What is important when choosing a content management system (CMS) for your new website?

What is a content management system?

We are not all professional HTML, CSS or Ruby on Rails programmers - and yet, many people create their own websites. So, how do they do it? They use a Content Management System, or CMS. A CMS is an application that allows you to create and update your website. It helps you design the website, create the pages you need, the menu and navigating and a blog. A CMS makes updating the content and making changes to the website a relatively simple process, including texts, images and videos.

Open-source vs. closed CMS

There are many programming professionals who have developed their own CMS, these are closed systems, which are programmed by their providers and thus all updated and changes are to be made only by their creators. Closed CMS are paid for. An open-source CMS is a platform developed by a community of programmers and which is available for free, for use by anyone who wishes to use it. 

These CMS are called open-source because their source code is open and available to the public. This way, many programmers can join the developing community and contribute to further develop the CMS. The community of developers around such a platform continues to update and develop applications for it, some of which will also cost money. 

The advantages of open-source CMS

The first and obvious advantage is that open-source CMS are FREE!

You can have a website, which can even be quite elaborate, without having to pay monthly fees for licensing a CMS. 

The second advantage is that you are not dependent on a specific supplier to manage or create a website for you.

As open-source CMS is available for free for the pubic to use, many websites have been created using these platforms. There are professional website builders who swear by these platforms as the best! The community of developers and users of open-source CMS is growing daily. Adopting these platforms is easy. The code is open and thus you can keep your website and the CMS even if you decide to change a website building supplier. 

The third advantage is that they are simple to use.

Open-source CMS were designed for being used by people who are not programmers, thus using the CMS and updating your website content is easily done.Installment of an open-source application is also relatively easy.

The three giants of open source CMS are: 

WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.

The most popular open-source CMS is WordPress 

WordPress is probably being used by half the CMS websites today. The platform was first created in 2003 and is now up to its 4th version. This CMs has over 2000 free themes (themes are used for determining a design for the website). It has over 27,000 free plugins and gets updated every 42 days - these are two indicators of a dedicated and industrious developing community. 

WordPress started out as a blogging platform, and its most powerful features are still related to blogging. Its best used for image/ brand awareness websites that are created to help create awareness to a brand and contain mostly written content. It’s great for blogs, corporate websites and websites for small to medium size businesses. 

Its learning curve is short and it’s very easy to install the CMS (one-click installment is available with the most popular web storage suppliers). It’s easy to use, change themes and design and it will create all the pages and blog posts you need.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

WordPress.com will enable you to start your own WordPress website on the WordPress server. You will not have your own domain and the free version is very limited. WordPress.org is the platform for creating your own website, with your own domain. You will also select your own storage supplier. WordPress.org is therefore the CMS you want to use.

Joomla is best designed for interactive websites

E-commerce and social media websites and websites that want their audiences to interact with them are best created on Joomla.Joomla was created in 2005 and is the second most used open-source CMS today.  It has a fine balance between user friendliness and powerful features.  

Joomla offers over 900 themes and 7000 plugins. Its true power lies in the amazing plugins its community of developers have created, which make power features easy to implement in a Joomla website. On the other hand, it’s not an easy CMS for absolute beginners. 

Its learning curve is longer than that of WordPress and you need a higher set of technical skills to work with it. Joomla offers a great help portal and there are many courses targeted at beginners. Users who swear by this CMS say it’s worth investing and learning to use it.

Drupal is a one size fits all feature powered CMS

Drupal is very powerful (used among others by the White-House), and it has many features, but you really do need programming knowledge to install it and to design a website with it. On the other hand, it’s very easy to use for updating your website content. So even if you will probably need a professional to set it up for you, you can then be very independent when using it, even for complex features. 

Drupal was created in 2000 and is thus the first open-source CMS giant. It offers over 1800 free themes and over 24,000 plugins. (These numbers are ever growing in all the open-source CMS applications). Drupal is very powerful and has the power to automate features in your website and is thus best suited for large websites, with a complex navigation structure that has a clear hierarchy. You can do almost anything with Drupal and it’s very flexible. 

Features that might require custom coding in WordPress or Joomla are ready made for Drupal. However, it has a long learning curve and is best installed by professionals. Its best suited for organizations who have full time web admins. 

An infographic reviewing the differences between these three platforms is available here. 

So what do you need to consider when selecting your CMS?

My advice is to use an open-source CMS. It’s free and easy to use for updating your site.

An expert comparison of the three open-source CMS platforms can be found here.

Summary

Popularity - all the three giants are giants! So all are popular and have a good supporting community. Even so, WordPress has considerably more downloads. 

Learning curve, installation and website design - beginners can only install a CMS and design a website by themselves only with WordPress. Joomla and Drupal are harder to install. Designing a website is more complex with Joomla compared to WordPress but Joomla offers more features. Drupal design can only be done by programmers. 

Learning curve, updating content - routine use of CMS - all three open-source platforms are easy to use for updating the content on your website. 

Complex features and automation - Joomla and Drupal offer complex features in the open-source code that will require custom coding with WordPress. 

Type of website - selecting a CMS is best done when considering the type of website you want to create. For a Blog and a simple corporate website WordPress is best and easiest.For an interactive site that is easy to run, Joomla is the most suited.For a large website with hierarchy and a requirement for powerful features, Drupal is top quality!

So what do I use?

I have personally worked on websites with WordPress and Drupal. Being an expert for inbound content marketing for B2B companies has put me in the way of either relatively simple brand awareness websites, blogs (most suitable for WordPress) and corporate websites with large volumes of organic content that required creating a clear hierarchy, taxonomy and automation (best done with Drupal). I think both CMS platforms are great and both are easy to use when updating a website.

Whatever you choose, I wish you fun and exiting times with your new website. 

5 Facebook page management and posting mistakes and how to avoid them (2016)

According to SocialFlow and SocialMediaToday, there has been a 42% reduction in reach per post in Facebook from January to May 2016. Furthermore, Facebook has shifted the content of the news feed towards friends and family (as quoted in the New York Times). These changes are affecting reach, exposure and awareness performance for marketers. 

Make sure your post stands out!

With Facebook reducing commercial organic post exposure, putting forward certain types of content (video and live posts), and pushing back other content (e.g. high frequency updates from a certain page) marketers and social media page managers are faced with the need to increase their paid social media campaigns, in order to gain the same performance from their social media pages.

It’s imperative to continuously keep up with tips and guidelines to creating and maintaining a successful Facebook page. This blog lists 5 posting mistakes that marketers make, which reduce their fan/ follower base even further. Read more to learn how to avoid them:

Mistake #1: Announcing instead of conversing
Facebook is a social media network. Successful pages are those that find the fine balance between socializing and commercial content. People go into Facebook because they are looking for entertainment, education and communication with friends. (They are not in social media in order to buy something). Businesses that provide entertaining content, a personal outlook into the business and in general show a friendly face will be successful in social media.
The 80/20 rule applies: 80% of your content should be informative, and maximum 20% can be commercial oriented.

You need to write a post in social media as if you are talking to a good friend. You want to encourage a conversation/ discussion/ reaction from your readers. Avoid big announcements and statements that have no real base. Do not make promises you cannot keep just to be provocative.  We are all sick to our ears of supernatural aspirations of commercial entities.

Mistake #2: Prolonging instead of KISSing
KISS – keep it simple and short. Researches show that people scan their feed, quickly going over
40-60 characters before deciding if to pay more attention. Short posts that make a focused point are the kind of posts that will be read. Giving your readers concise instructions will have higher probability that they will follow through.

Ask your readers clearly to take a certain action: “register now”, “tell us what you think”, “share your opinion with us”, like our page to get a gift” etc. Do not ask for something that is too much effort. Your request should also be simple and short. Asking your readers to interact with your content and providing an easy way for them to do so will clear the way for them to engage with you.

Mistake #3: Frequency oriented posting instead of resource oriented posting
You have to plan ahead! A post should have a clear target and it should have a clear location in your marketing funnel. The Call to Action should move your reader a little closer towards becoming a customer. If you have no inbound content strategy, as is reflected in each post, you will not gain the true benefits of the inbound content marketing methodology.

Posting often will get you nowhere! In fact, Facebook tends to push back updates that are coming too frequently from a certain page. The quantity vs. quality rule applies. Too many posts without a clear objective will bore your readers and they will leave the page by clicking "Unlike".

Even if your campaign is successful, too many leads may not prove to be qualified leads, which m ay actually lead to businesses. If you are a small business, perhaps you cannot properly handle high quantities of leads. You need to take all your resources into consideration and make sure each step in your web funnel is properly and professionally handled, so that your readers will have the best experience they can get. This will make them stay for more.

Mistake #4: Sporadic content instead of constant loyalty
Although its best not to post if you have nothing interesting to say, it is important to post on a regular basis and to remain consistent. Your audience learns to expect your posts, so you had better not disappoint them.

People in the digital era are looking for immediate satisfaction, so only one bad experience and they leave! Years of loyalty from a customer can be ruined with one silly mistake. It’s no different in social media. Keep to a certain standard you can uphold in the long run. Teach your audience to expect a certain level of information from you and make sure you keep providing it.

Mistake #5: Stagnation instead of innovation
You need to keep your audience interested, and in order to do that you have to be up to snuff. Be on top of the latest trends not only in your field but also in the field of Facebook posting. At the time of writing this blog, Facebook is promoting its new live posts platform. Thus posts that use this tool will gain higher exposure. Another platform, which Facebook is promoting is Instagram. Post that are placed also in Instagram are pushed in the Facebook feed.

Facebook also lifts posts that get lots of comments and re-shares to the top of the feed. The assumption is that if a post in engaging and getting readers to comment or share, then it means the post is entertaining and interesting. Facebook wants its readers to stay in its site – so if you provide interesting content, you will benefit from an upward push.

You need to know more than just the tolls and platforms available. You need to be able to create original and innovative content that is humorous, entertaining and memorable. This kind of content is engaging, and people will share it with their friends. This way, your readers work as your marketers, distributing your message and getting your word out to the world. This format of recommendation is looked on kindly by Facebook and is one of the best ways to make the most of your Facebook business page.

Business pages that find the correct balance continue to grow their follower base, while providing their readers with an enhanced customer experience, building a relationship with their customers that encourages loyalty.
Facebook is looking to encourage video and live posting, forwarding a more personal communication agenda with this policy. As Facebook strives to be more social, so should you.

I Just Received my Hubspot Inbound Certification! YEH!

It took 12 classes, 13.42 hours two mugs of coffee, three snacks and going to the necessary 3 times,,, but I did it! I got my Hubspot Inbound  certification.

here is to the beginning of a new journey:-)