Creating Effective Web Communications

A strong web presence is extremely important in business. Using the web, we can market to customers, sell our products all over the world, and provide 24x7 support. To lay the foundation for effective online communication, you can try these basic standards and guidelines.

Characteristics of online communication

Online communication has many benefits and have changed the way business is done all over the world. Communicating online makes it easy to share information, market products, engage with customers, and for employees to collaborate and stay up to date. The benefits of online communication are countless. These benefits include:

·????????Flexibility – With online communication you can reach just about everyone with an internet device, anytime and anywhere in the world.

·????????Cost Effective – Online communication limit the need for spending on printed materials, mailing, publishing. Content can be made available online in different formats: HTML, text, pdf, audio, video, image, etc.

·????????Reduce travel – Communication can be done over video conferencing such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, and many other online communication platforms.?

·????????Convenient: Online communication is convenient in just about every way.

·????????Fast: Using online communication you can reach half the world’s population in a matter of seconds.

Most of the principles that apply in traditional communication also applies in online communication. Our communications must be concise, clear, and accessible across multiple devices. To produce good quality online communication:

·????????We must consider our audience – Web user are more likely to skim through content rather than reading. You have only a few seconds to communicate your message.

·????????We must achieve clarity in the information that we present.

·????????We must use easily understandable words.

·????????Simplify words, sentences, and paragraphs for conciseness.

·????????Choose the best front, presentation, colors, and images.

·????????Proofread content for accuracy.

?Accessibility

Accessibility is an important aspect of online communication. In fact, there are compliance requirements established by governments and other web regulators and organizations. So, for compliance and even to avoid lawsuits, our internally and externally online communications must be accessible by those with cognitive, hearing, or visual disability. Therefore, all our web pages must follow the:

·????????Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 – Guidelines can be found W3C website.

·????????Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – These guidelines can be found on the ADA website.

?Our website must be built to support assistive technology. In addition, our website should be navigable with only a keyboard; this is to aid those who cannot use a mouse. We should also avoid screen flickers. According to monsido.com, this is anything image, animation, or video that flickers between the frequency of 5 to 30 flashes per second because it can trigger photosensitive epilepsy in some people. Any exception to the WCAG 2.0 and ADA guidelines must be approved by the legal department.

?Establishing corporate credibility

Establishing and maintaining credibility is extremely important for our company. Our customers or prospective customers must be assured that our website is credible, safe, and secure. Our customers should be assured that their information is safe and not being marketed. The fact is our credibility is connected to how safe we make our customers feel on our website. It is important to know that customers will not only use facts to determine our credibility. They will also judge based on visual design, the overall look and feel of our webpages: poor quality, missing images, misspell words, bad design, incorrect information, and other things along those line will factor into how credible our users see us.

For online credibility: ?

·????????Personalize our site to match our brand.

·????????Display company’s logo, phone, and mailing address.

·????????All company logo web links must point to one domain.

·????????Provide quick response to customer’s request.

·????????Give customer the ability to provide reviews and feedbacks.

·????????Provide clear and accurate information, especially, product descriptions.

·????????Keep our social media up to date and include links to our web domain.

·????????Be clear and concise to avoid misleading information.

Ethical considerations

Trust is an important characteristic for a health relationship. To maintain a health relationship with our customers we must not damage their trust. In business, unethical behaviors is an easy way to damage trust. There should be no deception in our product information, product prices, nor the way we use our customer’s information. The fact is our company has an ethical and legal responsibility to safeguard our customer’s information. Information such as credit card, address, and phone number. We are legally required to protect our customer’s information to avoid fraud and other identify theft situations.

?Ethical guidelines:

·????????Product pricing practice – There should be no deception surrounding our prices.

·????????Product information – Our product descriptions and specifications must not be misinformed or exaggerated.

·????????Data privacy – Our customer’s information must be protected and should not be marketed or shared without customer’s permission.

·????????Maintain security certification – Up-to-date transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) will assure customers that our site is safe.

·????????Secure our Servers – Keep firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software updated.

?Allowances for access by various devices

Online communication is not limited to computer access. Today, communication can take place from mobile phones, smart TVs, tablets, and other web enable devices. In our online communications, we must consider the possible user device type.

Important Statistics for Consideration?

·????????American Adults with smartphone – 56% (Pew Research Center)

·????????American adults with tablet – 34% (Pew Research Center)

·????????Android owners – 28% | iPhone owner – 25% (Pew Research Center)

For seamless user experience, we must utilize responsive web designs. This is to ensure that our website provides the best user experience across various devices, screen sizes, and platforms. In making our website fully responsive we must implement using HTML5 and other technology that works best for mobile, multi-browser, and multi-platform devices.

?Conclusion

Online communication is important for modern-day business. Through our website, in addition to connecting our employees, we can reach more customers across the globe. It is important that we follow these guidelines so that we can provide the best user experience and protection for our customers.

Reference:

Gerson, S. J., & Gerson , S. M. (2018). Technical Communication, Process and Product (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

The main Benefits of Online Communication. (n.d.). Retrieved from, https://eztalks.com/unified-communications/the-main-benefits-of-online-communication.html#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20undeniable%20pros%20of%20online%20communication,always%20limited%20between%20two%20persons.%20...%206%20Convenient

4 Ways to Ensure Your Website Works Well on Multiple Devices. (n.d.). Retrieved from, https://aspireinternetdesign.com/web-design/tips-make-website-look-great-devices/