Articles - Page 48

Bland Brands Beware: Optimizely’s New Identity Brings Human Creativity to its Agentic AI and AEO Ambitions

matt-garrepy

Purchasing a content management system is a big investment. There are a lot of people who will be affected by the purchase, there’s a lot of research to do, and you’ll need to plan for the implementation, not to mention the actual cost of whatever system you choose. You may also want to audit your existing site content before migrating to the new system. Needless to say, there’s a lot to think about. The last thing you want to slow you down is colleagues or bosses standing in the way of a more efficient, more powerful content management system because they aren’t on the same page as you.
Based on our extensive experience with organizations buying content management systems, the best way to address the issue of organizational buy-in is to consider all your stakeholders from the beginning.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/url930x0.jpg" alt="company buy in" />
Make a list of each person (or department) at your organization who will be impacted by your selection, and consider their needs and desires. Depending on your role, this may include any or all of the following:
 MarComm 
As marketers become increasingly tech-savvy and analytics-driven, they are making more and more of the tech decisions at companies. Regardless of who the final decision-maker is at your company, the marketing and communications folks will be heavily invested in the final outcome. We recommend speaking with them before you get too far in your search in order to find out their needs. Are they concerned with in-context analytics, branding consistency, fresh and SEO-friendly content, converting visitors to leads, sharing content across pages and sites, and/or having a mobile-friendly or responsive site design? What are their top priorities and biggest pain points?
 Information Technology (IT) 
Even if you choose a CMS-provider that can handle your content migration, CMS implementation and hosting of your CMS server, your IT department will still need to be involved to an extent in getting the CMS up and running for your organization. Additionally, you’ll probably need to have at least one or two people responsible for maintaining users in the system, adjusting permissions and access levels, and serving as the first level of support. If you choose to do the content migration, CMS hosting, backups and software upgrades in-house, then they’ll be even more involved. Speak with this team early on, and be sure to consider their technical abilities and existing time commitments, as this will help determine what types of services you’ll need to look for in conjunction with your software purchase.
 Content Contributors 
These are any social media marketers, bloggers, journalists, writers, photographers, interns, administrative assistants or others who will be updating content on your site. Some of them will be using the system daily while others may only use it every six months. Technical abilities may vary greatly from company to company and within a single company. In order to get buy-in from this group, we recommend asking them about their current pain points during your research phase and having them test your top 2-3 systems. Another crucial step to getting buy-in and participation from this group is to provide training and on-going internal support to these users post-purchase. Some end user-focused features you may want to look for are in-context editing, spell-checking, non-HTML content editing, hidden links on the live site to jump into the system for editing, image and link management, and drag and drop functionality.
 Web Developers and Designers 
If you’re redesigning your site along with upgrading to a new CMS, you may choose to outsource the design to an agency. However, once the initial design has been implemented, you will probably still have an ongoing need for web development and design work. If you’ve got in-house developers, make sure you discuss their needs and let them demo your top finalist systems. Content management systems come with a wide array of different developer tools, and a single feature, such as a code editor, could make a big difference in how easy or difficult it is to get your developers on board. Ask your developers how much weight they place on having an advanced code editor, the ability to use unlimited templates, support for mobile and responsive technologies, an active community of other users, and sample templates that can be customized for your company.
 The Higher-ups 
Your CIO, CTO and/or CMO may never spend a single minute working directly with your new content management system, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t have opinions on the technology they want you to use or what results they’d like to see from the implementation of a new system. This group may hold the purse strings as well, so it’s important to seek out their opinions early. Talk to them about your overall web content strategy and your goals, so you can be sure the product you select can help you achieve those goals. If your opinions regarding technology differ, the conversation doesn’t have to end there; however, it’s good to know where they stand ahead of time, so you can be prepared to make the case for your favorite CMS later down the road.
This is not an exclusive list of potential stakeholders, so make sure you consider all angles at your organization and write down their different (and potentially conflicting) goals and pain points early on. The best way to get buy-in is to let your stakeholders be part of your team and by making sure their needs are represented in your search. Does this mean everyone is going to be happy with your final decision? Maybe not at first. But by working together, providing on-going training, and informing all your stakeholders of the most influential factors in your decision, you can minimize the grumbling and have a smooth transition to your new CMS.
Like this article? Read more in this free Intro to Content Management Whitepaper. 
[[hannon2]]

How to Get Company-wide Buy-in for a New CMS

mike-johnston

<a href="https://wpengine.com/">WP Engine</a>, a WordPress hosting company, has announced the introduction of <a href="https://wpengine.com/support/best-practices-using-wp-engine-page-performance/">Page Performance</a>, which will focus on delivering actionable insights for websites across its 47,000 customers and agency partners in 133 countries.
<img style="max-width:432px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp_engine_logo_bb.png" alt="wp_engine_logo_bb" />
Impressively, this product launch makes WP Engine the first managed WordPress platform to offer a web page speed performance tool integrated into the user dashboard through which customers can quickly improve the speed of their websites.
<h2>WP Engine Page Performace</h2>
Here's a breakdown of the benefits brought forth by WP Engine's newest project:
<ul>
<li>Access to Key Metrics on Any Page with Report History to See Improvements Over Time. Report includes such metrics as cacheability, render start, visitor complete, render complete and other data.</li>
<li>Actionable Recommendations with Rich Context including links to a library of support material enable users to make fast, significant, measurable impact to site performance.</li>
<li>Integrated into WP Engine User Portal to support developer workflow.</li>
</ul>
<h2>“Helping Out Customers Win Online”</h2>
Website speed is a major part of Search Engine Optimization, and WP Engine have recognized this with this release, as Heather Brunner, CEO of WP Engine, states:
<blockquote>“WP Engine Performance Intelligence is our ongoing commitment to develop tools and insights to help our customers win online.
A website’s speed affects nearly every metric a brand or agency might care about from page views to conversion rates. Our Page Performance product gives you specific recommendations to do just that.”</blockquote>
According to a recent study published on <a href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/">KISSmetrics</a>, a one-second delay in page load time results in 11 percent fewer page views; a 16 percent decrease in customer satisfaction; and a 7 percent drop in conversion. Thus proving that site performance can make or break a brand and a customer’s digital experience.
The aim of WP Engine’s Page Performance feature is to gives site owners a detailed site speed report and actionable recommendations to solve for technical issues impacting digital business.
I think WP Engine has made a strong move with this project. It's well established that site speed plays a big role in SEO and overall user experience, and a WordPress-integrated performance checker will surely play into the hands of SEO specialists who work with WordPress.
To find out more about WP Engine's new Page Performance features, <a href="https://wpengine.com/support/best-practices-using-wp-engine-page-performance/">check out their website</a>.
And as per usual, you can explore and review this product through the <a href="/products/wp-engine/">WP Engine hub</a> on our Hosting Directory.

WP Engine Rolls Out WordPress Integrated Page Performance Tool

Emails were once considered the quickest and most efficient form of digital communication – of course, this was when digital communications were young.
Now there are multiple chat platforms for both personal and professional use. Social media sites, apps, and enterprise resource management suites all give people the chance to communicate quickly and reliably across multiple devices.
Does this mean the email is dead? Not by any means.
But it does mean the email has moved toward a certain format. What it lacks in speed and convenience, it makes up for in formality. It’s the digital world’s version of a letter – but just like real mail, there’s usually a mix of good content and junk floating around.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adobestock_91528736761x0-is.jpeg" />
Email marketing is still a popular field. Even beyond things like search engine marketing and social media marketing, emails can be very effective at presenting offers. So how do successful email marketers avoid the junk folder and make their campaigns a success?
<h2>Good Email Marketers Send Good Content</h2>
The best way to stay out of the junk folder? Don’t send junk.
There’s a fine line between presenting someone with a professional offer at an address set up for these inquiries and spamming their inbox with cash-grabbing schemes.
Good email marketers don’t target inboxes where they aren’t welcomed. This isn’t just a matter of character – there’s some strategy involved as well. Once an address or a brand gets a bad reputation for spamming, it can be hard to shake it. While it could take seconds to switch to a new email, it could take much longer for a brand to recover.
Looking professional is a big part of the task. A reader will be much more at ease, and thus much more receptive to inbox inquiries that look like they have something realistic to offer.
<h2>Use Recognizable Brand Names and Email Service Providers</h2>
If a business or entrepreneur is at the point where they’re sending out emails to clients and trying to implement a marketing campaign, they should have an established brand.
This could be conveyed in the form of a nice title, which ties into things like the email signature, an included website, and other sources that further show the sender is trustworthy. This also shows the sender, who is marketing their services, has likely delivered these same services (successfully) to other clients in the past.
It can be tempting to make custom email addresses that use the business’s title. While it is possible to get certifications that tie into an associated website and mark the email address as secure, using a more common email service provider is often a better idea. It’s safer, and seeing Gmail, Yahoo!, or Hotmail may be less likely to arouse suspicion in a reader.
If you must use a custom email address, look into solutions like ReturnPath to get certified as a trusted sender. And as always, test your ideas first. If your email marketing campaign looks fishy to you, it will likely end up in spam – either automatically or by the recipient’s own hand.

How Successful Email Marketers Avoid the Spam Folder

<a href="http://www.shoplocket.com" target="_blank">ShopLocket</a> makes eCommerce accessible. Plain and simple as that. With the technical skill it takes to upload and share a photo you can setup a product for sale. That sounds easy, but what about the real life process? As I have said before “I am glad you asked!” Read on to find out how we rate this eCommerce tool in this ShopLocket Review.
<h3>It is really easy, I'm serious</h3>
Start by visiting www.shoplocket.com. You can log in using your Facebook credentials or using your email address and a password you specify. Big points for logging in via Facebook account. Who wants to have to remember another account name and password right?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shoplocket_login.png" alt="ShopLocket review" />
You will see a page listing your products you have for sale with some stats for each. If you have no products set up yet you can start by clicking on New Product.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shoplocket_yourproducts-620x416.png" alt="ShopLocket review" />
You will get to the new product setup page and start by adding the name, description, price, and “multiple options” if appropriate.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ingeniux_cms_assets_f0bxh8.png" alt="ShopLocket review" />
Then your product will need an image … or four, but no more than four because that is all that is allowed at this time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ingeniux_cms_assets_2_dwjqra.png" alt="ShopLocket review" />
The “Customize” tab lets you add tax, shipping, number of items, sale price comparison, and expiration. Do not let your item go stale, put it on sale. Ok that was a bit much, but you get the opportunity to bring increased interest using sales pricing and urgency with expiring the item after so long.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shoplocket_customize.png" alt="ShopLocket review" />
<h3>Time to Share</h3>
You have your products set up and ready to go. Now you just have to share them with the world. ShopLocket has you covered with many sharing abilities over social media, but with the iframe embedding option, you can drop the product on almost any webpage or blog post.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-website-analytics-and-seo-data-77090498_ucc6vp.jpg" alt="ShopLocket review" />
Here is a link to the product I created for this ShopLocket review: Good Reputation for Sale and here's the embedded product straight from ShopLocket.
[[shoplocket]]
Pretty cool isn't it?
<h3>Wait a minute, how do I get paid?</h3>
ShopLocket connects to PayPal and Stripe for easy payment options. You get email notification on orders purchased through their eCommerce platform. What about fees? No upfront fees so if your product totally bombs you will not be charged. If you do make a sale, then there is a one time $2 publishing fee and 2.9% transaction fee after that for each sale in addition to PayPal or Stripe fees.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
That is my ShopLocket Review. ShopLocket has made eCommerce easier and dare I say “more fun.” Not only that but they have given clients a way to leverage their social networks to get followers directly to the sales page.  Interested in learning more? Visit <a href="http://www.shoplocket.com" target="_blank">ShopLocket</a> or leave your comments on this ShopLocket Review below.

ShopLocket review - Embed Your eCommerce

In the open source world, there are primarily three content management systems that hold the top spot when it comes to word of mouth, popularity and implementations. While WordPress far outpaces the other two; Joomla and Drupal; when it comes to installs and user base, they still maintain a pretty hefty following. Just because these systems are at the top, however, does not mean they are always the best option (see my previous post entitled <a href="/wordpress-joomla-and-drupal-are-not-the-best-cms/">WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are NOT the best CMS</a>.Today, I'm going to  outline the top 7 mistakes people make when choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla for their CMS.<h2>7. “Someone recommended it, so I chose to use it.”</h2>A very common mistake I see being made on websites nowadays are blanket recommendations of products from people with experience using only that product or, even worse, people who just want to offer an opinion for the sake of doing so. Take a look on Q &amp; A websites like Quora for instance and you'll see tons of foolish recommendations to people that offer little to no information.Here is a typical question on Quora asking for CMS recommendations with a fantastic response from someone who is smart enough to not recommend a product without more information:<figure class="image"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/snapshot1.png" /></figure>What I didn't show you is the list of answers with responses such as “The best one is WordPress” from someone who has no idea what the requirements are. Sadly, there are tons of people throwing out these types of recommendations. I appreciate when people like Mr. Memud above step up to try to put some clarity to the questions.You should never just choose to go with a CMS because someone recommended it, regardless of whether that person is someone with experience or not. Make sure you explore the product fully, try it out in a demo environment and see if it suits your needs BEFORE implementing it as your CMS of choice. Most people wouldn't buy a car without a test drive and you shouldn't get a CMS without one either.<h2>6. It's one of the top three open source CMS.</h2>Never choose something just because of word of mouth because honestly, it doesn't mean much. Popularity of a product has nothing to do with whether it's the right product for your job. Always make sure you take the time to explore the product and get a run through from someone in the know before you make a selection. There's a reason why the typical RFP process for CMS selection takes several weeks to several months.<h2>5. They have a plugin that I want to use.</h2>Never, ever, ever choose a CMS just because it works with your favorite plugin. Believe it or not, it's not that expensive to hire a freelancer to code you an integration if you really need it and you'll not be forced to make a compromise in usability.<h2>4. I found a pretty theme!</h2>There are theme developers all over the world that can hash out beautiful designs for minimal cost. Don't choose a CMS just because someone developed a pretty theme you like.<h2>3. It's free.</h2>Never choose a product JUST because it's free. If cost is a factor and you absolutely have no budget, that's fine but do make sure you take the time to explore ALL of the free products on the market that fit your requirements. Use resources like our CMS directory to find a number of great products.<h2>2. It's open source.</h2>Are you an open source promoter? Do you prefer open source products? Fantastic. Is that a reason to choose a product for your business? No, it's not. You should be responsible and take the time to make sure you explore the products that best suit your projects needs first. If an open source solution happens to be one of them and it comes down to that being a deciding factor AFTER vetting out that it fits your base requirements and needs then perfect but never make it a primary factor in your decision.<h2>1. A website I like is using it, so I should.</h2>No. Just no. As with every other point I've made above, make sure you always test out each product thoroughly and that it first your requirements first and foremost.—In a nutshell, in case you haven't figured out my point by now… don't choose a CMS just due to a single reason. Always make sure you explore all of the available options out there. If you aren't sure what options there are, use tools like our <a href="/products/">CMS directory</a> or ask us in the forums. If you need more in-depth assistance, <a href="/contact/">drop me a line</a> and I'd be more than happy to give you a hand. We offer top notch <a href="/contact">CMS consulting</a> based on our many years of experience using the many products on the market. When it comes to consulting, no other group can offer as much insight into the products on the market than we can.

The Top 7 Mistakes People Make when Choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla

Heads up for any Joomla site owners / developers. There is a new bug fix release available from Joomla. This is a security release for the 3.x series of Joomla addressing four security vulnerabilities and including over 100 bug fixes and improvements.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-384.jpg" />
This release fixes a few XSS vulnerabilities, an SQLi vulnerability as well as a few bug fixes. Here are some of the ones that have been handed:
<ul>
<li>Contact form loses data after submission with error <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/17743">#17743</a></li>
<li>Smart Search performance improvement for common words <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/12450">#12450</a></li>
<li>Performance improvement in Smart Search indexing process <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/17390">#17390</a></li>
<li>Update jQuery Autocomplete to 1.4.7 <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18113">#18113</a></li>
<li>Update CodeMirror to 5.33.0 <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18880">#18880</a></li>
<li>Update srcset url conversion to handle commas and spaces <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18327">#18327</a></li>
<li>Custom Fields: Handle tag items properly <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19006">#19006</a></li>
<li>Fix filepath to PHPMailer language file <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19072">#19072</a></li>
<li>Display category title as page heading and page title when no menu item for com_content category <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19195">#19195</a></li>
<li>Respect access level in com_content <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18417">#18417</a></li>
<li>Miscellaneous PHP 7.2 compatibility fixes</li>
</ul>
Visit GitHub for the full list of <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/29?closed=1" target="_blank">bug fixes</a>.
Grab your updated copy of Joomla 3.8.4 today from <a href="https://www.joomla.org" target="_blank">https://www.joomla.org</a>

Joomla 3.8.4 Bug Fix Release Now Available

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/episerver_partner_portal_2-01.png" alt="Episerver_partner_portal_2-01" />
According to <a href="http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/">channelpartersonline.com</a>, 80% of partner portals don’t live up to channel partners’ expectations, as employees don’t regard them as effective everyday tools to sell their vendors’ products.
Usually, partner portals fail because they:
<ul>
<li>Are not user-friendly, i.e. navigation or search is so complicated that a vendor management might seek help from support to find the needed page.</li>
<li>Don’t engage partners through communication and help, e.g. do not encourage them to ask questions on business-related issues or share insights on the community board.</li>
<li>Don’t offer useful tools that can help salespeople to support sales, e.g. generate a customized proposal or calculate ROI.</li>
</ul>
In my <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com/blog/how-to-engage-channel-partners-with-a-portal">recent blog post</a>, I outlined several tips on how to reverse these flaws and start engaging partners for better sales.
Now, let’s get to the technical aspect of creating an actionable partner portal, which first of all boils down to choosing a capable CMS.
Serving established enterprises that seek to increase sales through partnerships, we at <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com/">ScienceSoft</a> prefer the commercial <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com/episerver">Episerver</a> platform, and here’s why.
<h2>Engage Multiple Employees in One Company</h2>
To encourage the existing partners to sell more through your partner portal, you should engage not only their vendor managers but also other employees who can influence an end customer’s purchase decision, i.e. sales reps, marketing specialists and tech people.
Episerver allows adding to a company account multiple employees as users with predefined roles, including an administrator who will be able to manage members (create, edit or delete).
<h2>Tailor Content to Every Employee</h2>
With Episerver, you can personalize virtually any type of content – from on-page information such as a text, image or block to a set of pages or sections to be shown to a visitor depending on their role.
This way, you will make sure that a sales rep and a tech specialist will find their shortest ways to the required information without wading through tons of generic content.
<h2>Improve Your Portal on the Go</h2>
Episerver offers an open and layered architecture so that you won’t need to go through a full-blown portal redesign while changing or expanding your information structure, be it introducing a community board or building advanced search-based navigation.
<h2>Offer Handy Interactive Tools</h2>
Working with multiple partner portals, employees will naturally stick to the most convenient ones. The Episerver CMS will help you to stand out from your competitors by implementing useful tools such as:
<ul>
<li>Marketing material customizer to change logos, prices and contacts</li>
<li>Configurators and calculators for products with options</li>
<li>Reports on sales, and others</li>
</ul>
<h2>Winding It Up</h2>
A convenient partner portal that serves relevant content to all of your partners’ employees engaged in sales becomes an everyday helper and eventually boosts sales.
The question is, can your CMS ensure the necessary level of personalization and usability? If you are only thinking about creating a partner portal or willing to redesign the existing solution, we recommend to consider Episerver as a proven option.

A Look at Episerver as a Partner Portal Platform

CMS Summit 26

Find out at CMS Connect 26, August 4-5 in Montreal, Canada

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

#ffffff

Piwik 1.8 is so packed with new features its hard to pick which ones to highlight. This is good. In the world of web analytics the more features and abilities the better. It is important to know if your hard work and efforts are making the difference and bringing traffic to your site. Let us examine some of the features shall we?
<h3>Historical Analytics Report of any row</h3>
Row Evolution allows to visualize a detailed report for a given row in any report table in Piwik. You can now hover over the row and see the graph icon. Click on it to open what Piwik calls the Row Evolution report. This report contains a graph of the last 30 days (or weeks or months etc.), below the graph you will find the main metrics: visits, page views, conversions, etc. along with a sparkline and a % change over the period. It is easy to change the metric being plotted so you can easily visualize the number of visits over the last 30 weeks of a particular search engine keyword. Still you are only one click away from plotting on the graph the number of conversions for this keyword.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/piwik_newfeat_histreport-620x428_bz7kmt.png" alt="Piwik_newfeat_histreport" />
<h3>Dashboard Mega Improvements &amp; Custom Dashboards</h3>
You can now create Custom Dashboards! They will be added as a submenu, you can create unlimited dashboards. It is also possible to set the default Widgets layout used for all newly created dashboard, the rename a dashboard, remove it (delete), or reset to the default widget selection &amp; default layout.
Dashboard now automatically records &amp; restore the full state of the widgets, including for example the columns you chose to plot on the graph.
Along with the ability to customize the columns layout (change to 4 columns, or one wide and 2 small for example), it makes it easy to create exactly the dashboard you need and reuse it over and over again, customizing it along the way.
Dashboard can now be embed via Iframe and token_auth and it works like a charm. Piwik also added widgets for the Visitor Log and for the All Websites dashboard. Really quite a lot of users were eagerly waiting for these improvements making it trivial to export ANY Piwik report anywhere… as an Iframe or direct link!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/piwik_newdashboard-620x479_czc1uo.png" alt="Piwik_newDashboard" />
<h3>DoNotTrack support enabled by default</h3>
When users click “Tell websites I do not want to be tracked” in their web browser, Piwik will listen and not track the user. Piwik is proud to support this privacy initiative. It is of course possible to disable the DoNotTrack support, in Settings &gt; Privacy.
Note: DoNotTrack will not solve the (lack of) privacy online, it is however a small step towards a better world.
New Javascript function to disable all first party cookies from being read/set, existing cookies will be deleted. New function is: disableCookies(). This is particularly useful since the UK started requesting website owners to disclose the use of cookies, and make it easy to opt-out of all first party analytics cookies.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/piwik_do-not-track-privacy-620x155.png" alt="Piwik_Do-not-track-privacy" />
Many more features in this release are explained at <a href="http://www.piwik.org" target="_blank">piwik.org</a>

Piwik 1.8 Release

Do you want to improve your company culture while also getting your employees to share your content? Would you like to choose the right employee advocacy tool to help you achieve this?
Work occupies a major chunk of your employees’ lives. They spend about one-third of their days working, and on average, 89% of them are satisfied with their jobs. As it is a major part of their lives, they will chat about work life both online and offline. <a href="http://www.webershandwick.com/news/article/employee-activists-spark-a-new-social-movement-in-the-digital-age">50% of employees</a> already share content about their employers online, and many of them are always on the lookout for quality content to share.
Therefore, it is important for companies to equip employees with the right information. Employees can share this information while having conversations on social media.
An informed employee will share the latest and most flattering information about your industry and company. This can help create a positive brand impression and drive back traffic to your website, as employees can increase brands’ reach <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/249153637/Infographic-MSLGROUP-Employee-Impact">tenfold</a>.
The best way to keep employees informed is with an employee advocacy platform. Choosing the right platform can be hard, though, as there are so many options available. Two of the options you can’t go wrong with are Smarp and Dynamic Signal. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. I have compared them side by side in this article, to help you select the right one.
Check out what they offer, and pick your favourite.
Smarp
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp1132x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://www.smarp.com/">Smarp</a> is a full-featured employee advocacy tool. It has all the functionality you need to spark lively internal discussions and encourage employees to share content onto social media.
One of the best aspects of Smarp is how easily you can use it to queue up content for group sharing. You can post links, images and text messages. You can also move the content so that the most important content appears at the top and apply categories, so that your team members can work with topic-specific feeds. To save time, you can even integrate your social media accounts and RSS feeds so that content appears automatically. Posts can also be scheduled in advance to go live and be archived at set times.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp2760x0-is.png" />
Employees can access this information via their browsers – or Android and iOS devices. They can comment on this content and share it with their friends and followers on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many more.
Smarp also integrates with apps like Slack, MailChimp, Google Analytics and Dropbox. This simplifies various tasks and makes it easy to track performance metrics, like traffic generated.
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp3666x0-is.png" />
Their advanced gamification features entice employees to share more by making sharing an enjoyable experience. One of these features is leader board that creates a contest between employees. Employees also get points for sharing. These points can either be exchanged to donate money to charities or to claim rewards.
Smarp’s messaging and communication features aren’t the best. The only way employees can communicate with each other and with the company is through comments. Of course, you can track employees with analytics, but if you are looking for more detailed written communication this isn’t the best option.
Smarp’s advanced analytics is second to none. They provide both companyanalytics for admins and personal analytics for employees. Using company analytics, you will be able to see your best performing content and most influential employees. Smarp also calculates the “estimated earned media value” of employees’ shares.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp4861x0-is.png" />
The employees’ personal analytics helps them check how their shared content is performing across social media. They also have a feature called SmarpScore that makes it easy to measure their performance.
Most employee advocacy software companies get you to sit through a demo. You will only be able to sign up and get a quote after this taxing session. But not with Smarp. Here you can instantly sign up for a free 14 day trial and test drive the tool. Pricing is also available publicly. It starts at 3.5€ / user / month. If you prefer a demo they have that option too.
Smarp’s strength lies in keeping employees informed and getting them to share your content.
Dynamic Signal
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic1016x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://dynamicsignal.com/">Dynamic Signal</a> isn’t as comprehensive a tool as Smarp. But it does do everything it needs to, and it also sports some great features that other employee advocacy tools do not.
Dynamic Signal has well-designed native mobile apps that make it easy for you to share latest news and other content with your employees. Delivery and readership of messages can be tracked. This helps you share content at the right time with only interested employees.
You can also alert employees about the latest content using Facebook Messenger, SMS and Slack.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic2283x0-is.png" />
Employees can share content they like on to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
Their advanced communication features help you get detailed feedback from employees through quizzes and surveys. This will help you build an engaged internal community on the app. You can also use the data to craft a work culture that will improve company performance.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic3.png" />

You also have detailed analytics to track other metrics that you cannot obtain through communication only.
Sharing features aren’t very well developed, though, as Dynamic Signal is more focused on improving communication.
It is necessary for everyone to sign up for a demo. Pricing information can only be obtained after this session. You cannot sign up for a trial instantly.
Summary
As you can see above, both of these employee advocacy tools have their pros and cons. Smarp is a more well-rounded tool, but it lacks some internal communication features, while Dynamic Signal is more focused on team conversations.
You should choose the tool that satisfies all your needs. If you are looking for one to help understand your employees better, Dynamic Signal is the best option, while if you want one to help your company content’s distribution and performance, you should go with Smarp. Also, Smarp is the better choice if you want self-service onboarding.
Have you used both the above tools? Which is more useful, Smarp or Dynamic Signal? Please leave your comments below.

Smarp vs. Dynamic Signal: Which Employee Advocacy Platform Is Best for You?

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-intranet-theme638x0-is.jpg" />
We’ve all used it in some way, shape, or form. In fact, up to <a href="https://managewp.com/statistics-about-wordpress-usage">26% of websites</a> worldwide are powered by WordPress, making it one of the most popular content management systems globally. For many uses, WordPress is a fantastic choice. It’s aesthetically pleasing, easily customizable, and up and running in no time. However, it’s also easy to fall into the trap of thinking that WordPress is the best system for all your online needs—when in fact, this is not always the case. Here we to look at some of the downsides of using a WordPress intranet theme as an intranet solution and suggest a better alternative.
<h2>Lots Of Options, Lots Of Headaches</h2>
One of the big attractions to WordPress is the vast array of plugins and different themes that it offers users. It seems as though there is a plugin to serve every purpose under the sun—over 40,000 of them! When creating a blog (WordPress’s core purpose), these can be great. However, many users find that the sheer range and complexity of plugins are a real headache.
For example, imagine that you’re looking to have a document sharing center and a staff calendar as part of your WordPress intranet. These would both require plugins, which would seem like a straightforward task. The issue is, WordPress plugins are supplied by thousands of different developers, meaning that you’re likely to end up with two different plugins, run by different suppliers. What does this mean for you? Most likely different support policies, varying schedules for updates, differing mobile compatibility, and a completely different look and feel. Overall? Messy.
Having such a range of plugins to choose from may seem like an intranet heaven, but it’s far from it. They clutter and complicate your intranet, adding unnecessary third parties and creating a disjointed experience. If you’re looking for a great intranet design to engage your staff, WordPress may be the intuitive choice, but it’s not the logical one.
<h2>Using A Blogging Site… For Intranet</h2>
If you choose to use WordPress to create your intranet, what you’re doing is using a blogging website, for an intranet. As much as WordPress tries to appeal to broader purposes than its initial target market of bloggers, at the end of the day, it’s still a blogging tool.
With this in mind, WordPress has not been designed in the same way that an intranet solution will have been. Some of the typical features you may wish for your intranet to have, such as different levels of access to different pages, may actually be rather difficult to create in practice. Inevitably, the answer for everything on WordPress is plugins—but as we already know, these come with their own set of issues. Often we find that an intranet with all the necessary features takes a painfully long time to load on WordPress, purely because of the quantity of plugins that must be loaded with every new page. Contrast this to an intranet hosted on software specifically designed for intranet, and the difference is remarkable.
<h2>Support Responsiveness, What’s That?</h2>
An intranet is all about engagement. It’s designed to enhance engagement, and its success pivots around staff engagement. That’s why one of the most important features of an intranet provider is their service—their ability to dive in and fix problems immediately before staff get apathetic and begin disengaging with the platform.
Unfortunately, this level of responsiveness is simply not present in WordPress intranets. For starters, issues are more likely to occur, given the number of plugins needed to run the necessary features of an intranet. Importantly though, there’s no one provider with a service agreement. As we’ve touched on, different plugins are run by different suppliers, often individuals. If your document sharing center crashes, your staff may have reverted back to paper-based systems before Gary from Albuquerque has responded to your calls.
<h2>To Build, Or To Buy?</h2>
One of the questions that always comes up early on in a discussion about intranet implementation is “Should we build our own? Or buy one off the shelf?” It can be tempting, particularly for large companies with well-resourced IT teams and servers, to build an intranet solution to meet the bespoke needs of their company. This can come with a few pitfalls, however:
<ul>
<li>Creating your own bespoke intranet can be deceptively time and labor intensive</li>
<li>Housing a server requires a physical space</li>
<li>Ongoing management, maintenance and security the server and intranet become your sole responsibility</li>
</ul>
So, why not buy an off-the-shelf WordPress intranet solution? It’s cost effective, quick to set up and easy to manage, but beyond this, it’s not all plain sailing. Firstly, you’ll have to host the solution yourself unless you are going pay to host it in the cloud. The cost for hosting with the performance level needed for a stable intranet alone will be the same as paying for a cloud intranet that's ready to go. Secondly, you’ll have a restricted level of functionality, depending on the provider’s development schedule. Thirdly, you’ll likely find that after a couple of years, a new solution is required, if you choose a cloud intranet solution, then it will stay up to date with current trends.
To truly make the most of a <a href="http://www.myhubintranet.com/wordpress-intranet">WordPress intranet</a>, you’ll need someone on your team who has a thorough knowledge of WordPress. Technical expertise in CSS is necessary too, which is often not available in small to medium-sized organizations. Even if it is, it comes at a cost—and is building an intranet, on a blogging website, really the best use of that resource?
<h2>Security Alert!</h2>
WordPress websites are notorious for security concerns. Given the overwhelming popularity of WordPress globally for its core offerings, it’s naturally vulnerable to SQL injections, hacking, and other unwanted attention. No doubt WordPress is working hard to address these concerns in their updates, however, at the end of the day responsibility for security lies with you. That means if you want cutting-edge security features, such as SSL, you’ll need to set those up yourself.
<h2>WordPress Intranet Theme? </h2>
We love WordPress, just not for an intranet.
So, what’s the alternative? We believe it’s a cloud intranet solution. Some cloud intranets have several advantages over WordPress, such as:
<ul>
<li>No requirement for specific technical knowledge</li>
<li>Easily customizable, pre-tested templates and features</li>
<li>Easy to set up, guided site builder process</li>
<li>Mobile responsiveness</li>
<li>Secure external hosting using industry-leading online security features</li>
<li>Straightforward ongoing management for users and content</li>
<li>High availability and uptime (approx. 99.99%)</li>
<li>Fully integrated platform, and no need for plugins</li>
<li>Responsibility for updates and backups remains with the provider</li>
</ul>
Ultimately, if your business wants an intranet that doesn’t compromise on functionality or service, that your staff can be engaging with within hours, then consider a cloud intranet. Doesn’t it make sense to choose a solution that has been specifically designed for the purpose in mind, rather than a cobbled together set of plugins on a platform originally designed for an entirely different use?
Get in touch with us at MyHub if you’d like to know more about cloud intranets. MyHub is the premier cloud intranet choice for hundreds of businesses of different sizes and in different markets across the globe. Contact us today for a <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/book-demo/">free intranet demo</a> and to find out why.

WordPress Intranet Theme vs Cloud Intranet Provider?

I'm a huge fan of simplicity and elegance and I was very excited when I first saw a new Linux distribution called <a href="https://budgie-remix.org/">Budgie Remix</a> hit the news. For those who are unaware, Budgie Remix is a distribution featuring the beautiful Budgie Desktop.
Here's a screenshot of my desktop as I write this:
<img alt="Screenshot from 2016-04-26 16-31-25" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot-from-2016-04-26-16-31-25.png" />
Yes, I'm a bit of a gamer and Budgie Remix does a great job of getting out of the way and looking good doing it. For those who are curious, the bottom panel is <a href="https://launchpad.net/plank">Plank</a> which is installed as part of the desktop. Some may not be fans but I think the overall look is pretty sweet and I've found myself preferring it over Gnome and Unity.
Based on Ubuntu 16.04, Budgie Remix is aiming to be an official Ubuntu flavor, specifically, Ubuntu Budgie and needs your help to get there. If you are a fan of the Budgie Desktop, don't hesitate to head on over to their <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BudgieRemix/">subreddit</a> or <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/106822666079268690759">Google Plus community</a> and get involved with testing, development, etc.
Obviously, the advantage to being based off of Ubuntu is the amazing amount of software and support from various vendors. Furthermore, most game makers tend to favor Ubuntu as a testing ground for their latest releases and as much as I love Archlinux as well, Ubuntu is just a more commonly supported distro.
For those who are interested in learning more about Budgie Remix or grabbing a copy to play with, head on over to <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/budgie-remix/files/">Sourceforge</a> and start downloading your today. I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below as well.

First Look at Budgie Remix

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/intranet-development.jpg" />
You’ve been chasing the client for months. Bringing on this account would mean the world to your firm, and you’d get all the glory. Countless proposals and presentations to try and get them across the line, and finally—you get the phone call. They want to start doing business.
But it’s not your usual request. They want you to build them an office intranet.
Developing a bespoke intranet can be a long and arduous process, with no guarantees at the end of your finished product. This is not your firm’s specialty—how do you select the right <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/intranet-development">intranet development</a> option to meet the client’s needs, without committing too much time and resource, or even worse, flunking the opportunity you’ve been given?
We’ve got good news. There’s another way, and it’s faster, cheaper and safer. Introducing: pre-built CMS intranet systems. Read on to learn how this can be a viable option for your customers, and the answer to all your intranet development worries.
<h2>A World Without Pre-Built CMS Intranet Systems</h2>
To truly understand the value of a pre-built CMS intranet system, it pays to first look at the other side of the coin. What does it typically take to build a bespoke intranet from scratch? Here are the standard steps:
<h3>1. Requirements Analysis</h3>
Firstly, detailed information needs to be gathered from your client around their requirements. What are they hoping to use the intranet for? Are there any particular activities they will be using it for, and any special tools they may require? What baseline requirements do they have around data and security? All of this information is gathered as a needs analysis, and typically involves staff questionnaires, workshops and focus groups. No surprises that it takes a while to complete! 
<h3>2. Documentation</h3>
Following the needs analysis comes documenting—essentially detailing all the information gathered. This involves the mapping out of the necessary business processes, data flow diagrams and information, including an initial site map. Again, a slow and labor intensive process.
<h3>3. Development</h3>
Next, a prototype must be developed to give your client a feel for the solution you’re proposing. This not only allows your client to see what the end product will look like, but enables you to move forward with confidence, knowing that your intranet will be the right fit. Creating a prototype can be a lengthy ordeal, particularly as it is an important point in the process from the customer’s point of view—show them a mediocre prototype, and they might pull the pin altogether.
<h3>4. Testing</h3>
Once your intranet is completely developed, the final step is testing. No one wants to present a solution only to find out it’s full of glitches that undermine your credibility immediately! Testing should cover functionality, ease of use, device compatibility, end user appeal, speed, reliability, user load and ongoing management. As well as this, it’s important to step back from the practical perspective, and look at the intranet’s visual appeal—after all, it’s being used by humans, not machines.
It goes without saying that developing a bespoke intranet is not a straightforward process. The potential for the process to quickly suck up time and money is very real—it’s a significant investment, not to be taken lightly. This holds a degree of risk to you as a developer. Too often the journey is embarked on optimistically, only to end in high costs due to unforeseen changes and labor intensive design. 
We’ve seen what it’s like building your own intranet. Now, let’s look at a pre-built CMS intranet. 
<h2>A Better World: Pre-Built CMS Intranet</h2>
When you need to drive to work, you don’t build the road to get there. You use a pre-built road. Why? Because it’s simpler, cheaper, faster.
Intranet is much the same—using a pre-built CMS intranet negates many of the issues we’ve seen in building a bespoke intranet. Here’s a quick look at how a pre-built intranet can save you time, money and hassle along each step of the development process.
<h3>1. Requirements Analysis</h3>
No more starting from scratch. Conducting a needs analysis looks very different with a pre-built intranet. Essentially, it involves walking your client through all of the already available functions and features within the CMS intranet software, and noting down which ones are needed for their particular business. This inverted approach is fantastic because it shifts the client’s perspective—they choose from what’s available initially, rather than dreaming up a plethora of potentially unrealistic options. Risk is also reduced for you as the developer, as the pre-set options mean you’re more likely to end up creating an intranet well suited to your client’s needs.
<h3>2. Documentation</h3>
Implementing a template approach means extensive documentation is no longer required. Your pre-built intranet comes already equipped with a site map, and modules which can easily be customized. Pre-planning becomes unnecessary, as adding or editing pages is straightforward.
<h3>3. Development</h3>
Say goodbye to tedious prototype creation, and hello to simple free trials. The majority of CMS intranet providers offer the option of ‘try before you buy’, meaning, as a developer, there’s no need to build a prototype or even go through the process of installing intranet software. Simply use the step-by-step building process, utilizing the flexible page options and design. 
<h3>4. Testing</h3>
Again—no need for any testing with a pre-built CMS intranet. All the pre-testing has been performed in advance, meaning functionality can be assured from day one. In fact, this aspect of a pre-built intranet is an easy sell to your clients—there are hundreds of users out there already using the product, who can attest to its usability. 
Clearly, pre-built CMS intranet systems offer huge benefits, with very little downside compared to bespoke intranets. As well as saving time and money in the needs analysis and documentation phases, a pre-built intranet is able to be customized to meet the requirements of the majority of companies, with all the development and testing already completed and proven. 
<h2>The Cherry On Top: Cloud Intranet Hosting</h2>
As if the benefits of saved time and money aren’t enough, cloud-hosted CMS intranets offer even more benefit for your customers. Instead of having to purchase additional servers, then hosting and maintaining the intranet themselves, customers are able to outsource it to a hosting company. What this means is:
<ul>
<li>Automatic backups</li>
<li>Fixed low monthly costs</li>
<li>Up-to-date security features</li>
<li>Unlimited users</li>
<li>Automatic updates </li>
<li>Managed storage</li>
</ul>
At MyHub, we firmly believe that configuration, as opposed to development, is the best approach when implementing a new intranet. Uncertainty is lowered and return on investment is maximized. From the developer’s perspective, this means more time to focus on what you do best: understand customers, and deliver requirements. Instead of spending the time and money necessary to become proficient in intranet development, market yourself as having a competitive edge over other developers when it comes to responsiveness and understanding.
Ultimately, CMS intranets can both meet your customers’ needs, and those of your web development agency. <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/book-demo/">Contact us at MyHub</a> for a free consultation on how a cloud intranet can make intranet development a much easier task.

Never Stress About Intranet Development Again

SiteExecutive 2012 promises to treat your content with care allowing you simple and complete content control. Since content needs to look as beautiful on the small screens as it does on the larger displays, SE2012 introduces responsive support.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/siteexecutive_whatsnew.png" alt="SiteExecutive_whatsnew" />
<h3>Structured Content – Web Content Creation Simplified</h3>
The process of creating, correlating and distributing content can be simplified with the separation of content and presentation. Structured content enables users to define content types, presentation layers and collection methods not only in SiteExecutive, but for other devices as well. Through REST, a form of API, external systems are able to consume the data directly from structured content and deploy that content on their own devices.
Predefined fields allow for simplified content creation, requiring less time and effort. Content types are defined and created specific to organizations’ content strategy and goals using a variety of field types including WYSIWYG, Dates, Text, Numerical, Picklist/Selectors (populators), Image, and Video. Presentation layouts define how the content gathered from the content fields should display on the website, while URL interpreters and Viewlets determine what data to display in which channel (i.e. web, mobile, social media, etc.)
<h3>Enhanced Mobile Delivery Processes</h3>
The ability to reach all users regardless of device is crucial. Bridging the gap between mobile and desktop devices is easy in the latest version of SiteExecutive, which introduces support for Responsive Web Design using external style sheets. Responsive Web Design uses CSS media queries to detect the browser screen size and capabilities to deliver a tailored experience regardless of screen size.
MediaExecutive, (hosted online video service) now simplifies the delivery of video to mobile devices via streaming video support for Apple and Android products. Video is automatically encoded to the optimal format for mobile delivery using HTML5 video encoding, ensuring an optimal viewing experience across multiple device types.
For more information visit: <a href="http://www.siteexecutive.com" target="_blank">siteexecutive.com</a>

SiteExecutive 2012 release

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads