Choosing Your Web Site Features

So, you’re ready to create a Web site for your salon. Now what? How do you decide which features are important for your site, and figure out the purpose of all these tools? Below is a brief explanation of some of the many online tools you may want to use. Remember, whatever you decide, a good Web site must be constantly updated for accuracy and relevancy.

Blog—A blog is like an online journal, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other content, such as graphics or video.

E-Commerce—Allows customers to place orders online.

Employee Intranet—An intranet is a back-end community that offers tools such as fliers, forms, training, communications, human resources information and more for your staff.

Forms—Forms allow a site’s owner to interact with its users. This may include contact forms, contests, newsletters and surveys.

Online Billing—This is the ability to e-mail clients invoices and receipts.

Online Events—Client “events” can be anything from specials and online presentations to podcasts or webinars.

Podcast—A podcast is an online radio or video broadcast.

Social Media or Social Networking Sites—Based on networking and socializing, these Web sites allow people to create profiles and post pictures or updates. (Popular sites include Twitter, Facebook, FURL, Digg, Myspace and LinkedIn.)

Surveys—Online surveys are an easy way get feedback from customers and Internet browsers (potential customers) who visit your site. They can be made to pop up automatically after someone clicks away from your site, or they can be links on the site.

Dan Levin is the president of Gallant Inc., a full-service promotional agency, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2009. For more information about Gallant’s branding and promotional Solutions, visit www.gallantgifts.com.

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