Not long ago, I was having a discussion with a long-time client of ours; I’ll call him ‘Len’. He told me how disappointed he was about the drop-off in web traffic his company had been experiencing over the past several months.

He couldn’t understand it—the site was showing up at the top of search engines, the design was clean and navigable, yet the number of visitors was slowly dropping.

I looked over their site. “What reasons are you giving people to return?” I asked. The site hadn’t really changed in months. “But,” Len said, “why should I change anything? It looks good just the way it is.”

Do you have a website that you visit often? Stop for a minute and think about why. What draws you to revisit that site?

One of the primary trends we’ve seen on the Web since its inception is the increasing importance of content. Sure, having a great design is important but most people won’t return to your site once a day just to admire its excellent design. However, if there’s always something new, they’re much more likely to bookmark you or click that RSS button.

“Wait a minute,” I can hear you saying now, “I don’t have time to write essays for my website!”  Are you concerned that the idea of new content is too overwhelming for you?

Well, good news…it doesn’t take much effort to keep your content fresh.

• Do you have an online store? Regularly adding new items or offering special sales can provide the new content that your visitors want.
• Are you a membership-based organization?  What about having a “featured member” each week so your visitors can get to know each other and can share a little about themselves?

The important thing is to identify what kind of content your visitors want to see. If you’re unsure, develop an online poll and ask them!

The key here is to provide your visitors with a dynamic experience to keep them coming back.  If people are regularly visiting your site, they’re more likely to engage in targeted behaviors, such as buying products and memberships.

Your website says a lot about your company, and it’s more than simply how it looks. Keep your site fresh and you’ll find that not only will hits increase, but so will your bottom line.

Think about this for a moment.

Last month, Meryl Streep sat in the audience at the Oscars, nominated for her work as Julia Child in Julie & Julia. The movie grew out of a book, and the book grew out of a blog.

When Child broke barriers in the middle of the last century, we were still governed by the physics of top-down cultural momentum. Child used television and books to promote her “brand” of culinary sophistication for the masses.

Because those were the tools available to her.

Julie Powell, our generation’s representative in the film, wrote a blog not knowing that anyone other than her family and friends would read it. There were no studio cameras with lights blinking red. There were no publisher lunches or bestseller lists.

But like Child she possessed a way to influence the masses. She had a modem and a message. Paired with her passion, technology allowed her to leapfrog the traditional gatekeepers. Her blog represented the type of bottom-up momentum all businesses can tap.

But blogging is only one possible launch point, and Accrinet is here to help guide the implementation of an array of powerful online strategies.

As you may have heard, Accrisoft is spinning off a new wholly owned subsidiary called Accrinet to focus on the delivery of products to end-users.

What is Accrinet? It’s where we’ll engage clients directly with customized care. Organizations can find website development, support and service designed specifically to make sure their online presences pack a punch.

Meanwhile, Accrisoft itself is marching onward and upward. The company will continue to develop Freedom, our content management system (CMS), which Accrinet will employ for its customers.

Taken together, Accrisoft and Accrinet deliver the same great software and development (under the same ownership), but the new setup allows our expert personnel to tailor our services even more specifically to client needs.

What does all of this have to do with Julia Child and Julie Powell?

Well the point isn’t just what Accrinet can do for you, but how its arrival shows how well-planned, well-executed tech strategies can generate new opportunities for any business.

We focused on the same core tools and tactics that can help any company become more efficient, tackle problems before they appear, and secure an edge over the competition.

Accrisoft grew to the point where we’re able to foster a new subsidiary because of the same tools (and overall web philosophy) we help other organizations employ.

Tools like SaaS, for instance.

What is SaaS? It refers to Software as a Service, which is essentially software on demand, and which will describe a full 40% of all business software by 2014.

You cannot overstate its importance to practical online strategy.

The idea is simple: Run what you need, when you need it. On-premise software options are inefficient, expensive, and cumbersome. To update it means time and money you could put to better use elsewhere. Save your resources for what you REALLY need.

Here we’ve devised a Triple Play program. Processing, bandwidth, and storage, with data committed to a secure data center. No more clunky disks or new equipment. No need to run out for extra hard drives or CPUs.

SaaS is a cost-effective option for organizations looking to shed the bulk and inefficiencies of bundled applications.

Whether your company is established and looking to cut costs and hassles, or a new venture that can’t afford to make a huge capital investment in software that won’t pay dividends, SaaS is for you.

We’ve been fortunate enough to expand thanks to our clients’ loyalty. We’ve managed to build up that loyalty by operating with efficiency and energy. Never before have the tools to succeed been available to anyone with the talent and vision to do so.

For us, Accrinet is the next step. Let’s talk about what it will take to get your business there, too.

To borrow a story…

Two young fish are swimming. They run into an older fish, who turns and asks, "Morning, boys. How’s the water?"

The two young fish swim for a few moments before one looks at the other and goes, "What’s water?"

For anyone who thinks of Internet culture as being like a wading pool they can just dip a toe in when the sidewalk gets hot… nope. You’re in it.

You’re in it right now reading this blog. You’re probably in it within minutes of waking up and going to sleep. It’s so immersive, so all encompassing, so environmental, to treat it casually at this point makes you (ahem) a fish out of water.

The Internet is no longer a force for building business. It is the force. Everyone and everything ties to it. 

Now… how well do you swim?

That’s what this blog has been about, and what it will be about in even more direct ways in 2010. In the new information age, Web literacy equals currency. It’s all about harnessing the propulsive and fluid tendencies of Internet engagement to make business boom.

Social media? If you’re trying to target an audience, engage it, grow it, and sell to it, nothing gets it done as speedily as social media. Facebook, Twitter, and the rest… these are incredibly powerful for anyone trying to sell anything. And not just for boosting your message/wares/product awareness. It’s just as critical for feedback and operational efficiency.

Search engine optimization is the lifeblood of any serious effort to be seen online. Whether you sell websites or life insurance policies or artisanal cheeses, you’ll want to be found. There are simple ways to ensure this happens. We’ll talk about them.

The best part about all of these tools is that with each passing year, the financial barrier of entry lowers. With some wisdom, some instruction, some practice, and some community, anyone hoping to make a splash can create a tidal wave.

What we’re talking about is bigger than the marketing models of earlier generations. It’s the water from the fish story. It’s environmental and everywhere. It’s busted apart the old models.

In the coming months, we’ll be discussing a lot of online tools to help your business grow. Some of them use plays from the current playbook. Some of them tear out those pages and do something new. But what these online tools have in common is the ability to make your business grow — and sustain growth — like never before.

We’re going to have fun. This is not about binary code. Ultimately, it’s not even about business. It’s about stories. The stories of people with whom I’ve talked, and, more importantly, the story you want to tell.

What gets me so excited about these web strategies is seeing what businesses do with them. It’s when I see people awaken to the new environment and attack it with passion.

These are dire straits we’re navigating economically in 2010. No one needs to tell you that. But Web-based operations and analytics make you nimble and alert and successful, and will become even more necessary in the times (good and bad) coming up around the bend.

The very first time I saw it, I was hooked.

How could I not be?

A sweetly dorky guy in a white lab coat looks into the camera and asks, “Will it blend? That is the question!” Then some peppy music kicks in. Graphics start popping.

Before you know it, he’s dumping marbles into a blender.

And guess what? I found myself wondering — with an urgent, wide-eyed curiosity unthinkable only a few moments before:

“Will it blend?”

The entire demonstration lasted just a minute or so. The marbles turned to dust. It was cheap. It was cheesy. But it was memorable. And instantly I not only knew the product — the Blendtec blender — but also that I wanted to see more of it.

Millions of other people agreed.

Keep in mind: I hadn’t sought out the Blendtec site. I didn’t even know (at first) that I was watching a Blendtec advertisement. I’d never heard of Blendtec before. I wasn’t even in the market for a blender. All I knew was that a friend had sent me a video link with a promise I’d be glad if I checked it out.

I was.

And that’s what makes viral video marketing such an unbelievably powerful tool. When we watch TV and a block of commercials begins, we turn to passive mush. Even if we find a spot entertaining or funny, we’re just waiting for our program to resume. More than that, we’re very aware that we’re watching a thirty-second pitch to manipulate our consumption.

That’s not the case with the video pulsing across the Internet.

Viral marketing is seductive and self-sustaining. When something like Blendtec catches my eye, I can hardly wait to pass it along to family and friends and colleagues. It’s as though we’re hard wired with that instinct to be the first to share. And when we all feel that way, when we each want to be the first to share, the ‘virus’ spreads in a hurry.

Watching a Blendtec spot (and once you watch one, you want to watch more) might not make anyone run out to buy a blender. But it sticks in your head. When was the last time a blender manufacturer stuck in your head?

Remember those Coke & Mentos videos from a few years ago? They represented the other end of the spectrum – brand names that everyone already knew. But some ordinary people realized mixing the two products would have ‘explosive’ results perfect for YouTube. And so the Coke & Mentos fountain phenomenon (or “meme,” to use Internet parlance) took off. The way Coke leaps from its bottle when Mentos are added may not encourage anyone to buy them… but it does get you to think about Mentos in a whole new light, if only for a moment. It was fizzy and fun — and operated as marketing at absolutely no cost to the companies.

There’s a “Seinfeld” episode where George talks about how his personality quietly infiltrates his date’s subconscious like the catchy “By… Mennan” jingle. “Co… stan-za,” he intones.

Well, the same basic marketing principle at work there applies here. The most effective messages are the ones that stick with you when your guard is down. Maybe it’s a catchy jingle, especially back in George’s 1990s, when TV was still unchallenged as the dominant medium. But it could also be a video that sweeps up viewers who aren’t even thinking about it in “advertising” terms until long after they’ve sought the second or third or seventh version of it.

Blendtec and Mentos and many, many others are like the “Co… stan-za” of 2009 and beyond. They take advantage of a video ‘hook’ — blending an iPhone or propelling Coke a dozen feet into the air – and burrow into your mind.

Video will always attract eyes. Now it’s more affordable to make and distribute than ever before. And the demand for it has never been higher. Everything people crave from the Internet — instantaneousness, entertainment, procrastination, cultural shortcuts… video fulfills it all.

A great video doesn’t need to be long. It doesn’t need lots of resources. It just needs to be magnetic. It’s a powerful marriage of medium and message. Never before have so many eyes been so readily available.

Video flattens the playing field for smaller organizations. And you can integrate it into so many different aspects of your site. Give some thought to ways you can make your own message go viral.

Take a look at a couple of my favorite viral videos below. Which is your favorite? Are there any others we should have included?

Will it Blend?

Diet Coke & Mentos

Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo

Ranking and Commenting are changing the way in which we buy products

I wanted a new grill. It was that simple.

My old one was on its last legs, and I was on the hunt for a replacement.

At Home Depot I saw an amazing NexGrill model. It had all the features I craved and bells and whistles I didn’t know I had craved. But I’m a cautious buyer, so I put it to the Consumer Reports test.

Consumer Reports loved the NexGrill. But something didn’t seem right.

I had a nagging feeling the data was too selective, too narrow, and biased. And while a third-party endorsement from an institution like Consumer Reports a decade ago might have convinced me to go with NexGrill… now we have more tools at our disposal.

So I went online and dug into the relevant sites. The Web is teeming with blogs and forums devoted to all aspects of grilling, just as it teems with sites devoted to all products and pursuits. So finding information straight from the source – grill buyers, rather than manufacturers or media – was easy. It required only a few clicks and an open mind.

Turned out my doubts were justified. The vast majority of comments and reviews about the NexGrill were negative. My fellow consumers – with no profit at stake, no reputation to burnish, and no slant (except a love of grilling, of course) – gave me straight talk. And it was: “Stay away.”

So I turned my attention instead to the Weber I’d spotted. Guess what? The response was overwhelmingly positive. Hundreds of reviews and comments heaped praise on it. Even better, there was nuance and detail and real-life experience I could never get from a magazine or store. Weber had put out a good product, its customers were thrilled, and they were more than happy to advocate its purchase. Online, my fellow consumers spoke with expertise and enthusiasm professional marketers would spend months chasing.

And that’s the power of ranking, voting, and commenting.

They’re a set of tools representing “word of mouth,” amplified.

People have always gone to friends and family for product feedback. Blog environments are the logical extension and even more valuable to consumers. People might not trust manufacturers. But a fellow traveler (so to speak) has no vested interest in misguiding you. In fact, a stranger who feels compelled to share his thoughts is almost certainly going to be more honest than anyone else.

People inherently trust the wisdom of crowds.

Think about how The New York Times website offers its “most e-mailed” and “most-commented” lists. It’s because readers want to know what other readers are thinking. Web giant Digg and similar sites use crowd sourcing to propel interest in stories. The Web is all about momentum, and momentum cannot be created in a laboratory or from the top down. It is organic and springs from groundswell.

As vehicles like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook get a lot of the press for activating momentum, organizations like yours looking to gain a foothold online are also wise to take advantage of simpler Web 2.0 tools that capitalize on the same core philosophy. Tools like voting, commenting, and ranking have made blogs far more effective in spreading message than largely static web pages.

The urge to vote, to comment, and to rank is something forward thinking organizations seize. Opinion and bias, after all, fuel the Internet engine. The sites that harness them are several steps ahead. Go to www.tripadvisor.com to find out the real scoop on hotels and travel adventures worldwide. Thousands of travelers routinely report on their real-life experiences as they travel.

You want to give visitors a reason to come often, stay longer, feel more connected to each other, and feel more engaged with the site itself. Incentivizing traffic spurs growth and sustains momentum.

As I’ve said before in this space: feedback is critical. Blogging into a vacuum is barely worth the effort. Allowing comments is an easy way to interface with your consumers. People want to give feedback, and they want to read others’ feedback. They value each other more than they’ll ever value a business itself. Great sites don’t just speak AT visitors, they also speak FOR them.

Your comments section can become one of the most vital parts of your site – in both senses of the word. Instantaneous feedback is a vehicle for change. And the sense of community that grows up around the commenter acts as the lifeblood of the site. Even as commenters help make your site more efficient, they also work to grow it from the ground up.

Foster the participation that helps developing sites take flight. Enabling ranking, commenting and voting with Accrisoft’s assistance couldn’t be simpler… and the payoff is huge.

Please share your story: how have you used voting/ranking/commenting to make a decision?