Rethinking “Visitors”: Just Call Them … Friends

Three years ago-Tuesday, 30 May 2006-to be exact, I posted “Just Call Them Visitors”, which remains one of my favorite posts on this blog. I believe it’s one of the most important, too.

I stand by most of the sentiments expressed in that post, starting with this one:

People don’t “use” websites, they “visit” them. So just call them visitors, please, and design websites to make visitors feel welcome, to help them find what they want, and to delight them.

People visit websites to learn something, or to do something that’s important to them. It’s not about the way the site looks, but about making sure that it’s built from the ground up to facilitate your visitors achieving their objectives. Note the emphasis: it’s all about them and what they want.

Of course, 2006 was a long time ago—decades, maybe even centuries, in Internet time. The term “Web 2.0” was just two years old and the meme hadn’t yet slipped into wider consciousness. Now it seems almost passe, since early adopters desperately seek a new buzzword to make them sound cool. Four months after my post, Facebook, which launched in 2004, opened itself up to everyone age 13 and older with a valid email address. No one had even heard of Twitter, which launched in 2007.

So it was different back then. Now, we not only have “visitors” to our websites, but also we have “connections,” “fans” and “followers.” And today a web presence should be larger than a single website. We need to go where the people are and many of them are hanging out on other websites and spending time on social networks. The conversation is going on around us (and in some situations, without us). And in 2009 it’s essential to be part of those conversations.

Still important: Take a deep breath, pay attention to fundamentals

Social media seem easy, deceptively easy. As social media and social networks assume more importance and complement (and maybe someday-though not yet-replace) our websites as places to connect and learn, let’s keep in mind that there are still fundamentals that must be considered before launching a cool Facebook widget or get too far into planning a social media initiative.

I know that sounds so-how can I say it?-old-fashioned. Uncool.

But we still need to ask: for whom are we doing all this stuff, anyway? Whether we are producing an institution’s website or developing its social networking or social media presence, we’re designing for … people. Or at least we at mStoner are. And that should be your paramount consideration, too.

Start with your own website. To help people find information about your institution, you have to design your website for the needs of your visitors. Discovering that what they come to your site to do, to find, to learn is the fundamental challenge of a redesign. What do visitors care about? When you determine their needs, then you can provide information that is relevant to them and make sure they can find it through intuitive organization of that information and great search.

You want to develop compelling content that communicates essential truths about your institution. And you want to ensure that you’re using your content strategically across your site, syndicating it to places where it is relevant and where visitors will discover it when they arrive on a page through an external link or a Google search. Your content should be so compelling that it motivates visitors to take actions that are important to you: explore further, ask for more information, apply, give, sign up, engage.

But today you don’t want to keep content locked up in your site: you want to syndicate it to sites across the web where it can help you to connect to people who already care about your institution—or may come to care about it. I’m thinking of places like Flickr, Youtube, LinkedIn, iTunesU, Facebook. In other words, go beyond your own site to where your audiences are and make sure they can find your content there.

Wait: there’s more

Note, please, that it’s not just about great content in 2009. Today’s visitors don’t just want to visit your website for great content, they also want to engage—that’s why there’s “social” in social media and social networking

It’s time to ponder the deeper implications of “social” media and what that might mean for your institution.

You need to pay attention to the depth of commitment engagement can take and the effect that it can have on how offices run. If you launch a Facebook presence and don’t have plans for tending it and participating in and engaging with the community that will develop around it, why bother being on Facebook in the first place? It was one thing to develop and launch an alumni community in the 1990s: then, you had to convince your audiences that there was value in being part of the community and selling this notion was hard work. Fast forward to 2009: many of the people you’d like to reach are already using Facebook. Many of them are eager to connect with their institutions: in fact, so eager that they probably launched their own affinity groups before you joined the party.

So the real question for today is not about the “how” or “why” of being part of this community, but “when.” It’s not enough to designate people who will develop your content and keep it flowing. You need to think through who is going to manage your community presence and, crucially, what else he or she won’t do, because site management will take a fair amount of time and you’re not likely to get another staff member any time soon.

And for those people that you’re engaging with through Facebook, LinkedIn, or your own social network, maybe it’s time to come up with a name besides “visitors.” Shall we call them “friends?”

So, let me ask this: are you prepared for what will happen when your friends visit your web presence in 2009, not only at YourInstitution.edu but on Facebook, LinkedIn and everywhere else on the Net?

Note: I’d like to thank my wife, Denise Lyons, for her input on this post.