Your website navigation is a critical structural component of your website. A well-designed site navigation can create a comfortable and effortless user experience, while a poorly-design navigation can frustrate and chase away your website visitors.

One trend that I dislike is the philosophy of asking me to define "who I am" with website navigation. University websites do this all the time. Instead of providing me a logical path to find what I want, they instead present me with a decision tree that forces me to put myself into a box. I have to choose between being a student, alumnus, community member, instructor, prospective student, etc. What if I'm an alumnus, a community member, and a prospective student? What if I'm looking for something relevant to students but I fall into another group?

Don't force me to choose a label! Present me with a clear and logical site navigation that allow me to find what I want. Asking website visitors to fit themselves into boxes only serves to raise anxiety levels and increase the chance of frustration.

I had a great group of people in my Twitter class yesterday and we had some awesome discussion about how to use it for business. One theme that was recurring was how it leads to sales. It's a great topic and I think there are some misconceptions out there.

Social media will not fix your marketing strategy. It should not replace your current efforts or cause you to shift all of your time onto Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If your marketing strategy is broken, you must fix that first - social media will not save it. At the same time, it is a mistake to ignore it and continue the status quo.

Social media is a set of tools that augment, supplement, and assist as a component of your marketing strategy. It can give you a competitive edge. Social media can give you more effective ways to build relationships with your customers, prospective customers, and networking partners.

Remember that social media is not a magic bullet. However, ignoring it is also a mistake. Find the most appropriate ways to augment and supplement your marketing strategy with social media and enjoy the benefits of a more full-featured marketing toolbox.

At SpinWeb, we have a particular interest in helping local communities thrive and flourish using the Internet.  For this reason, we love working with municipalities and agencies within, which includes chambers and economic development alliances. I have been researching both chambers and economic development alliances recently in preparation for an upcoming project and I've noticed that though they have different objectives, the two entities can often co-exist in the same website and be very complementary. So what are some ways a web site for a chamber and economic development alliance can serve the community?

1. Publish a user-friendly sites and buildings database. Make sure it is easy for interested businesses to research locations in your community. You want to attract new business, so be easy to work with by giving businesses the tools they need to get information fast and allow them to search on detailed attributes.

2. Invest in a high-quality image. Your web site represents your community and should be attractive and modern. Chambers and economic development alliances with beautiful web sites make the community look like an attractive place to live and do business.

3. Offer educational and networking events with online registration. By offering events and classes, you not only promote networking in your community, but also increase the skill level of your local work force. Be sure your web site clearly lists your calendar of events and offers online registration, which increases attendance.

4. Offer an online Chamber Marketplace to promote commerce. Allow chamber members to create online profiles and place projects out for bit to other chamber members. Then, allow members to submit bids on those projects via your web site. This encourages commerce between chamber members, as well as increases the value of a chamber membership.

5. Include social media links to make information sharing easy. Make sure that your sites and buildings, jobs, news, projects for bid, and events all include a "share" option to make it easy for site visitors to post your web site information to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks. The easier it is to distribute your content, the more likely it is to be seen.

6. Publish an online employment database. Stimulating employment in the community sh0uld be a strong objective for your web site and one great way to do this is to offer an online employment database. Allow chamber and/or community members to post job openings on your employment database and offer candidates the ability to apply online for those jobs. This creates an easier way to connect jobs with candidates and increases the value of your site. Don't forget to include a "share" button to make it easier for site visitors to post jobs to their social networks.

7. Invest in search engine marketing to attract businesses. A great chamber and/or economic development alliance web site is only useful when someone finds it. Be sure your community is found by creating targeted keyword campaigns that attract the right visitors to your site.

8. Promote notable local businesses via an active press room. Recognize your local businesses via your web site by publishing regular articles that feature local businesses. This keeps your web site full of fresh content which has a positive impact on your search engine rankings and helps your local businesses get more visibility.

9. Publish a video podcast featuring local businesses. A podcast is easy and inexpensive to set up and is a great way to promote members of your community. Send an intern from your local university out with a video camera once a week to a local business to do a 5-minute "spotlight". This gives local businesses a chance to get exposure when they might not otherwise be able to afford advertising. It's also a recruiting tool to help attract businesses to your community since it shows that you are committed to supporting them once they arrive.

10. Sell products online. Many businesses in your community would like to sell their products online but don't have the resources to do so. Help them out by offering to sell their products online for them via your web site. Additionally, you can also sell city/community-branded merchandise online, such as clothing and other items. Build your community's brand while adding revenue!

Whether your chamber and economic development alliances are using separate web sites or integrated into one site, these tips will help add value to your online presence, attract new businesses to the community, and help local businesses grow and flourish.

At SpinWeb, we love working with manufacturing companies. So much opportunity exists to help them utilize their websites more effectively to facilitate growth. Many of today’s manufacturers, however, are facing significant challenges in utilizing the Internet to increase sales. So what are some things that make a difference?

1. Invest in a great design. Image matters. Companies that make great products need to present a strong image and the corporate web site is the place to do it. A great image can make the difference in lost or closed sales when prospective customers are performing the “sniff test” on your company to see if you can deliver.

2. Present your catalog online. I’m not just talking about a PDF download. I’m talking about having a full-fledged interactive product catalog that allows your customers to search, browse, and research your products online. Products should not simply be listed on a page, but should be part of a true product database so that individual product listings can be sent to prospective customers electronically as a link or via social media. This speeds up the sales cycle and gives your sales team better support as they present products. If possible, include video demos.

3. Collect leads. Manufacturing websites should be asking site visitors for names and email addresses so that email communications on new and updated products can be delivered. This keeps prospective customers in your funnel and improves your chances of reaching them when it comes time to buy.

4. Facilitate an ecosystem. Manufacturing companies can benefit a great deal from creating online communities that their customers can use to communicate with each other and share knowledge. This helps build value around your company’s brand and improves retention. An ecosystem can be an online forum, an extranet, or even a Facebook Group.

5. Utilize search engine marketing. Most manufacturing companies are not investing very heavily in search engine marketing. This opens up a huge opportunity for those who do. By investing in targeted search engine marketing, smart manufacturing companies can ensure that their products show up at the top of the list when prospective customers are doing reasearch online. This can make the difference between lost business or closed business.

6. Distribute documentation. If your products come with documentation that helps your customers better understand how to use or implement your products, post it on your website - all of it. By driving your customers back to your website, you are reinforcing the value of your brand. It also allows you to eliminate or reduce printed documentation, which saves money. Online documentation can also be updated in minutes - a huge advantage over printed documentation. I’m not referring to PDF downloads, I’m referring to an online database of documentation that your customers can search and sort easily to find what they need. This makes you easy to do business with and improves retention. It’s also a great sales tool because prospective customers can see how easy it is to get the supporting information they need about your products which reduces anxiety.

7. Increase your PR efforts using Social Media. Manufacturing companies should be investing in PR to increase brand awareness and tell a story. Social Media is a great way to extend your PR efforts. Press releases should be listed on your company website and then distributed via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This improves your search engine rankings and encourages others to re-distribute your content for you. Make sure your website content includes “share this” buttons to facilitate easy distribution by site visitors.

Many manufacturing companies are not taking full advantage of their company websites to leap ahead of the competition which means that the ones who do will have a significant advantage. Support your sales team and your customers with a great website and enjoy greater customer loyalty and increased sales.

I love seeing our clients do creative things using social media. I noticed Eventful Florals doing something interesting recently that I thought was a great idea. They are offering a 10% discount to anyone who becomes a fan of Eventful Florals on Facebook. This is great because their customers feel great about getting a special deal, while Eventful Florals now has a growing list of permission-based contacts who have opted in to receiving updates via the fan page.

Additionally, Eventful Florals is distributing “daily tips for the modern bride” via Twitter, which is also awesome. Brides-to-be will follow to get wedding planning tips (very valuable info) and Eventful Florals gains a captive audience of potential customers. The updates are also posted to the fan page.

Kudos to Eventful Florals for being innovative and using social media to build value and grow brand awareness with permission marketing.

Oh, and they have a nice web site, too