Communicating Your Brand Across the Web

Justin can be reached at http://www.justinstahl.com or justin@justinstahl.com

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Glossary

bounce rate - The percentage of people that visit one page on a website without clicking onto another page. This should be as low as possible.

brand - A gut feeling about a product, service, or company as seen through the eyes of the public and customers.

brand identity - The traits a company or organization believes best represents them.

search engine optimization - Improving where a website shows up in the results from a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN

social networking - A series of platforms using web technology to connect people in business or personal relationships to one another.

valid - A website must meet certain strict web standards in order to be seen the same way by everyone.

Notes From "Communicating Your Brand Across the Web"

Brand Identity

The major goal of your company should be to find a unique brand identity—something that sets you apart from your competition. Most companies know who they are and what they do, but more importantly they should know why it matters. Is your product good? Many companies make good products. Is your service friendly? Many companies have friendly service. What do you do that no one else does?

Form

Your website is a unique interactive experience. A good way to test your individual web presence is to hide your company's name and logo. Can you still determine what you do? If you put someone else's logo there, does it make just as much sense for them? Having a visual identity unique to your company makes you memorable. For example, my red shoes from the presentation. I bought them because I really liked the look, they fit my personality, and the rest is kismet: they are very memorable. Avoid obvious stock photographs. No one will remember the same business people in the same positions pointing to papers and pens, assuming it represents "business" or "working with people." With some time and brainstorming, you'll think of new ways to look at yourself.

Function

Websites are like icebergs: 90% of it's mass is under the surface. What looks like an easy rearrangement can actually be a very complicated process of writing and rewriting several coding languages. Making a website is like getting the United Nations to play a symphony; your web designer is translating your thoughts, ideas, and brand identity into physical reality.

Fact

Content is king. Customers go to a website to read, and the copy on your site should reflect your company. Boring or sloppy text will stop people from being engaged and continuing on to more pages in your site. The less pages they view, the less likely they are to use your service or your buy your product. Finding your narrative voice takes time. Arranging content takes time. Information architecture determines how you get people to go where you want them to go. Most websites need to go through revisions. Content goes online, you analyze the results, find out how those differ from your goals, and try again. A website should be an ongoing evolution, a static page will get lost in the far reaches of the web universe.

You should be aware of what your customers want to find on your website. If a customer has to go to another website to find instructions on installing your product, that other website is making money off of your company. Through online advertising, they may make a few dollars because you didn't have what your customers wanted to find.

Extending & Marketing

Consistency is key. If you act one way, but your website says another, your brand identity will be confusing. Focusing on a singular big idea isn't bad, it's aligning yourself and your company to a strategy and making sure that strategy works. Bridging the brand gap is where most companies get lost; a winning strategy is impossible to find without creativity and emotion.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is like a dating game. Person A is meeting a ton of people, getting lots of numbers. However, none of them are that interested, and eventually leave. Person B is getting a few people, but they really want to get to know them better, want to spend some time together. Person B is winning out, they may not have a big quantity of people, but they have great quality.

Notes From Discussion

Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn are platforms for social networking. Where Facebook and Myspace are for more casual users, LinkedIn is similar to an online resume and is very business-focused. Whether your company, service, or product should be on Facebook (the recommended third-party platform between the three due to strict control over content) or not should be a group discussion with your organization and marketing staff. There are positives and negatives. You should ask yourself, "Am I a word-of-mouth-type organization?" "Who are the people we are trying to reach?" and "Will we make back what we ultimately spend pursuing this platform?" These questions should be answered in a group with a marketer experienced in social networking, aware of its strengths and weaknesses.

Keep in mind that many of the features found on social networking sites can be implemented into your own. The technology is not restricted to third-party platforms like Facebook and Myspace. It's important to remember that while you are touting the good things about your services or products on Facebook, Facebook is actually making money off of you. Facebook determines what advertisements are shown on each page. Various technologies exist, which (I believe) are the future of the web; these include applications (Facebook recently opened itself to third-party applications—in this case you) and unique social networking features that can be built into your personal site. Not only do customers want to know your service and product, they want to know you on a personal level, and these technologies will allow them to feel connected to you in a way thats beyond seller-buyer.

I am always interested in hearing your thoughts on business and the web. If there are areas of our conversation you would like to know more about or discuss personally, I can be contacted at justin@justinstahl.com.