My father owns his own Enginering company, he holds some
major contracts and does some pretty cool stuff for de Beers and the like- now
this should be the point that I link you to his informative and super
interesting website but no. He doesn’t have one. A lot of small companies in
South Africa don’t realise how important an online presence is, no one uses the
yellow pages anymore and if you’re not googlable (apparently a word now- great)
you basically don’t exist on the big wide world of web.
A good website says so much about who you are as a brand.
Take internet explorer an example (read more about them in my post “internet explorer: kids of the 90’s") their website browseryoulovedtohate.com
is refreshing and honest, maybe not the best-design for PC viewing but really
gets the message across- They know they were rubbish, they’re trying to change,
give ‘em a second chance. Bos ice tea also has a great website, good music,
good design- you just “get” their brand straight away, it’s kinda like if Lenny
Kravitz and Mariam Makeba had an icetea baby, just cool and funky.
With big brands having a large online presence is old news,
they’re well schooled in the art of tweeting, blogging, facebooking… all that,
but to see a small, young brand with an interesting website, that is just
wha-wow. If you’re a big wino like I am cheesecupid.com
will Blow Your Mind. You go Wisconsin Cheeses! The site takes your drink of
choice, with quite a varied selection of wines, beers and liquors, and matches
you up with some of their cheeses. Then there’re the taste notes on the drinks
and cheeses, the pronunciation and (my favourite bit by far) funny, well made
short films about some of the combinations. If I’m correct it’s also voiced by
the guy who does American Dad. Such a fantastic site! And in no way are they
forcing a product on you, they’re just saying “hey guys, we like cheese and
fancy booze and we’re not mega douches”. I want to befriend these people!
Other great websites out there stereo.nypl.org for the New York
Library, allows you to make 3D gifs out of there old stereograph collection,
simple and fun but in quite a serious layout: how well does that convey a
library? Blacknegative.com, a
design studio, has one of the most beautiful websites I’ve seen in ages
displaying their style and professionalism.
What I’m trying to say is that online presence is important.
And not just a website: if someone complains about or compliments you on
twitter, reply, it’s just manners. We all want to like our brands and we want them to be nice to
us. I mean, I seriously intend on finding these cheese guys and dating like…
all of them.
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