Web Engagement News & Articles

As we build our learning and body of knowledge around user context in a multi-channel world, we increasingly recognize the intrinsic values of consistency. Productivity, familiarity, effectiveness and success are some of the ways users express satisfaction when they encounter intuitive and repeatable patterns in user experience. And these are the kinds of feelings that make people come back. Of course we aren’t talking about un-changing, never-ending consistency, because that’s boring. We simply do new things in similar ways that bend to take advantage of the unique capabilities and opportunities provided for experiences in each channel.

We've long considered Web CMS vendors like Sitecore and Ektron to be mid-market players. And to some extent they still are. But with the evolution of web content management towards customer experience management has come a shift in the .NET Web CMS vendor landscape. Here's a look at where the players are today.

More and more people are purchasing good and services online. A recent Forrester Research study was released showing a 5-year U.S. Online Retail Market Forecast -- the numbers are astounding. Needless to say, selling products online is a massive distribution channel for nearly every company, but just having a “shopping cart” is not enough -- your e-Commerce website should be customer experience focused.

In reading Customer Experience: Help People Do Things, Don't Keep Them on Webpages by Gerry McGovern, I was reminded how the overall UX community is singularly focused on this well reasoned, but incomplete idea. While the article, and much of the associated UX literature that pervades the content ecosphere, is applicable in task-oriented domains, it lacks broader applicability because it treats the web as one big shopping cart and ignores two big factors.

With the anticipation and excitement around Facebook’s Timeline, you might be wondering what other social media networks may provide in response. Look no further than Proliphiq, a new social media search tool that aims to connect the right users to the right content at the right moment.

Issuu, the magazine, catalog and newspaper digital publishing platform has launched Issuu Adpages, a tool that gives publishers the power to leverage their networks by allowing users to quickly distribute original print materials as digital media presentations.
 

This week the Google-verse provided fans with Google Cloud SQL, a Twitter-esque feature in Plus, and better options for UN-sharing. 

We knew there was some partnership in the works back in late July when Ektron announced the latest version of its web content management/customer experience platform, but now it's official and a little more detailed.

I am not going to complain about Bank of America’s decision to charge $5 to use their debit card, even though I’m a current card holder of the Alaska Airlines “Award Winning Mileage Plan.” The great thing about living in this country is that we have options. So yes, I will be cancelling my card this week. $5 isn’t a ton of money, but it’s the principle that bugs me.

Care to evaluate the effectiveness of your Facebook posts? Hoverstats, a new tool from Webtrends, allows you to do just that.  

People like to scoff at marketing these days. Even Daniel Pink -- the lawyer -- has deemed it an ignoble profession (he was (sort of) joking). Why? Because many people, including too many marketing professionals, think marketing is the art and science of tricking, manipulating and cajoling you into buying things that are inferior, unnecessary or too expensive.

At the same time, social media has (helped) moved marketing's cheese. Consumers now tell us what marketing should be -- as well they should. Consumers (including business and government consumers) are more sophisticated. They are constantly bombarded with messages and increasingly aware of the opinions and expertise of their peers, and the power of their words and dollars. The market now demands value, authenticity, transparency, integrity and superb service. As well it should.

Want to know what it might feel like if an airline actually treated its customers like friends? Not a superficial, phony performance marked by fake smiles and fake actors (think the aviation version of the Truman Show). But an airline that is in business to listen, support and aspire to do what’s best for its customers.

Unless you are extremely reclusive, refuse to watch TV, read a newspaper or listen to the radio, or have no Internet access, you have heard of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and, in all likelihood, are active on at least one of these social platforms.

Deirdre Walsh, Senior Social Media Marketing Manager of Jive Software, talked to John Summers, Social Media Architect at NetApp, about his Social Business experience. NetApp is a leading provider of enterprise storage and data management solutions. Summers will be a featured speaker at the JiveWorld11 conference in Las Vegas, Oct 4-6.

 Support is the new marketing.