Online content today is more of an umbrella category than a specific category. Certainly it includes Web content, but it will soon mean content optimized for wireless applications (think car dashboards) and PDAs.

Probably the most significant problem with online content today is a lack of imagination. Companies have lots of marketing copy with which to work, and The Content Firm takes all that content and helps executives explain exactly what their companies do. But online also should be used to provide the information that existing—as well as potential—customers want. When planning an online strategy, executives should look at building a community and providing timely information that is not available elsewhere.

The Content Firm's JustInTime Content™, for example, leverages relationships with Lexis-Nexis, Dow Jones and other high-end databases to deliver news stories, broadcast transcripts, overseas reports and analyst report excerpts that simply are not available on the Web.

Different Rules For Intranet, Extranets
And Public Web Sites

Some firms devote tons of attention to their public Web sites, treating their employee intranets and partner/supplier extranets as afterthoughts. With cost savings, improved efficiency and doing more with less as goals, the well-thought-out use of intranets and extranets will likely deliver the best results. Be creative. Leverage online capabilities to improve customer service and technical support. (Web sites help improve revenue more than cut costs, while intranets and extranets tend to do the reverse.)

A recurring theme exists at The Content Firm: Let strategic objectives dictate the nature of the content. It sounds obvious, but it's surprising how many companies want to develop content before they truly understand why they are doing it.

We also encourage our clients to focus on what their audience wants and how they want that content. Consider our Webcast Buffet^® service. Many customers might find Webcasts extremely valuable, but few truly want to watch an unedited presentation for an hour or more. Ideally, a Webcast is aired live and subsequently offered in its entirety for viewing at a later time. The main value-adds, however, are edited excerpts that each make a single strong point. That way, a site visitor can quickly and easily digest all the Webcast's main points and then opt to view only the ones that are most interesting and relevant.

One of the most interesting capabilities of the Web—personalization—is often not used by B2B sites. The virtually limitless space on the Web allows for mini-sites to cater to the most narrow niche. Not only will you provide relevant and useful content to key customer groups, but those customers will likely consume that content voraciously because it is so hard to find elsewhere. Substantial credibility comes with providing hard-to-find useful information in a narrow area—and there is no limit to the number of niche communities you can create. Don't be afraid to break out of the pack and to use content to truly make your company an essential and personal partner for your customers and prospects.

Thinking Outside The Box: An Online Sampler

The Content Firm's JustInTime Content™		Leverage high-end database products and journalistic research to create reference centers on any topic using The Content Firm's JustInTime Content™. Not only do we gather all available Web links, but we obtain such proprietary information as television transcripts, nonsearchable newspapers and magazines, overseas press, etc., and produce summaries of the most recent news and analysis. Every summary is written and edited by journalist experts in that subject area to make sure all content is relevant, current and informative. This is dramatically more effective, compelling and useful than a Web search engine, because JustInTime Content™ delivers material not available on those engines.
Word On The Street®		After any big industry event—whether it's a major product announcement, a new CEO or a strategic direction change—there are two parallel analysis efforts. On one side are the media/analyst assessments and on the other are the people-in-the-street, including rank-and-file employees, technical IT staffers and investors. Such people are much less likely to be quoted in the media, but their thoughts are shared with whoever wants to listen—courtesy of the Internet. Discussions in Usenet newsgroups and private forums with companies such as AOL, Yahoo! and MarketWatch generate volumes of rapid analysis. On top of that are various niche e-mail discussion groups. Collectively, this is a fabulously useful pulse of the community. The Content Firm's Word On The Street® takes that pulse, with a team of journalists who monitor all those areas, looking for comments and thoughts on whatever topic is of interest to our clients.
Community Discussion Area		We can create a forum on our clients' sites, either password-protected or open-to-all, for community members to discuss topics of interest. Moderators also can be provided for Community Discussion Areas.
Ask The Expert		This popular feature can be done in several ways. The first features a content expert provided by The Content Firm to answer all questions and post all results to the group. Questions can be posted anonymously. The second approach has our expert acting as a moderator, with attendees collectively providing the real information.
Opinion Columns		The Content Firm can recruit major industry authorities to comment on the latest industry moves.
Q&As		These verbatim interviews can be with client executives, major customers, industry partners or anyone else who would have comments of strong interest to site visitors. This technique works especially well in tandem with The Content Firm's Multimedia services.
Search Engine Assistance		Like any other Web site, a custom Web site is only as powerful as the number of people who visit it. We, therefore, offer assistance getting custom sites as prominent play as possible on various search engines.
Triangle's Interactive Analysis Tool, a Patent-Pending Technology		Through an arrangement with Triangle Publishing Services Co. Inc., The Content Firm offers a Web calculator called the Interactive Analysis Tool (IAT). IAT is a custom-built application for business-to-business Web sites. Analogous to the retirement or college education calculators provided by financial services firms over the Web, the Interactive Analysis Tool is designed for IT professionals and business managers. It provides specific, personalized guidance about a key area of information technology based on site visitors' answers to specific questions. The IAT results can reveal such information as the anticipated ROI of a software implementation project, the time allocation required for new software implementation, the cost of system upgrades or a recommendation on what percentage of an IT budget should be allocated for a specific task.