Our Online World: 2009 was quite a year!
Earlier this year we decided to make some big changes to our online presence. The decision came about while strategizing how we wanted to represent IntraLinks to our current and future stakeholders. Our business was expanding and our website needed to accommodate.
At the time, the company was involved with very little social media, so this is where we started. We established a presence, and started communicating socially through various sources such as Twitter. Being successful on Twitter meant more than starting an account and posting a press release. So, we used it... really used it as a communications tool. We managed it professionally and didn’t get too cutesy with it.
That was quickly followed up by the development of a corporate blog (you are here). The original objective was to create enough content to produce one relevant blog post weekly. After launching the blog in early May, we quickly realized the depth of interest throughout the company. Since then, we have had more than 30 contributors and averaged more than 10 great posts each month.
The next step was to enhance the distribution of our new social messaging platform. We did this by leveraging various sources of social media. There is a little secret sauce here, so I won’t get into the details. Our messaging platform was in full swing now!
The positive results of this social effort, in part, quickly drove a larger plan to produce an entirely new corporate website. When in motion, the company’s business objectives required that we do much more than a “redesign”. We wanted a new global UI and messaging, social media integration, a current and more manageable content management system, an upgraded hardware/networking technology platform, better analytics, and improved natural search optimization, among numerous other requirements.
Implementing this plan required the coordination of various internal groups, including design, technology (application development and hardware/infrastructure), marketing communications, sales, legal and marketing operations. Externally, there were also several agencies involved. We set an aggressive timeframe of 6 months to launch, which was a significant challenge even for a seasoned web guy like me. But we love a challenge, so the game was on!
Well, here we are 6 months later and our new website is launched. Not only is it a good representation of our company, but it is also a great platform for future growth and expansion.
One of the most prominent new features is the introduction of our “solution finder” (an internal name for us), which allows visitors to choose an industry and/or business and see our specific solution. The results portray our solutions clearly. For example, here is the resulting page of life sciences (industry) and clinical study management (business need). The solution finder application is found on the homepage and in the left column of internal pages.
Other notable improvements include:
- Content: The entire website was rewritten to accommodate our expanding use cases and overall corporate message.
- Internal Search: The search function was changed in both technology backend and visual layout of results pages. So, the results are better and the results look cleaner. Here is an example of a query for virtual data room.
- Related Content Integration: We are now capable of associating internal and external content with any page created within our CMS.
- Multimedia: Our expanding use of video is more organized and better optimized.
- Design: We redesigned every area of the website, including the base template. The result is clearer messaging, more intuitive navigation and a less cluttered layout.
- Social Media: We can now associate blog posts and other social content with related copy within the primary corporate website. Additionally, we have begun adding the capability for visitors to share sections of the website with their favorite social platforms.
Our next phase is already underway, so stay tuned.