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Watch This Space...Your Corporate Image May Depend On It
By: DEEPA VERMA

Why Companies Need To Keep A Watchful Eye On Their Own Websites.

Imagine your official spokesperson appearing on national television, all bleary-eyed, unshaven and dishevelled. Or worse still, your Marketing VP arriving for a presentation to a key client, shabbily dressed and carrying a non-functional laptop — not to mention a presentation with several important slides missing. No prizes for guessing what all these could do to your corporate image!

Yet, day in and day out, there are companies ruining their image by nonchalantly maintaining a shoddy web presence. Their websites lack a contemporary look-and-feel, they are low on interactivity, the content is poor and badly edited, there are broken links all over the site, and the pages take ages to download because they haven’t been optimised. Invariably, users are left thinking: “Gosh! If their site is like this, imagine what the company’s like!”

Here’s what companies need to do on an ongoing basis: a) Get the website evaluated by experts, and also by stakeholders and end-users, on various parameters like visual appeal, user-friendliness, ease of navigation, interactivity, features, download speed, richness of content, etc.

b) Designate in-house ‘web-watchers’ to monitor the site several times a day and report on broken links, wrong links, errors in the content, slow downloads, etc.

c) Evolve a style-sheet to ensure uniformity of look-and-feel throughout the site. This is especially important when updates happen sporadically and are handled by different persons or departments.

d) Provide onsite rating tools to users to enable them to share feedback on pages and sections across multiple parameters like design, content, download time, etc.

e) Hold quarterly site evaluation meetings to enable key managers to map the site against predetermined parameters and milestones, and decide the evolution path for the quarter that lies ahead. The meetings should also facilitate an interaction between corporate communications personnel and other managers, with a view to ensuring that the online communication is in synergy with the offline communication initiatives, especially with regard to corporate image-building.

Remember, your website is a round-the-clock ‘e-ambassador’ out there in cyberspace. It has to look right… and say all the right things. So keep a watchful eye on it.

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