Over the next few posts, I’m going to shed some light on how Dovetail and a website built on novo helps different groups within the organization. Today’s focus is on IT.

From an IT perspective websites often play a conflicting role. As the technical drivers of the organization, it is necessary they play an active role in the website at some level. But it is often not their desire to be “responsible” for the website.

From technology review to due-diligence their input is part of the critical path to adoption. However too often the website does not move away from IT once selection is done. From the standpoint of being responsible for a site being up and available IT is certainly key, however they are not always the ideal group to deal with the overall production and upkeep of the site once running.

Technically, IT personnel will often possess the skills necessary to work with HTML, scripting and database technologies, but where they excel in that arena, they are not ideally suited for combining that within the context of a company’s marketing strategy.

We have found that clients who are able to leverage IT from a system selection and upkeep perspective while allowing marketing to utilize their team to maintain the site a stronger, more dynamic web presence is often the result. In this scenario IT is able to provide appropriate control and oversight while transferring the responsibility of upkeep to Marketing.

Would you ask IT to type all of your reports simply because they installed Office in the organization? Of course not. But that is often what happens with the website. To that end, allowing IT to help provide (and support) the web toolset fits in with their charge, and the website objectives all at the same time.

And here at Dovetail, novo provides a solution that is works for both sides of the website brain (IT and Marketing) because we are IT and marketing professionals ourselves. We’ve built novo to solve this problem.

So if you are part of an IT team that has been asked to be responsible for the website, take a look at the content management capabilities of novo, sign up for a personal demo and see how you can provide the company with the power to change the way your company sees IT’s role in the website.

-- Mike

follow Michael Villa on Twitter: @mikevilla

For many marketers today social media represents a brave, new world of online mumbo-jumbo where there are no rules and little perceived direct benefit; moreover some go so far as to believe that it is a fad driven by the young and unsophisticated. It is, however, much more than a trend for the internet generation. Social media as we know it today is just a modern expression of an age-old marketing strategy: to gain confidence in the marketplace, engage that very marketplace to speak openly and directly with you, and your target audience to promote your products, services and values.

With that in mind, I offer Dovetail’s Social Media Marketing Manifesto as a guideline for how we will take advantage of the medium.

The word “manifesto” is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as follows:

man·i·fes·to noun a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.

Given that definition, it is our belief that …

• … that engaging in social media is part of, but in no way, the only way to communicate publicly.
• … that we cannot control the conversation, but will be an active participant in it.
• … that we have a responsibility both as a company and as individuals to be human, and professional in our online conversations.
• … that participating in social media will aid online marketing efforts to drive visitors to the Dovetail website, to generate leads and to assist customers in their use or our products and services.
• … that social media is not to be the center of our online efforts, but a means to drive visitors towards the web site.
• … that we will learn as much as we educate by listening as much as we talk.
• … that social media is fun, but that it is also work and should be taken seriously.
• … that techniques, strategies and tools will evolve over time.
• … that not all efforts will show results
• … that we should expect that results will often be different than those planned.
• … that our motives are genuine and guided by the core values of the company.

And, it is our intent to …

• … to utilize social media not as a gimmick, but as a means to communicate more openly, and more directly with those interested in Dovetail, it’s products such as novo, the company’s place in the world, and to present our employees as thought leaders in our industry. 
• … to actively participate in relevant conversations where Dovetail can add value.
• … to demonstrate the viability of social media in a overall web marketing strategy.
• … to express opinions and ideas.
• … to site and give credit to others who have points to make that we feel are of interest to us and our audience.
• … to utilize the social media sites and services that best reach our target audience.
• … to include social media concepts in both online and offline endeavors.
• … to communicate both as a company and as individuals.
• … to encourage, publish and reply to comments.
• … to adjust this manifesto as our efforts evolve.

There you have it, this is how we feel about social media as part of our marketing strategy. How about you? What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let us know, and if you haven’t done so take the time to develop your own manifesto – it’s an exercise well worth the effort.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Headlines for the past two weeks have been focused on the Swine Flu outbreak. Information is coming from several directions and people have questions and concerns. An interesting article on CNN’s website talked about how companies are planning for the possibility of a pandemic.

An interesting mention in the article is how Sprint used their “internal website” to post information for employees.

This is just one more benefit of an intranet within an organization. How many ways do you need to communicate with your staff efficiently and consistently. During any type of event, the intranet can be not only the way to get the message out, but also the de facto location that your employees will turn to in a time of crisis to understand how events may affect them.

Think about it and if you want to know more about how an intranet can help your company, check out my previous post on the benefits of an intranet.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

So you’re posting to Twitter, Facebook, etc. and providing regular updates to your status. You’re even using the platforms to generate web traffic by posting links to your site. But if you are relying on the quick link sites (TinyURL, Bit.ly, etc) you may just be minimizing the benefits. Doing so will eliminate the benefit of your updates for organic SEO by masking your site’s link with their short ones.

Yes, it’s convenient and sometimes that pesky 140 character limit to for tweets can get in the way when you have a lot to squeeze in. So whenever possible maximize your efforts by using blind URLs. Turn your long blog post permalinks into shorter friendly links that don’t take as much space when included in a message.

After all, http://www.dovetailinternet.com/BlindURL-Tip is a lot less wieldy than http://www.dovetailinternet.com/Blog/2009/04/25/Social+Media+Quick+Tip+Blind+URLs.aspx too!

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

It’s been well documented for years that one of the best ways to improve your organic search engine results is to establish inbound links from other websites. Here’s 5 tips on how to do it.

1. Industry Directories
   Pick an industry, any industry, and you’ll find a number of options for posting your site in online directories. Most are free, and besides helping to increase your inbound links, visitors to those sites will be likely to find you when they visit.
2. Complementary Reciprocal Links
   Take inventory of your business partners and other complementary companies. Check out their websites and reach out to them about the possibility of cross linking. You can link to them and they can link to you.
3. Press Releases
   Whenever you issue a press release, be sure to include links to your site. When the press release is picked up by other sites and posted, your links are typically embedded.
4. Blog Commenting
   Spend time on blogs? If so, don’t be shy – comment away. Lend your expertise in discussions that match your company. Then at the end of every comment include a simple, but consistent signature that contains your information with your website address.
5. Social Site Status Updates
   Sites like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter are all the rage. Use these sites’ status updates to provide useful information about your company and its solutions. Answering a question on Twitter, post a link. Letting people know about a news item, post a link.

Now, of course these are only a few techniques and I could spend an hour on each but no matter how you link to your site, be sure your site is a destination worthy of the visitor’s time. Keeping your site current and relevant is the first part of success, and of course a solid content management system can go a long way to help you do just that.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Today is Earth Day. According to Wikipedia, today is “a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.” The mantra of the generation is the three “R’s” of environmentalism – Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Have you ever thought about how your web strategy can help you do just that?

Last week I had an article published by Worcester Business Journal called "Intranet Advantage: How an internal network can help your business." In it, I made the statement that

“…an intranet can help you reduce your company’s carbon footprint. With all your forms in one central location, and by providing employees the ability to fill them out online, you can eliminate unnecessary printing and copying.”

This is no trivial statement. Think about it. For example, an intranet where board members can login and receive meeting packets can easily same a ream of paper per board member (multiply that by 20 board members and you’ve save two cases of paper!). The time spent putting together those packages is also greatly reduced, adding efficiency and decreasing costs from administrative tasks.

Companies with intranets have come to realize that it’s not only environmentally beneficial to reduce waste created through print, but fiscally responsible as well. Many have also come to realize there’s another type of green benefit from an intranet. The green that shows itself as a positive impact on the bottom line.

At Dovetail, we work with many clients to build effective intranet solutions with our novo content management system. Check out the case study on our site for Westfield Bank to read about one example.

If you don’t have a solid intranet platform and are looking for ways to improve your carbon legacy as a company, consider one. If you do have one, ask yourself if you are using it as effectively as you could be to reduce waste. Why save a tree alone when together we can save the planet? Make every day Earth Day.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Every business knows that a web site is a critical component of their marketing efforts, and at the same time agrees that keeping their site current is also critical. But many companies are simply unable to do so. They fear the technology, don’t have the time, or don’t feel they will ever see a return for the investment. Our company was founded on the principal that no business should languish online. To that end we created novo, our content management system. And for businesses in almost any industry novo is just what the marketing doctor ordered.

But many companies still feel that full content management is simply too big, too time consuming, or too expensive. At Dovetail we do our best to combat these misconceptions. And to make it even easier, we’re now offering novo in a new hosted option that’s flexible and affordable. Simply put, time to market can be faster, updates can be easier, and a real ROI can be realized.

So if you are looking at a way to get the most out of your website, partner with the experts at Dovetail and find out how you really can have the power to change the way you think about your website.

For more details and to find out how affordable web CMS can be, check out our novo options for small business today.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

We’ve seen an increase lately in customers wishing to implement intranets and extranets to improve their internal communications. In today’s challenging times companies can see real ROI on a solid intranet that not only reduces costs but actually improves employee morale and communication.

Here are some thoughts on why having a corporate intranet can be a real benefit to your company.

• Improved internal communications – store information centrally and know that everyone is accessing up-to-date information. Your intranet provides greater version control than shared folders. It is the location for approved pieces (not all the work-in-progress items).
• Increase communication and sharing – by putting best practices and resources in one place you create a more collaborative working environment – both internally and with your customers, vendors, distributors, strategic partners--everyone.
• Secure communications – instead of sending sensitive information, such as price lists, over email, make everything available in one password protected location.
• Improve customer service – when all employees have easy access to the same information, they can answer customer questions more accurately and quickly. Open up some of this information to your customers, and then they can get answers to their questions even faster.
• Reduce paperwork and email traffic – put all your forms in one central location and allow them to be completed online and you reduce the effort of sending these forms by email and printing them out
• Increase productivity, flexibility, accessibility – an intranet is more accessible than a file system or a virtual private network (VPN). With everything in a single location, employees can easily access what they want, when they want. Do employees work from home? Do they travel? Might they be working at night or on the weekend? Your intranet gives them access to whatever they need, whenever they need it.
• Build an online community - an intranet can provide things to organization members that the corporate office alone couldn’t provide, like an anonymous comment box. It can also help foster and create an online community within the organization. For example, the day after the company picnic, you can post pictures of the event.

-- Mike