next gen web and social media presence
DESCRIPTION
Innovalysis CEO, Travis Howerton, delivered a presentation on Next Generation Web and Social Media solutions for the small to medium business market. This presentation was given during May 2013 to the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. Presentation also covers the Innovalysis mobile app platorm that delivers custom mobile apps for the small to medium business markets.TRANSCRIPT
Solutions for Next Generation Web and
Social Media Presence
Your customers are mobile. Are you?
It is no longer enough for a business to have a basic website. Users expect to interact in new ways. The rise of social media has created new opportunities for sales channels while the rise of mobile devices has increased the complexity of effectively leveraging those channels.
Question: How can small businesses effectively and efficiently use these new tools to drive
revenue and increased web traffic?
Background
“By 2015, it is expected that Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) will have larger Information
Technology (IT) budgets than Chief Information Officers (CIOs)” – Gartner
Why? Big Data and Social Media
The Future
This session will cover a variety of topics that are important to a modern day, cutting edge web presence:
• Content Management Systems• Web Analytics
• Advertising and Revenue• Social Media Channels• E-Commerce Solutions
• Software as a Service Platforms• Mobile Apps
Topics
For this presentation, it is assumed that the audience has minimum experience in IT.
Therefore, topics are kept at a high level to cover a variety of pertinent information.
Innovalysis is happy to follow up with more information on topics of interest.
Audience
It is well past time to stop paying high priced IT resources to manually update web pages. A modern content management system can bring sophisticated web capabilities to small businesses.
The two most popular content management systems are:
• WordPress – pick for ease of use• Drupal – pick for power to customize
Content Management Systems
• Powers some of the largest websites in the world (i.e. CNN)
• Free to download and install if hosting internally• If hosting externally through a provider, many
companies offer pre-installed Wordpress options for under $10 per month
• Useful for anything from simple blogs to advanced websites
• Find out more at Wordpress.org
Wordpress
• Out of the box, it is very easy for non-IT users to create content for the web.
• To provide a truly professional website, Wordpress should be extended with:– Themes– Plugins
Extending Wordpress
• Professional themes can be downloaded and installed in Wordpress with incredible ease
• There are a combination of free and paid themes that you can choose from
• There are over 1,700 themes available for download at WordPress and even more available at other related websites
Wordpress Themes
• While all of the basics are covered out of the box, you can easily add advanced features with plugins:– Search Engine Optimization– Spam Blockers– Analytics– Form Creation– Image Galleries– Social Networking– Security Tools– Forums
Wordpress Plugins
• Same easy to use content management features found in Wordpress
• Requires a higher level of knowledge than Wordpress but allows for fine grained control
• Perfect solution for a company with 1 – 2 power users who want full control and advanced features
• Innovalysis.com is powered by Drupal• Find out more at Drupal.org
Drupal
• Many hosting providers will install Drupal for you. There are three main consideration with managing a Drupal website:– Distributions– Themes– Modules
Extending Drupal
• Aside from the vanilla Drupal install, there are a variety of distributions you can pick with pre-installed themes and modules targeted for specific website types:– E-Commerce (Commerce KickStart)– Community Sites (Drupal Commons)– Government (OpenPublic)– News Media (OpenPublish)
Drupal Distributions
• Like WordPress, Drupal has a large number of themes you can download and install for your site.– Over 1700 themes are available at
Drupal.org/project/themes – Must make sure the theme you are downloading is
the appropriate one for the version of Drupal you are running
– Nearly everything in Drupal can be downloaded free since it is an open source project
Drupal Themes
• Today, the most advanced websites use a “Responsive Design”
• This technique leverages Javascript and CSS tricks to dynamically redraw your page based on the size of the screen.
• This technique allows you to support any device User Interface (UI) through one website
• www.innovalysis.com uses a responsive theme
Advanced Themes
• The true power of Drupal comes from the power to extend the website with modules:– Views (query and display custom data)– Pathauto (simple URLs)– WebForm (create surveys and web apps)– IMCE (advanced text editor, like MSFT Word)– CCK (add custom fields)– FileField (allow file uploads)
Drupal Modules
• Enterprise Class Web Analytics from Google• Find out more at www.google.com/analytics
Google Analytics
• Track the number of visitors coming to your website over time to look for trends
• Determine the most popular content• Evaluate the number of unique visitors• Determine the web browsers used to access your site• View where in the world your website is being
accessed • Monitor average visit duration and bounce rate
Why Analytics?
• Incredibly easy to install on a website• Create an account with Google or tie Google
Analytics to your existing Gmail account• Pre-built modules for installing on WordPress and
Drupal (just provide your details to the module)• For an existing website, just paste script into the
“master page”
How Google Analytics Works
• Advertise your website in Google Searches• Find out more at www.google.com/adwords
Google AdWords
• Your website is highlighted in the most popular search engine on the internet
• Will drive a large amount of new traffic to your website
• Paid Service – you pay for each time your website is displayed in a search and can track “click throughs”
• Can be expensive – suggest setting daily maximum charges to avoid an unexpectedly high bill
Why AdWords?
• A must have for e-commerce sites to separate from competitors and drive traffic
• A nice to have if your market is highly competitive, your site will show up first in search and make the user more likely to pick your site versus competitors
• Not likely to be a good fit for most non-profits, government websites, or other entities that are not driven by revenue
Who should use AdWords?
• Maximize Revenue for Your Content• Find out more at www.google.com/adsense
Google AdSense
• Turns your website into a profit generating machine• Shows relevant ads on your website based on the type of
content of your page– Tries to understand who the user is– Tries to understand the content on the page– Creates a best fit match for ads
• The more people who come to your website and click the link, the more you get paid
• Over 2 million websites today use AdSense to drive revenue
Why AdSense?
• Great solution for blogging and community sites to drive revenue for your content
• Use of AdSense can make your website look less professional if not carefully thought out
• Avoid placing too many ads on a page (doesn’t usually drive any more clicks)
• Not a good solution for e-commerce sites (may drive customers to your competitor!)
Who Should Use AdSense?
• Definition: Media for social interaction using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.
• Three most relevant social media sites for your business are:– Facebook– Twitter– LinkedIn
Social Media
• Most popular social media site and should be primary focus for your business
• Allows users to interact with you– Get “Likes” to create an advertising channel for your posts– Use Facebook ads to create advertising to people who haven’t liked
your page yet
• If used properly, can get much higher Click Through Rates (CTR) than with Google
• Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/business• Like Innovalysis @
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Innovalysis-Corporation/179988668756251
• Useful for your business or personally for your public persona
• Great tool for events, media engagement, public speaking, etc.
• Allows users to follow your business– Creates a new advertising channel
• Find out more at https://business.twitter.com/• Follow me at https://twitter.com/TravisHowerton
(@TravisHowerton)
• Designed to be a business focused social network• Use personally for your online resume, help recruiters
find you• For your company, post job openings and search
profiles to assist in recruiting• Build a network of business associates• Find out more at https://www.linkedin.com • View my profile at:
www.linkedin.com/pub/travis-howerton/11/829/348/
• For larger companies, the cutting edge social media approach is to leverage sentiment analysis.
• Sentiment analysis aims to determine the attitude of the public to your company based on social media and web content feeds.
• There are some free tools out there even for small businesses: 1) SocialMention, 2) TweetFeel, 3) Twendz
• More sophisticated enterprise tools are also available but are expensive (my favorite is Radian6)
Advanced Social Media
• My favorite tool for bringing e-commerce to the small business community
• Incredibly easy to get started:– Pick a theme for your store– Enter your products and manage your inventory– Setup banking info for your merchant account– Select the pricing option that works best for you
• Innovalysis e-commerce is powered by Shopify• Find out more at www.shopify.com
Shopify
Example Shopify Site
This is the Innovalysis e-commerce website.
This theme works perfectly in both traditional web browsers as well as on mobile devices.
The solution also has APIs that allow us to let customers purchase services through our mobile app.
View it today at http://shopping.innovalysis.com/
• The advent of cloud computing has allowed modern software to be delivered more effectively.
• Cloud solutions are usually accessible both through the web and mobile devices.
• These solutions are typically available on a monthly subscription model.
• A couple of high profile SaaS apps will be covered that may be of general interest.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Microsoft Office 365
• Cloud based hosting for Exchange, Lync, and SharePoint
• Provides robust email, unified communications, and collaboration services. Also includes licensing for Microsoft Office.
• Prices range from $6 - $15/user/month depending on number of users.
• Innovalysis currently uses this service for all employees.
Salesforce.com
• Sales Cloud – Customer Relationship Management tool for sales productivity and revenue generation.
• Service Cloud – HelpDesk automation suite for improving customer service.
• Marketing Cloud – publish ads across social media platforms and monitor the results of your ad campaigns.
• Platform – build scalable cloud based applications with Force.com, Heroku, Database.com, and Site.com
• Chatter – leverage an internal social network for your business
• Work.com – cloud based HR system
PaySimple
• Cloud based system for billing and invoicing that supports both web and mobile platforms• Accept Payments• Streamline Billing & Recurring Billing• Manage Customers• Real-time Reporting
• Plans start as low as $34.95/month
Mobile Apps
• Users now increasingly expect to interact with businesses through their mobile devices
• For the more advanced businesses, this is done through a mobile application that can be downloaded from the appropriate app store (iTunes or Google Play)
• With the release of the Innovalysis mobile app platform, even the smallest businesses can now have a mobile app presence.
• The growth of the mobile industry is incredible• In just over 3 years, over 20 billion apps have been
downloaded between iPhone and Android devices.
iPhone salesin millions
Mobile Industry
• Over 500,000,000 Android phones have been activated• Over 300,000,000 iPhones have been activated• Android owns 47% of the U.S. smartphone market• iPhone owns 29% of the U.S. smartphone market
Growing Numbers
Why Mobile?
• FACT: Customers are using mobile to find your competition.• Source: Google "Understanding Smartphone Users," 2011
Why Mobile?
• FACT: Not having a mobile experience can lose you business.• Source: Compuware, "What Users Want from Mobile," 2011
Why Mobile Apps?
• FACT: Your customers prefer apps over mobile websites.• Sources: comScore, Alexa, Flurry Analytics, 2012
But I want a mobile website?
• We offer both a mobile app and a mobile website.• Appear in the iTunes App Store, Android Marketplace, and
mobilize your existing website.• Complete mobile marketing solution.
Why Our Company?• We make mobilizing your business simple & pain free• We help bring in new business and increase repeat customers• We handle everything from start to finish• We’re mobile experts• We’re extremely affordable• We’re fast & easy to use
Information
• App can display – Information on services– Restaurants menu (text or PDF)– All locations visible in Maps– One click calling– Reservations– Shopping– Events and more…
Links to social networks• Customers can link to your social media pages.• Increase Facebook fans.
• Increase Twitter followers.• Approximately 40% of social
media users access their accounts through mobile devices.
Loyalty Coupons• GPS coupons– When at your location, customers
can ‘check in’ and receive bonuses.
• QR code coupons – Used to replace stamp cards.– Increase customer loyalty!
28% of customers reported that they are “Extremely Likely” to increase their visits to a business if they have a loyalty reward card for them. (Total Research Corp & Custom Marketing Corp’s Loyalty Monitor Study)
Live Updating• Take full control over your apps content through the
Innovalysis Management Console!
• Console can update– Events– Specials/Coupons– Image gallery– Information
Push Notifications
• Update your customers instantly– Special offers, updates, happy hours.
• Push notifications break the barrier between you and your customers.
– Included completely FREE.– Compare to SMS texting planson average cost ~$200/month
Modules
- GPS Mapping and Location Services- Contact Management- Email Photos- Fan Wall- Information Display (Tiers)- Mailing List- Merchandise (e-Commerce)- Mortgage Calculator- Notepad- QR Codes/Coupons- Tip Calculator- Website (Browser)
- Voice Calling- Mobile Forms- Event Management- Food Ordering- Loyalty Programs- Menus- Message History- Music- PDF Viewer- Reservations- Voice Recording- YouTube Channels
• Professional app design & set up fee: $1000 - $2500• Monthly hosting fee: $100/month• UNLIMTED Push Notifications• UNLIMITED App Downloads• Over a $50,000 value!
Our Pricing
25% Discount for Chamber of Commerce Members
50% Discount for Charity Organizations
Questions?
• J. Travis Howerton, [email protected]
• To purchase services, email Us at: [email protected]
• Visit our website at: www.innovalysis.com