There was a time on this earth, not that long ago, when you actually had time to make a cup of tea and drink it whilst waiting for a website to load. It would likely have meant that a gung-ho web designer had decided to create a dial-up choking intro animation that required the use of a seemingly infinite loading screen. We live in an age of minimalism now; an age of clean, understated websites that deliver a simple message as effectively as possible. Just look at Google and Facebook.

Flash was released in 1996 by Macromedia as an animation tool for the web and was later bought out by Adobe. It was rebranded as an Adobe product in the CS3 generation of software updates. It retains the timeline structure of an animation program, but still uses its own programming language, Actionscript, to power dynamic and interactive content.

Traditional Flash animation sites like Weebls-Stuff.com use vectors which for a long time were the best way you could stream animation to people. That all changed when Adobe introduced the FLV video format. You could then stream high-quality video over the internet much faster that any vector based animation could. Flash FLV powers YouTube and almost every video sharing site on the internet.

Not everyone, however, is a fan of using Flash; even here at Gravytrain we are divided.  Apple has taken the bold move to deny users of any iPad or iPhone the use of Flash. Although iPhone and iPad users can’t see Flash; the devices still allow users to view YouTube videos using the YouTube app.

The main problem with Flash is; even though some of the text in .swf files can be indexed by search engines, not all of it is. Google indexes flash text, but gives preference to text that can be read without the use of Flash.

Most people who use Flash use it to display video, animate a button or show an image gallery.  Apart from video, there are javascript and ajax alternatives that will do those jobs just as well, and make the web page easier to view more in most browsers. Sites like Miniclip.com allow users to play games that are rich, interactive Flash-based experiences; that can’t be replicated any other way.

I personally love the range of rich interactive experiences that you can create in Flash; such as the growing genre of interactive film.  Survive the Outbreak is a typical example of how Flash can be used to give users an experience that they have control over. You watch a film from the perspective of the protagonist, and at the end of each scene you choose the direction the film takes. Through your choices the narrative takes different turns; leading many potential endings. This is a very engaging experience in comparison to the passive experience of watching a film.

I wholeheartedly suggest you consider looking for an alternative every-time you want to use Flash on a webpage. Can you use a gif animation instead of Flash? Can Java be used to make that image gallery? But, if there is an instance where Flash would give you the best choice; such as a killer opening animation, go ahead and use it!

Content is key to a business’ success online. Frequently changing, engaging content not only adds value to your website for your visitors but a dynamic site will always be favoured by search engines.

The goal is always to persuade visitors onto your site, but more importantly to convert those visitors into clients or customers. Engaging content can bolster your reputation and increase a potential customers’ trust in your brand, and ultimately leads to increasing conversion rates.

Many websites remain static for years, and it may be difficult to justify the expense to pay an agency to produce, upload and distribute content for a business. But if you’re considering handling the process in-house, knowing where to start, knowing what constitutes valuable content, knowing where to source it and knowing how to then distribute it can also be daunting.

The truth is businesses have been producing content potential customers are likely to find both relevant and interesting for years - they just haven’t realised how it may be leveraged online.

I’m going to take a look at some of the content you’ve probably already produced offline, consider some of the activities your company already undertakes which have the opportunity to yield valuable content and also look at how all this content may be housed online.

Re-purposing Old Content…

Newsletters

Whether sent by email or on good old paper, content from previous newsletters, with a few tweaks, is likely to still be relevant today and suitable for distributing online. Future newsletter content should find a place on your site within a news or articles section.

Corporate videos or photos

Upload them onto your site. Better still upload them onto You Tube or flickr.

Presentation Slideshows

Presentations made at seminars or industry events are often great additions to a website or can add value to your brand when uploaded to online content sharing sites like scribd.

Case Studies & Collateral

You may have case studies or pieces of research that have formed part of your printed marketing collateral or have had internal purposes. Consider how they may have value on your website or distributed off-site.

Leverage Existing Activities…

Also consider existing activities that may also have the potential to spawn relevant content.

Philanthropy

If you sponsor a charity tell everyone about it with an article on your website. If you’re raising some money or doing some work in your community shout about it and keep your visitors up to date with it all.

Industry News

Chances are you know exactly what’s going on the industry in which you work and the markets in which you operate. Have a dedicated news section on your site and, in addition to adding your new newsletter content, regularly add some industry commentary.

White Papers

Heavier weight content such as technical or business benefit white papers can be leveraged further to build contact databases by requesting an email address prior to providing access to the resource. Well written white papers not only reach your target market, they may also have the ability to influence them.

Trade Shows & Seminars

If you attend a trade show or conference make an effort to do some ‘live blogging’ – that is use your company blog as a platform to report and comment on what is happening.

Think about your staff

It’s likely that there are some amazingly talented people sat nearby with some expert subject knowledge. Utilise skill sets and get staff involved in all your content generation activities. If you have subject experts have them writing the occasional article for your website or guest blog posts for other sites.

Where am I going to put all this content?

Start with your company’s website. A company blog is a great place to present and archive content. Wordpress can seamlessly integrate with your existing site and provide all the functionality you could need. In addition to a blog, try to incorporate a news section and article or video archive.

There is also a wealth of opportunities to expose your content to an even wider audience by distributing online. Videos can be posted to You Tube, slideshows to scribd, photos to flickr, good article and news content to free article sites.

While I’m not suggesting that content creation and distribution strategies should be central to all your employees daily schedules, consideration of how you can increase your interaction with potential customers online by providing them with engaging content both on and off your website should certainly be given some thought, especially if you don’t want those potential customers drifting off to your competitors site where they do.

There are just two things I would suggest bearing in mind. The first is to not duplicate your content all over the internet; it will only devalue it. The second, more importantly, is to carefully consider what content you do place online – one way or another it is likely to be there for a long time.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightthree