Blake Dowling
The new resident at the White House and technology are an interesting pair, with the Russians, Twitter, etc.
Speaking of the new guy on Pennsylvania Avenue, make sure to check out the Showtime documentary Trumped.
Regardless of your status — love him, hate him, internet troller, hater Facebook over-poster, fan, rioter, protester, etc. — if you are a fan of the political process, the behind-the-scenes coverage is spectabulous.
The scene where Bernie asks the journalist what network is this anyway because the reporter is dropping the F-bomb, is a riot.
To that end, I have always thought Showtime needed to cover a couple of college football games each year.
The colorful language could be epic: “what kind of sh*t-ass hula hoop offensive scheme is Richt running at Miami this year,” etc.
Back to tech, so WhiteHouse.gov got the standard new President overhaul, and they went very simplistic with their web presence, the picture going from each side of the screen to the next is compelling, and the use of white space is in line with the latest designs.
From a technology perspective, cyber warfare and cyberbullying are two items that get a lot of attention on the page; that is a good thing. The White House fired their cyber expert, so that is a bad thing, as we all know there are those seeking to damage our nation, infrastructure and our processes through digital means.
Back to Florida; the lobbying team at the Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners has a cool site. Crisp and to the point. You get introduced to the team on the first look and can easily contact them if needed as email addresses are clearly spelled out.
Obviously, contact info is critical; there is nothing more frustrating than not finding a phone number or email address with ease. If you don’t have a contact button, add one ASAP.
Or even better have a generic email contact address right on the home page, for example, [email protected] and the phone number too.
You must decide at what level you want to engage your audience with your web brand.
Look at Sen. Bill Nelson’s site for example. It would be the opposite of the White House and The Advocacy Group, it is loaded with info and color and extremely busy — billnelson.senate.gov.
That said, he gives you access to social media, video clips, newsletter sign up, track record, request a flag, tours, internships and anything else you could possibly want. It is a very informative site, it is odd however that the header does not say, “Senator Bill Nelson.”
Maybe he is keeping his options open. These three sites give you an excellent view into the vast world of political websites and perhaps you might see something you want to add.
My web development partner, Michael Winn of Digital Opps said this:
“In today’s fake or not fake news era, having a dedicated website to strengthen your organization’s initiative or campaign is paramount. An often-overlooked digital strategy is to integrate your original content into a blog or individual news brief format in order to provide the public, journalist and/or elected officials an information hub to check the facts. When done correctly, these bite-sized articles will garner the search engines’ attention and ultimately lead the readers to your website.”
Well said sir.
At Aegis, our site has a link to follow us on Twitter, like Sen. Nelson’s, but takes it a step further with an auto-feed of every piece of extremely helpful info I might be tweeting — like these three smoking hot tweets from Peter, Tim and John.
If you want to see a site that provides visitors an education, info, certifications, news, updates, and anything else you might want, check out the Florida School Boards Association site: fsba.org it is slick, from legislative updates for their members to a link to download their mobile app. It can keep a visitor engaged for days (if you are into that sort of thing). There a massive amount of info, like Nelson’s page, but arranged in manner that is easier on the eyes.
Other ideas to keep your site interactive and engaging: 360 tours, cams, links to blogs and columns, aegisbiztech.com or even a password protected area for clients, members, etc.
Your web presence is a part of your brand, and you will be judged by your clients and constituents, so make sure you are giving it a serious look.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and writes for various organizations. He can be reached at [email protected].
