Interactive and social media have the ability to lunge online user connecting and networking into an exponential growth stage. It is happening all around us all the time, especially in cases where the network is already established and has a substantial membership. These components enhance the ability to bolster a large interactive community. The appropriate measure is to create a place where these members can access one another and share on a scale that reflects the size and magnitude of their organization. I will be critiquing a company that is doing just that, Omegahotspots.com. This website is relatively new and there is a great amount of potential and development that I think can be realized.
Let me start by commending Omegahotspots.com. I think the efforts they are taking to enhance sharing and communicating are genius and long over due. The site provides a global network where information on community service initiatives and social activates can be accessed. It also keeps members updated on general news within the organization. The organization itself is over 100 years old with tens of thousands of active members, basically the foundation is there. For an organization of this magnitude a site such as this is really a vital need as the organization moves into the future.
When online users initially open the homepage of Omegahotspots.com they may be a little taken back by its aesthetic appearance. The images appear to be distorted and not attractive as they potentially could be. This page includes a sliding picture feature, in which a variety of flyers are displayed representing different events. Unfortunately the effect loses its appeal because the writing and information on the flyers is distorted. The sliding grid does use a click feature that prompts online users to specific event pages where the flyers then become more legible and more detailed information is given. The homepage also does not feature enough social media links, at present it only features Facebook and Twitter. As the first impression of the website the number one responsibility of any homepage is to pull people in and keep them engaged immediately. It should be aesthetically “great” looking and the information displayed should be clear. In addition, the presence of participatory social media should be increased by incorporating website links to stumbleupon.com, tumbler.com, and delicious.com to start with. Another component that would drive traffic to the site is the addition of a RSS feed.
The task menu on the left leads you the next page which is “Districts”. This page displays the different regions members reside in. This is an overall plain page that simply lists the 9 districts in chronological order, by no means is it engaging. My suggestion would be to insert an interactive map that allows you to click on each district prompting images and a small amount of information pertaining to that district. To engage online users even more a link could be added encouraging people to “enter this district” creating another feature of interactivity. Online user will feel they are choosing what regions they visit based on the regions appeal and their personal preference.
The next page on the task menu is the “Centennial” . This page features a ceremony which took place on the 100th year anniversary of the organization. I imagine this would draw a lot of members to the site. As such there should be additional content other than one video. This plethora of content should include videos, picture albums, notable places visited and ultimately it should translate into a digital experience of the actual event. This is a momentous event celebrated by this organization. Organization members who visit this page should immediately recognize the content and be able to connect visually and emotionally.The omegahotsspots.com spotlight page features vendors, events, and people who are worthy to be spotlighted. The problem with this page is that it looks exactly like the events page. The “spotlightees” in some cases are presented without a image or video. If this page is truly going to be a spotlight page users should immediately recognize who is being spotlighted, not a list.
The entire page should be devoted to the current “spotlightee” and their message should be communicated through images, video, and text. Online users want to connect with the mission or cause that the “spotlightee” represents. I great way for Omegahotspots to accomplish this is by devoting the entire page to the current “spotlightee”. This presents them in a manner that focuses all the attention on them and their accomplishment. If users would like to see previous “spotlightees” they should be able to click forward or backward arrows that move the appropriate “spotlightee” on screen in the same fashion. This way there is one spotlight candidate being showcased at a time.
The most concerning issue with this site is the way it handles video. There is no video content page on the website. Instead there is a youtube channel that displays favorite and liked content by Omegahotspots.com. I think this is a major disadvantage for the website. Mainly because it directs people away from the website and on to another site. The Omegahotspots website has the ability to host video, so why doesn’t it have its own page to support video, which could potentially triple the views, clicks and amount of time spent on the website overall. This would be one of my first suggestions to change. The Youtube channel should only serve as a tool that directs potential viewers to the omegahotspots website. It should never navigate online users away from the website.The Omegahotspots website has the correct components to be a highly successful site. The audience is established and the information is readily available. Most of all there is a huge need, members of the organization who access the website will benefit and the organization itself will flourish. A major critique is to use a more current web design program such as word-press to design the site. This will quickly and completely change the aesthetic look, website experience, and social media access capabilities. All of which are major to a website that wants to create an interactive atmosphere. If the website can accomplish this it’s audience will continue to grow and more importantly it will gain loyal users who return over and over again.
There is some good web analysis in your sample Contently, but it gets lost in your language.
ReplyDeleteLess is more when writing. Long sentences and verbose language are not inherently bad, but they create more room for error. Dense paragraphs hide repetition, missing or misspelled words, and incomplete thoughts.
A sentence is strong when it stands alone and speaks quickly.
Let’s look at your opening paragraph:
Interactive and social media have the ability to lunge online user connecting and networking into an exponential growth stage. It is happening all around us all the time, especially in cases where the network is already established and has a substantial membership. These components enhance the ability to bolster a large interactive community.
Let me see if I can say all of the above in one sentence:
“Social media increases interaction exponentially, especially in an established community.”
I got rid of a lot of unnecessary words and said the same thing. Then you have to ask yourself are you saying something engaging? That rewrite of mine is a pretty general statement. Facebook became one of the biggest public companies in the world this past week. Do you think anyone would be surprised that social media can expand communities?
Often our opening paragraphs are just us starting our writing engines. A better opening sentence – that says something unique about a unique subject – is hiding in the final words of your first paragraph.
“Omegahotspots.com is a new website with a lot of potential.”
That encapsulates everything that comes afterwards. It tells the reader exactly what you are going to discuss right up front and it is unique.
The first thing you want to work on this semester is cutting back. You asked me in an email how long your assignments had to be.
Concentrate on how short they can be.