aktahoe1 wrote:No disrespect here..

None taken

aktahoe1 wrote:There is no need with his business to take Credit cards on line. That way he can personally talk to every potential client. I believe this is huge.

You are absolutely correct and I couldn't agree more. However it is very important if you are going to have a reservations page to let the user know what the trips cost and what methods of payment are taken. I'd never make a reservation anywhere for anything without knowing first what it will cost and second how I can pay for it. If the intention is to use this form as a way to manage bookings, both off- and on-line AFTER the customer has been contacted, that needs to be stated on the reservations page and perhaps the button should indicate that as well.

aktahoe1 wrote:He is selling a once in a lifetime trip for many, a tourism type business that captures folks with visual media. They want to see what they are going to get. The bear with the fish in his mouth, the guy with a huge fish on the end of the line and the aircraft that they are flying in. Photos are worth a 1000 words and supported by the text that you print with them

Completely agree. I haven't gotten to that part yet.

aktahoe1 wrote:..this very type of business needs as Facebook account along with all of the others that I posted above.

Agreed. But you can't just add a Facebook page for your business and expect customers to beat your door down - and I know that isn't what you said nor what you meant, but because this Interweb thing is like so much voodoo to most, some business owners are led to believe or expect that.

My long winded attempt to answer the original question is to explain how to successfully use social networking in business, which begins with a good foundation, which is the website.

In my exuberance to share what has taken me almost 20 years to learn, and my love for fellow entrepreneurs - especially aviators, I probably made my comments look like thread drift, not my intention, I should have been clearer. My intention is to help Wes, and others that might be interested, look at their website the way their potential clients do - I can't emphasize enough how important that is for a successful Internet presence.

And only then expand into Social Networking as appropriate.

aktahoe1 wrote:Not puffing my chest here, but we are the largest heli ski operation in the country.

Very cool (no pun intended) and my sincerest admiration and respect.

Along that same line (and not puffing my chest) it may help to understand where my thoughts come from. I've launched a number of online businesses since 1995, including a Hunting and Fishing booking agency. My current business is a third attempt at a home run in its industry. The previous two were successful enough to provide for the family but no where near what I believed their potential was. Five years ago I launched version 3, completely bootstrapped (pay as we go), and in those five years we've amassed over 11,000 clients composed of Corporations, Government Agencies, and Educational Institutions from around the world. It is the lessons learned needed to achieve this which I share here. An inappropriate topic for this forum I know, but hey, I didn't start this thread.

Wow, this information from Phil is pure gold! I sure hope you are taking notes, Headout, because I sure am.

I stumbled upon this blog post a while back, and this thread made me think of it. There is some great information about social media here, and it is aviation related to boot:

http://www.aircraftmechanicshirts.com/the-wrong-way-to-use-social-media-to-promote-the-aviation-maintenance-industry/

Once again what I say is in no way meant to be mean spirited, quite the opposite in fact.

Now let's take a look at Beluga Air's website horizontal menu.

http://www.belugaair.com (by the way domain names are not case sensitive, so if you want you can use http://www.BelugaAir.com anywhere you display your website address - and you don't need to tell people to capitalize any letters. http://WWW.BELUGAAIR.COM works as well, any mix of cases works)

The menu items from left to right are:
Home | About Us | Gallery | FAQ | History | Services | Contact Us

An important feature of a website is to keep the user informed as to where they are within the site. With the horizontal nav menu the designer accomplished that by changing the font color to white, and making a slight shift in background color behind the text when the user is on one of the pages the menu links to. Excellent.

Again, since western cultures read left to right and top to bottom we want the more important menu elements to be on the left, and the least important on the right. This can be a little subjective depending on what the site owner believes is important.

About Us
Gives me information I'd expect. But the page layout is terrible. Each photo and heading is duplicated AND miniaturized? What is up with that? Don't make me think.

And what happened to the left side navigation that was under the horizontal navigation? It's now midway down the page on the right side. Why? This is a relatively small website but still you NEVER NEVER NEVER move navigation around. Never. It always remains in the exact same location. Always. It's hard enough for some people to see the navigation when its the most prominent thing on the page. Move it, and they will never find it. Remember, the person who gets lost might have become one of your biggest customers, but now he's given up and moved on. Don't make me think.

Okay now don't tar and feather me (boy I'm going to get slammed for this). I have a dog (I love my dog), a Rhodesian Ridgeback. But I don't have a picture and description of him on my company's website. I understand they are part of the family, but unless they are loading or flying the plane they don't belong on the site. Again we have to look at things from our potential client's point of view. What if I'm allergic to dogs. Or afraid of them. Does this mean the dogs will be in the plane while I'm chartering it? How clean is the plane? What if the dog doesn't like strangers? And one's favorite thing is to eat moose poop? How does that entice me to fly with you? Don't make me think.

Gallery
Now the left side menu has moved from the middle of the right side to the top of the right side - sort of. Wonder where it goes next?

There are 15 photos in the gallery, 11 of them are photos of the plane. Is it for sale? The photo of the engine will only be recognized by pilots. You want your gallery images to reflect the customers interest and desires, not the business owners. As a customer I should be drawn into the photo, it should represent why I'm doing business with you, I should be able to imagine myself in the photos. It's Alaska for heavens sake! (But boy do I love that Beaver)

So I clicked on the "Ask About Bear Viewing Specials" and bye bye I was at another company's web site. I've forgotten about Beluga Air altogether. My money is now going to them. And they don't even link back to Beluga Air.

I'll wrap up the remainder of the horizontal menu in my next post, it's been a long day.

Wes, thanks for being a good sport about this.

Thought I would share some tools and statics that can help website owners.

You've been hearing me say repeatedly "Don't Make Me Think". Taking this to heart is one of the things that have made a profound difference in the success of my business. Wish I could claim credit for it. But actually it's from a guy by the name of Steve Krug. His book is aimed at web developers so if that's not your forte it's probably not for you. The concept is important enough for the success of a website that before having one built (or rebuilt) you may want to ensure your designer has read it, or have them read it before you hire them. It's that important.
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-R ... 321965515/

Toward the beginning of this thread Zane mentioned the importance of Google Analytics. He is absolutely correct. And BelugaAir.com is set up to feed data to Google Analytics. One of the most exciting things about marketing in the age of the Internet is the ability to quantify the level of success achieved for every single dollar spent in every form of media; including business cards, flyers, brochures, newspaper ads, radio ads, television ads, emails, every brand of social media, pay per click searches, organic searches, display ads, referrals - if I've forgotten anything it can be tracked as well. And the great news is it's free, at least the analysis part of it which is Google Analytics.
http://www.google.com/analytics/

Tracking the success of on-line marketing efforts (emails, social media, pay per click searches, organic searches, display ads, referrals, etc) can all be done without the help of your web master.

Tracking the success of off-line marketing efforts (business cards, flyers, brochures, newspaper ads, radio ads, television ads, etc) will require the help of your web master to set up, and it MUST be done BEFORE creating the off-line marketing material.

Implementing and using Google Analytics is another of the things that made a profound difference in the success of my business.

A mid-level read on Google Analytics:
http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Web-Metr ... 118168445/

Another is the speed of the website. According to Amazon they see a 1% increase in revenue for every 100 milliseconds of improvement in the speed of their website. Imagine the affect on their bottom line when they shave just one second off the time it takes for their website to load in a user's browser. Staggering. Well the same holds true with us, although the affect may not be AS staggering. I took this to heart when I developed our website, starting optimization at the user's browser and working all the way back to our servers and the software running on them. As a result the average user's page load time world wide is one second. The average time it takes our servers to receive and process a request is 370 milliseconds (these numbers supplied to us by a third party - Chartbeat). That is smoking fast and gives us a distinct advantage over our competitors. Nobody leaves our website because it takes too long to load.

To see how long it takes for your website to load be sure and clear your browser's cache first, or view it from a browser that has never been to your website.

Stat: 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
Stat: 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Stat: A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions (aka sales, contacts - whatever the goal of your website is).

Certainly the average small business does not have the knowledge, understanding, or ability to do what I did. But if you post photos online you can have a major impact on the time they take to display in the user's browser.

If the place you use to post your photos doesn't automatically downsize and optimize them (by default your phone takes a high quality, large photo) then it's up to you to learn how to do it. This will make a huge difference in how long it takes to display the photo, which impacts how long it takes the website to display. Remember, 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Hey guys,
thanks for all the input both on this thread and the private messages. We will be using a lot of the suggestions. I have to say how happily surprised I was with the response to this subject. Phil, I want to thank you in particular for taking the time to look and write your thoughts.

I will have to ask the boss (read: my wife) about the google analytics. I will say that the dogs are staying, a surprising amount of customers have told us that the pictures of the dogs gave them a 'good feeling' about the company.

We will add more scenery, and other photos to the site,

Thanks again,
Wes