Thought of the Day---"INTERACTION is More Than What You Think"

     
Websites Should Be More Than
 the "Static-Quo"

          How can we captivate a consumer?  How can we sell to a consumer before they pick up the phone to call our company or walk through our doors?  With the advent of social media can only teach marketers one important lesson in the field of marketing.  "People/consumers crave interaction!"  We must think outside the box.  In fact, we must not only think outside the box, but we must run away quickly!

          Therefore, we must move away from "static" tactics.  Have you ever visited a website that lived in the bubble of static radios and so much reading information that you felt overwhelmed to the point that you went to another site to try to retrieve the same information?  On the flip side, you went to a website full of pictures, videos about a project or even like runway shows to showcase a particular brand's clothing?  Websites are so important, crucial to a company's brand and its brand image.  Consider it the foundation, the backbone, the calling card, the business card, the first handshake, (you get the idea).  Hence, one must think, "How can I design my company's website to be more exciting, more inviting, but most importantly with more interaction?"  After all people are visual...what caught your eye first, the writing on this page or the picture?  If I were to guess, the picture.

         Now, say for instance, this picture with a brief description, were interactive. You could click on the chair picture, the designer sitting there does a short video of how he came up with the concept, talk about the details, and even have a customer who bought the chair say how incredible it is

                               (customer/client testimonials + satisfaction = generated interest),

which in turn boosts brand image.  Wouldn't this be so much better than a static picture with a brief description, and a price tag on it?  And... it is up to the consumer to decide the comfort of the chair, how it was made, etc.?  YES!  Why?  Because the consumer feels they have interacted with this chair before they buy it.  They know how it was made, the concept creation and how it was born, maybe even feel like they know the designer, etc.  Thus, they feel a connection.
          Plus, the cool part about having videos, you can quickly add them to your business' You Tube channel, Twitter, Facebook page, Google+, and all other social media.  In fact, I don't know about you, but I am more apt to click on my friends' pictures and videos before I read status updates.  Terrible, I know!  But so true.  I did my own A/B test last night, I posted a picture of my sister painting one of her masterpieces, and within 2 hours I had over 30 likes, 10 comments and one share, and then I posted a status update about something funny a friend said, we are now on day two, with no likes, no comments, and no shares!  I will not be posting any more status updates unless it is a picture or a video.  Why?  Because people are not interested, for they crave more interaction and less talk. I know, this sounds redundant, but think about it.  Maybe it will make sense. This one blog post about interaction could easily become a book.  I would love to hear other ideas of how a website could be more interactive.

FYI:  According to SEOmoz, posts with videos attract 3x more inbound links than plain text posts.