Member Articles

The ranks of the Schmooze network contains some very talented and experienced professionals, and we've invited some of the leading specialists to share their expert insights into a range of topics.  Note: The copyright for the these works resides with their respective authors and may not be reproduced without their permission.

Topics:

• Is your website ruining your life? by Steven De Costa
• The Leaders Role, by Rod Hattch

SteveN de Costa, DIRECTOR, LINK WEB SERVICES

Topic: Is your website ruining your life?

It’s true that first impressions count. It’s true that a striking headline like the one above can draw you in but if I don’t go somewhere with this article soon, you’ll be gone, sucked back into the search engine vortex, never to return because, let’s be honest, you’re fickle, full of high expectations (many of which are unrealistic), and you’re easily distracted… You’re a typical web user.

The challenges faced by business today to attract and retain customers via their website are generally not that dissimilar to years gone by. Accessibility, quality products and services, genuine information, reasonable prices, a bit of shine and some savvy marketing are still enough to get a few punters past Reception, or your Home page. Problem is, if the next page falls short, they’re lost forever and often, if they’re coming to you via a search engine, it is the ‘next page’, they’re starting from.

At risk of sounding like I snuck in backstage at an Anthony Robbins seminar, for a website to hold court with an astute yet vacillating audience, it needs to consider the three C’s: Content, Clarity, and Consistency. And, since I just came up with this nifty piece of alliteration, I may as well throw in one more: Cleverness (well it’s sort of a word). Let’s start with that.

The ‘cleverness’ of a website can be defined as its ‘look and feel ‘. The keys here are graphic design, good use of other graphic and audio elements such as animations and music, and an intuitive navigation. The cleverness comes firstly in knowing that the design of your site doesn’t stand alone. No one, with the possible exception of the graphic designer’s mother, is visiting your website to marvel at how pretty it is. The design is just another part of your message. It needs to be relevant to your business, effectively incorporating logos and branding while never throwing up bland slogans via aggressive banners, animations or pop ups that scream “Advertising! – Abort! Abort!”.

As stated, the importance of look and feel extends to the sort of navigation you offer. This is not the place to get creative, especially given that a search engine may be depositing the user somewhere in the middle of the site. It’s important they can still find what they’re looking for, so stick to page identification they know and trust: Contact Us, About Us, Join, and Shopping Cart are good examples.

All that ties in nicely with the next ‘C’: Consistency. This is key to holding the intrepid user who may have stumbled upon your site, half through good search engine optimisation and half through serendipity. Once they’ve arrived they need to know where they are, and where else they can go within the site, no matter what page they’re on. This means teaming a considered structure with a consistent layout, plus key page links that appear in exactly the same place and format on each page. Remember that a well organised website mirrors a well organised company.

Which brings us to ‘Content’ and ‘Clarity’. You can have a website with award winning navigation and a design put down by Picasso himself and it aint’ gonna mean squat if there’s no substance behind it. If content isn’t considered right from the structuring and design phase of your site, you may as well keep the lorem ipsum when you go live. Behind all the smoke and mirrors, it is content that will ultimately engage the user and tell them, yes, this is the information/product/services they are looking for.

Giving your content the clarity required for search engine optimisation, a good writer will consider the sort of language, terminology and sentence structuring likely to be reflected in a typical or even atypical search. They’ll also be able to define a product or service in a less emotive way than some business owners/managers who can sometimes be a little ‘married’ to the job.

This doesn’t mean you can engage a talented writer one year and then, that’s it, job done. Content needs to be updated, not just because the facts change but because users don’t want to return to the same story again and again. If your website gets boring it can go from ‘favourites’ to absolutely no sign of it in the ‘history’ faster than you can say ‘update your home page!’. Ensuring that content gives the user the clarity they deserve and remains current, relevant, and in plain English, is the meat and potatoes of good websites. And, if you don’t want to alienate the Grammar Nazis out there, running a clean pair of eyes over the copy for a final proof is the highly recommended gravy.

So, take a fresh look at your website. Is it ruining your life or, worse, mine, your audience?! If it falls short in any or all of the three, or was it four, C’s, or if you’re looking to create a site from scratch, the next step is to talk to a digital web agency that offers a holistic approach to web design and development. Choosing such a service eliminates the need to source a designer separately and the right agency will also be able to connect you to other industry folk who can breathe life into your site, such as marketing professionals and writers.

If you only take one thing away from this article make it this: everyone who visits your site is first and foremost looking for the same thing: free information. Anything extra is a bonus. 

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Rod Hattch, MANAGING DIRECTOR, WISDOM LEARNING

Topic: The Leaders Role: The I's Have it!

Effective leaders need to do lots of things – motivate, plan, develop the vision, provide direction, lead through adversity, model desired behaviours, etcetera, but when engaging the hearts and minds of your people a leader’s role is to:

• Instil confidence
• Inspire commitment
• Ignite passion

Confident team members will deliver results. Confidence can be developed through learning, feedback and through assigning tasks and projects that demonstrate your confidence in them. People need the skills, support and resources to do the job. With a leader’s confidence they can do a great job.

Inspiring commitment from your team means being authentic as a leader, genuinely showing you care and leading by example through modelling the behaviour you want in your organisation. Inspiring commitment for people will engage them to deliver more than 9 -5, people who are committed will apply their discretionary effort for the benefit of their team, their organisation and themselves.

Leaders who are able to ignite the passion in their team can achieve extraordinary results. Passionate people represent your organisation with pride, they exude energy and excitement for the ‘cause’ even if the cause may not seem exciting! Igniting passion can be challenging and different leaders will do it in different ways.

For me being authentic, and involving everyone in developing the vision and goals of the business helps engage people in what we are trying to achieve. Being consistent in reviewing how we are progressing towards achieving the vision is important and also celebrating those actions and results that signify we are achieving what we set out to achieve.

Above all else, as a leader I must be passionate. Walking the talk is a truism in leadership, this cannot not be overstated, in fact I’ll say it again, walking the talk is a truism in leadership.

The key message a leader delivers is not in the policies or procedures, not in the speeches and meetings but in the behaviours both displayed personally and condoned in others.  So for leaders to gain confidence, commitment and passion from their people, the I’s have it.

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