More often than not, when I visit a corporate web site, the first thing I look for is their blog. Seriously. I don't do it because I wrote a book on corporate blogging, I'm truly seeking to understand their company and the people behind it.
But I often don't find the blog. Or the blog is on a separate domain altogether. Or it's a single link from their home page, simply identified as blog.
Your people are most likely one of your companies biggest investments and that talent is one of your most important assets when you're selling. Why are you hiding that talent? Other companies can copy your products, your features and even your benefits… but they can't copy your people. Your people are the single biggest differentiator that your company has.
Dress up your home page with your latest blog posts! Include pictures or links to the authors of your blog. Not only does publishing your blog feed on each of your pages improve the optimization of those pages by providing fresh, relevant content… it also provides a path for visitors to get to know the people behind your brand.
It's not limited to the blog, either. Having a Twitter and Facebook logo is cute… but publishing your twitter stream and popular Facebook entries or Facebook Fans is much more appealing. People buy from people – so why are you hiding the most important feature of your web presence?
Some ways to incorporate people into your site:
- Team page – including a team page is fantastic. If you can also include their latest blog posts it's even better!
- Feed widget – include the latest posts from your blog into your site. Try to include the author images or a featured image from the post itself.
- Facebook widget – Facebook has a number of social plugins that are fantastic for bringing your Facebook community to your site and vice versa.
- Twitter widgets – bring your Twitter conversation stream to your web site!
Publishing this conversation on your site shows your audience that you're fully prepared to enter in meaningful conversations with your prospects or customers. This is something that may not be front and center on your web site, but that should be easy to find and follow.
