First thing’s first. Content does not create itself. (good content doesn’t anyway) In order to make the most of your online marketing potential, you have to create quality, stand-out content and update it often. People need a reason to come back to your site or follow you on twitter or friend you on facebook. Having solid content is paramount to keeping people interested and coming back for more.

You should identify your target audience immediately and speak directly to them in an appropriate tone. Slang and LOL’s are fine for facebook, but a user base of potential and current customers might write you off as being unfit for professional use. Do a little research and tailor your site content to your target demographic.

Sounds good but how do I do that? Via a content management system.

A good website should empower clients to create and update their own content. Content management systems are all the latest rage in web design for good reason, they’re great for frequent content updates. However, CMSs are like any other piece of software and require some effort and time to learn. All too often Content Management Systems go unused by businesses and individuals because of the lack of training or effort to learn how to use them properly. Everyone wants users to come back to their site right? In order to do that, the site has to have fresh, relevant and useful content. While a CMS can give site owners the capability to create and edit content, a huge percentage of those site owners don’t take full advantage of the tools available to them. All too often, I get calls and requests to make site updates that can easily be handled by a CMS.

If you’re running a website with a content management system, (and you should be in this day and age) make sure that your web design firm provides you with at least initial training on how to use it. If that’s out of the question, most open-source CMSs have documentation and forums available online. The open source community is very good about helping people learn.

So the moral of the story is: a CMS is a terrible thing to waste.