with those who could benefit the most?

The advent of new communication technologies fueled by the internet has provided access to powerful tools at an affordable price to the small business owners. Once relegated to industry leaders with large budgets, these tools now provide opportunities for small business owners to engage with their audience like never before.

Whether it is blogging and media sharing sites or websites built for intranets and extranets, there are a number of great online solutions to help businesses more effectively communicate.
Quired website solutions bring all of these tools under one roof to help the business owner manage their communications from their own customized website.

Our mission is to offer simple yet powerful websites to inspire better communication.

Engaging in conversations with your customers, prospects and staff while soliciting their feedback then sharing what you have learned provides value to those in your center of influence.

As the old adage says "You reap what you sow".

What do you think? We would like to hear your ideas and what you are doing to improve communication with your customers, prospects and staff.

Thanks for the ideas on what businesses should be doing to promote themselves online. I think that every day business owners are discovering that this form of marketing really isn't an option anymore. Small businesses have got to start embracing the power of the Internet soon in order to survive.

The technologies that have evolved over the past 10-15 years make it much easier than traditional means to deploy information and communicate. It is up to the business owner or marketer to set goals that he/she wants to achieve and create an internet marketing strategy around them. A good regiment of SEO, blogging and online content syndication can go a long way.

The point that blogging is work is a very valid one...it is work! The computer can't create engaging content for you. They are there solely as tools to aid in creation, management and distribution. I know that my time is best spent trying to tap into the audience of literally millions of people on the web. How is your marketing time spent most wisely?comment by timmcart on 10-07-2009

Blogging is indeed work, but it offers rewards that may turn out to be surprising as one casts a line into an ocean of potential. I am reminded of this, one of my favorite quotes:

"I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short. (Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.)"

-- Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales (1656-1657), no. 16.comment by Paul Kocak on 10-07-2009