Here are my top five predictions in website trends. Believe me, there is so much information out there, but as someone who makes a living developing websites (and who has been doing so for the last 10 years), I highly recommend you configure your action plan for actively updating your website.
1) Go Mobile.
Have you created a mobile version of your website yet?
This should be as stripped out, clean code as possible, using basic XHTML tags and providing easy links and easier navigation.
mobisitegalore.com
mobify.me
It is possible, with most CMS systems (content management systems), to easily provide an auto-updated mobile version of your existing website. Ask your web developer for support on this.
2) Geo-location.
The web is moving the world back to your doorstep. Applications, coupons, listings, reviews, and businesses can be as simply found as a click on your mobile phone. Check trends on geo-locating and consider ways to extend your website with a local version, a community listing service, or leveraging Google Adsense and new mobile applications.
3) Open source.
Drupal, WordPress, Joomla and open source content management systems are leading the way. If you are continuing to pay an ongoing monthly maintenance fee to your web designer, consider switching to a content management system that you can manage in-house. Note: I am a big fan of Drupal and run this as our installation of choice for our upgrading and new clients.
4) Microblogging.
Get used to posting status updates in 140 characters or less.
Twitter is great because of its advanced search function. I take very high advantage of the search capabilities of Twitter to find other green women in business who are interested in the same things I am.
A sample search:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=green+business+women
You can then use the @username tag to send a message to specific people, or “follow” them for their updates.
In Advanced search, you also find Twitter users near specific locations (e.g. green business within 10 miles of Honolulu), which is another wonderful way to network with others in your local community.
http://search.twitter.com/advanced
or type in the following into the advanced search box:
http://search.twitter.com/search
green business near:Honolulu within:50mi
where you replace “Honolulu” with your own city
Cotweet is a service for multiple people using single Twitter accounts (such as for customer service).
There are also external services such as Seesmic.com (which recently acquired Ping.fm) where you can centralize your posts and publish to multiple locations.
5) Social networking.
Do you have a plan? Do you have a presence?
If you don’t have a listing now, when will you get one?
Here is a sample of all the places where I personally attempt to post: http://www.claimid.com/monicadear
Obviously, your job becomes easier when you have a service to aggregate your posts and auto-update to different locations. What about e-mailing directly to your blog? Look into http://www.google.com/search?&q=social+media+tips for other people’s ideas on how to best manage their flow of information.
Over the last year I’ve seen some interesting reactions to social sites. The bottom line, In My Humble Opinion, is that each post you create, or each item you #fb, #linkedin, or tweet is an additional potential source of leads, sharing, and connecting: as a women in business you cannot neglect this area of your outreach.
My partners at BergerLodise.com are organizing social media packages if you are interested in receiving a one-time report with tips or outsourcing your social media for a monthly fee.
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Monica S Flores
Monica S. Flores leads large-scale web development projects in refactoring, redesign/redevelopment, digital platform buildout, & new product launches. She works with US-based & international associations, non-profits, public agencies, & startups on how to reach their communities online. Her focus is to build community, foster connectedness, & use her technology & management skills to make a better world. She believes each of us has an ability/obligation to use our knowledge, ideas, & talents to advance fairness, justice, safety, health, sustainability, & wellbeing. Find her books at Amazon or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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I think these observations are absolutely correct given the trends I’m seeing with my women business owner clients. Social networking is rapidly moving beyond the early adopter phase.
Another trend I’d add is the that video is becoming omnipresent as bandwidth expands to accomodate it. Look for more video blogging in the future, I think.
Welcome to 2010. Communication only gets more rapid and I think my 3G is not fast enough already. I want the blackberry to instantly update wirelessly to my Outlook account and I want multiple calendars, applications, and even large media capabilities on my phone. This is life 2010. And I think that I NEED it.
Even getting into elevators, I notice that everyone whips out their fancy phone. No one says a word or even has their head up between floors to say ‘good morning,’ ‘late night’ or ‘great weather.’ We all need constant connection but in person, we are not connecting with anybody at all.
I definitely want to see more businesses provide mobile friendly sites (including mine). All of this is underway and I’m looking forward to more ways for our customers to reach us. But once clients arrive, I want nothing more than to be live, communicative and able to engage them with a real connection lest I have to start ushering phone guided zombies through our suite.
I think the #1 trend will be mobile sites.. I love getting alerts that my favorite blog has updated or that my comments have been replied to. When you’re eating lunch alone– you’re still entertained. When you’re stuck on the bus– you can still catch up on your blog. I love mobile versions as long as they are updated!
-Sylvia