Are You the Favorite Website?

As children discover the world they start claiming pieces of it for themselves. I think my children's first word was "mine". As children grow older and build a place for themselves in the world, they start identifying their brands and become loyal followers (at least until the next stage or style takes hold). The brands and the concepts they embody are used as focuses for allegiances. Icons like horses, dinosaurs, fashions, toys or games hold great power and are precursor to brand allegiance. I think there is something empowering in the declaration, "my favorite...is..." As we grow into teenagers and adults we don't outgrow those allegiances and the empowerment of brands. Think how people identify themselves by the car they drive, the dog they buy or the clothes they wear.   

I am always looking for ways to build these kinds of relationships for our clients by examining what attracts people and holds their loyalty. For example, one way is to give customers the opportunity to participate by customization and building of their own personal favorites. Technology allows us to go beyond book-marking a website as your favorite, which initially is an active choice, but quickly becomes passive. Going the extra step to generate active participation with builds strong relationships with the visitor. Here are some ideas to give your audience control and help build stronger relationships.

• Provide content as a Podcast (audio content) so the user can download and listen at their convenience.
• Provide opportunities to respond to content with opinions or thoughts that can be captured and shared using blogs. (The future of web is all about user-generated content.)
• Let your customers generate user documentation using Wikis (think blogs on steroids, a lot of user generated content with great search capabilities)
• Building personal home pages or dashboards to fit the interests of an individual or remember the user's actions the last time they visited a website and build on that information.
• Provide RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds which allow users to be notified of content changes via subscription (actively opting into topics that fit their personal interest).
• Send one-on-one communications based on personal information gathered from behaviors on a website.
• Instant message customers that come to your site to ask if they need help or generate a dialog.
• For products that can be customized give users the ability to build and preview before purchasing.

Make your website work for you by reflecting your brand and building relationships...be the favorite and actively stay that way!