Business Savvy Web Workshop Ken Barrett MSc. - Director

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Business SavvyWeb WorkshopKen Barrett
MSc. - Director
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Programme

• Which type of Business doesnt need an online
  presence?
• The different types of Web Sites
• How small businesses can get found online
• How marketing has changed
• Budget vs Brains
• Social Media - How to use it to benefit your
  business
• It's all about Connections!
• Becoming a publisher
• Some jargon explained, SEO, inbound links, Social
  Media
• The best online tools to consider for your
  business

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About me!

• A Potted History
• 15 Years Web Consultancy Project Management
  Experience
• 10 Years Product Management Experience in I.T.
• 5 Years Lecturing in Web Design Management
  Information Systems
• MSc Information Technology
• Post Graduate Certificate in Education
• Prince2 Practioner
• SCRUM Master
• Qualified Geek!

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About untangled web ltd.

• Untangled web ltd supply web business solutions,
  software and services in the following areas
• Web Content Management Systems
• e-Commerce Applications
• Web Site Design
• Web Hosting
• Online Helpdesk Applications
• Web Software Application Development

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Some local clients
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Which type of business doesnt need an online
presence?

• No matter what your business is, potential
  clients will check out your web site and this is
  the first impression they will get of your company

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Different Types of Web Sites

• Static Web Sites
• vs
• Web Content Management Systems

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Static Web Sites

• Static Web sites require web developer skills to
  create any new web page. This has the following
  drawbacks
• Expensive to support in the long term
• Limited functionality
• No dynamic content
• No user login or secure area
• Often Out of date as soon as the site is live
• Often not fit for purpose

• If written in house may not conform to
• W3C guidelines or Disability Discrimination Act
  (D.D.A.)?

• Advantages
• Very cheap in the first instance (300 - 500)?

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Web Content Management Systems

• Content Management Systems (CMS) are database
  driven web sites that provide flexible dynamic
  components for a web site
• Company administrators can update or create new
  articles or upload photos without the need for
  expensive web developer skills
• One of the benefits of a CMS is to allow you to
  add modules and components as your business
  requirements change

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Web Pages

• Administrators can
• create any number of articles
• web pages,
• format text,
• add images and
• menu items
• All with simple admin tools without any need for
  web skills.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• Frequently Asked Questions can be created and
  searched using a text search field.

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Polls

• Any number of polls can be created by
  administrators to gather information or opinions
  from users.

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Contact Forms

• Any number of contact forms can be created by
  administrators to allow users to send you
  information

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Secure User Area

• Registered Members can log in and see secure
  content

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Banners

• Banners allow you to charge sponsors for each
  click through from your site

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Additional Components

• Any web site should have the framework to allow
  you to add functionality as your business
  requirements change
• Joomla! and Wordpress have hundreds of additional
  components that are available as and when your
  business requires them.
• A small selection are shown below
• On average each component can be installed and
  configured for 100

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Calendars

• A calendar can be created to show events as open
  access or to registered members

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Online Forum

• Discussion boards for registered users

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Email Marketing / News Letters
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Document Management Component

• Any number of document types (Word, Excel, PDF
  etc) can be uploaded by administrators and menu
  links created to allow users and groups to
  download them.

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Subscription Payments
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Social Networking
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Project Management

• Assign tasks to staff, set deadlines and monitor
  progress

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Contact Management Component
Customer Relationship Management Systems.

• Create Contact Profiles
• Search Profiles
• Document conversations, emails and phones calls

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Online Helpdesk

• Clients log problems, issues or orders which are
  automatically assigned, tracked and audited.

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Event Management Registration
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How small businesses can get found online

• Now that you have chosen which type of web site
  you want, how does it get found by potential
  customers?
• It doesnt matter how pretty your web site is if
  it cant be found by search engines

research by Experian Hitwise
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Its all about Connections

• Google ranks every site in a variety of ways
• The most important ranking is how important is
  your site to other sites.
• Get links to your site from as many relevant
  web sites as possible (inbound links)
• Optimise your site for search engines (SEO)
• Ensure your site has search engine friendly
  addresses (SEF)
• Become a publisher on your own site so that you
  can add articles and change keywords on the site
  often

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How marketing has changed

• The web is insidious.
• You may be losing market share and not know why.
• It may be down to the recession
• It may be that competitors are much more switched
  on to new marketing tools using the web

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Social Media how can my company take advantage?

• Facebook
• Create a facebook page to advertise services
• Link to your main web site (google loves this)
• No corporate branding
• Avoid mixing friends with clients
• linkedin
• Individual Professional Profile
• Great for networking
• Link to main web site (google loves this)
• Twitter
• Informal short messages to followers
• Don't start unless you think you can contribute
  something every week
• Link to main corporate web site (google loves
  this)
• Integrate with main corporate web site so that
  tweets appear on the web site (google loves this)
• Great to get a message across quickly e.g. Venue
  change,

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Google Analytics

• Do I need it

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Budget vs Brains

• Work out how much the web may increase your
  market share
• Budget for it as you would budget for paper based
  advertising or other business benefit
• Work out how much you can do yourself
• Decide when you need to bring in a professional
  web developer

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Some free web applications to consider
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Q A