REthink Wine Blog

I just got punked by Google. I followed a link to google gulp and read intently about the line of soft drinks that Google is marketing. Then it hit me - the whole thing is a hoax. A elaborate (and hysterical) joke perpetrated by the folks at google. Why did they do this? Why spend time and effort designing a promotion for a product that will never exist? I’m guessing they did it for fun.

Usually I talk about user-focused content: making sure that what’s on your website is meaningful and useful to the site’s visitors. But google’s hoax made me think about what would happen if I turned that idea on it’s head. A hoax is useful to nobody. In this case it was probably just a way for some coders to get their kicks. Strangely though, this hoax and others like it strengthen Google’s brand by solidifying the personality of the company and its product.

So how about generating some Author Focused Content? Something on your site that is just for you. When was the last time you had fun coming up with content for you web site? Have you ever published something on your winery’s site just for kicks? If the answer is no then your site may not say as much about you and your product as it could. The beauty of the web is that it allows you to publish content and then edit it. Content editing tools like our own ReThink Engine make this easy. This means that you can say whatever you want on your site and then change or delete it later.

Give it a try. Add a paragraph to one of your site’s pages that has nothing to do with marketing your wine. Say something about your business that really means something to you without worrying about whether it’s going to sell your product. I know, everything on your site is meaningful to you. But does it make you laugh? Or excite you? Or make you feel something other than a vague sense of pride? If you want to let your customers get to know you try forgetting about them for a little while.

Stay tuned for my next post: “that’s enough of that - now get back to focusing on users“.

This entry was posted by Ben Chinn on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 11:24 am and is filed under Site Design and Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.