Squarespace.com: A Cloud Service to Cut Costs and Pump Up Sales
This column was written in June 2009.
Not long ago, I learned that a small Chicago-based trade association was struggling with the expense of its Web site. I can't reveal the name of the organization, but the Web site was brochureware. This is a word that means the Web is merely a version of traditional printed materials. In addition to being static, the Web site did not offer timely information.
The executive with whom I spoke said, "We want to include a Web log and more social interactivity, but we just don't have the money or the technical expertise. Technology was supposed to remove barriers. I think technology is putting them up."
What's the solution?
In today's economy, surplus cash, even for necessaries like a Web presence, is not available. An effective Web site can generate interest, so an ineffective Web site is contributing to the organization's challenges, not lessening them.
Technology, however, does offer some options, and I want to highlight a new trend that might be of use to small and mid-sized organizations that want to reduce costs and boost the payoff from a Web presence. Adding some interactivity is an added benefit.
Sound too good to be true?
Most small and mid sized businesses have some type of Web presence. Some CEO's like Dave Kellogg at MarkLogic, a company that offers information access delivery solutions, has his own award winning Web log. A growing number of senior executives dabble with newer social software tools such as LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) or Facebook (www.facebook.com). The challenge is keeping each of these services up-to-date and fresh. But adding interactivity and social elements to a Web site can increase traffic and utility. Both are key ingredients in building a company's profile, generating sales leads and putting some lift into sales.
Most users, including managers, show initial enthusiasm and then lose interest. Not surprisingly, the content, features, and information don't generate leads, sales, or media inquiries. There is no magic solution to what I call Web attention deficit, but there are some interesting new services that can simplify and streamline the drudgery of maintaining an online presence.
If your organization has a Web marketing budget that is tough to control, you will want to aim your radar at new ways to get information online and cut costs. The idea is a simple one. Savvy executives are using hosted services that are "out there" on the network. This old-idea (timesharing) has been revived and given a shot of technical botox. The new idea is "cloud computing". Regardless of buzzword, a company allows an organization to use software on remote servers. Unlike the complicated and unfriendly interfaces for on premises software, the best of the cloud services provide interfaces and systems that mostly eliminate the need for programmers, Web design studios, and expensive on site servers.
In today's tough business environment, services that make a must-have online presence easier so even the boss can post new information while cutting information technology costs deserves a close look.
One of the more interesting new services is Squarespace.com. I want to describe this next generation online publishing system and then offer a few cautionary comments about the brave new world that Squarespace.com is helping invent.
First, navigate to http://www.squarespace.com. You can click around, read the descriptions, and work through the brief tutorials. The service is unusual in that it offers a convenience store approach to what were two or three years ago pure rocket science. You or one of your team can import existing online content, including Web logs so you don't have to worry
about lock in. If you don't want to use Squarespace.com, you can get your information out. The door swings both ways and there is no one way street outside. You can review a complete list of features at http://www.squarespace.com/features/.
Second, the Squarespace.com technology allows you to sign up for a free account, create a design, and explore the numerous gadgets available to customers. What sets Squarespace.com apart is that the site permits drag-and-drop, point-and-click, and other conveniences. Once you have a template you like, you can change it via your browser, in real time, and without any technical knowledge. Squarespace.com's engineers have converted the browser into an application that works like the layout features of Microsoft Word. No training is needed. Make an error. No harm.
Start over, open a new template, or restore your Web page.
Third, SquareSpace.com makes available a range of features and functions that most enterprise Web sites and Web logs lack. For example, you can use the service for a business Web site. Squarespace.com offers a user-friendly blogging system, a photo galley component that can be used to display product pictures, form components so customers and prospects can provide you with information about their needs, and dead simple reports about visitors and site traffic. I am not a video enthusiast, but online video and podcasts can be effective sales tools. SquareSpace.com permits automatic code insertion and video insertion directly from the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface. The service provides full iTunes tag support and a Twitter function.
Other services are working to cube the Squarespace.com value proposition. Be sure to take a look at Google's range of services. A good place to start is Google Local at http://local.google.com. Weebly.com offers both Web site and Web log service as http://www.weebly.com. Both the BBC and Newsweek Magazine praised Weebly’s ease of use and functionality. Expression Engine offers some potent Web publishing functions and combines software you install on your PC with its cloud-based services. Check the company out at http://expressionengine.com, no "www" needed.
Each of these services is low cost, beginning at $30 a month for plans designed for businesses and topping out for industrial-strength customers at several hundred dollars a month. The savings and the features are obvious upsides. When an executive considers that these next-generation content publishing services eliminate the need for programmers and Web designers, what's not to like?
There are disadvantages. The next-generation services provide templates that you can edit. However, if you have a need to offer your customers or prospects a specific online function or feature, you will have to enlist a programmer's help. The ease-of-use hides considerable complexity under the hood. In my experience, for most enterprise Web sites, the next-generation services handle most Web site and Web log tasks with aplomb.
Fortunately the SquareSpace.com interface is modular and easily customized. You or anyone with basic computer skills can make a change at any time in order to keep your online presence fresh. You can add columns, insert software widgets, and change colors with a mouse click or two.
Another downside is that these cloud services are new and, therefore, may evoke strong cautions from your existing Web vendors. Keep in mind that significant economies result by shifting from the expensive and complex methods that were standard operating procedure in the early days of the Web to the newer, cloud-based services now becoming available.
There's one final benefit of the Squarespace.com type of approach, and it is in many ways the most important advantage of the next-generation service. You can set up these services so that individuals can add content to the Web site, blog, or photo gallery at any time. Instead of getting trapped in a workflow that requires a writer to interview an employee, a designer to lay out the Web page, and a system engineer to get the content online, you chop out inefficiencies.
The secret to a timely, fresh Web log is not a CEO who is a great writer. The key is to use a service that allows colleagues to add information when it becomes available. The Web is too important to be trapped in a rigid, slow, and expensive cage. The cloud may set you free of some costs and give your company a suntan in today's gloomy business climate.
(Want more of Stephen Arnold's insights? Navigate to www.infonortics.com and check out his studies of Google's technology or to www.galatea.co.uk for his handbook about enterprise search.)
Stephen Arnold, June 11, 2009