Online Platforms for Writers

You’re standing on your platform, message in hand, but who is listening to you?  Do you have to get on a publisher’s train to take your message to the world, or is there another way?

Facebook, social media, and blogging platforms have changed your website visitors’ expectation of you, and your message. In addition, search engines now reward sites with new content, and increasingly ignore sites that are old and dusty. Your website must include new content, up-to-date business information, and a means for a personal connection between you, business, brand, and customers.

For writers who’ve made the investment into a well designed website one or two years ago, it’s time to reevaluate your online strategy. The digital world has changed and the next generation information-consumers are using the internet for community, and social identity.

For these customers, online life is just as real and important as face to face connectedness. As a result, your customers expect to make personal connections with you online. Email and phone numbers aren’t enough. Your site must be a valued part of the online conversation in your area of expertise. When your voice is heard, online tools such as blog search engines and the digital twitter community will find you, engage you, and move toward becoming your customers.

I had a conversation today with a prospective client, and described this cultural shift this way.

“For those in the Baby Boom generation, we measured a future colleague or employee’s reputation and potential by the letters after their name, their degrees. The digital generation makes those decisions by the level of information you provide in advance, and the contribution you make to online communities before the pick up the phone, or send off an email.”

As a business, you need to be reaching this generation of consumers, customers, colleagues and turning them into friends if you want to earn their business.

If it’s time to bring your stale website back to life, contact Timothy Burns for a complimentary web site review. Tim will spend 60 minutes evaluating your current site, and identify current priorities and branding message for your online presence. Together you’ll evaluate the suitability of social media software, develop an overall online strategy, and identify new strategies to make your internet investment a valuable asset to your business.