In the marketing world, we have watched a lot of change over that last five years. Facebook has grown from a meager 58 million users at the end of 2007 to over 901 million monthly active users today. In 2007 the average number of tweets per day was 5,000 vs. 400 million tweets in June 2012. And as exciting as this growth has been, there has been one other change that has rocked our world and that is the availability of low-cost Content Management Systems (CMS).
At DMA, we not only strive to find and provide the best, but also the most economical marketing solutions for our clients (and our own arsenal). It’s always a bit of a downer when we are faced with pricey investments, even despite long-term benefits. Because websites and their dynamic content are still vital components of our clients’ storytelling, we are thrilled when there are budget-friendly options that assist in keeping their content continuously FRESH.
So, we <3 those development nerds guys who spend their days and nights wasting away in a tiny, dark closet feverishly typing Martian code, so that we can glory in the availability of FREE and easy-to-use open source platforms that eliminate the pricey part of that investment equation.
We R-E-A-L-L-Y do love them.
Let me go back and address this FREE thing, because let’s face it, nothing is ever free. More specifically – what we are saying is that we now have access to no cost plug-and-play content management tools and widgets that can be easily integrated into a custom Web design created just for you. Sure. you still have the cost of site development and coding the CMS into the site, but not the actual cost of custom building a CMS. To see what we mean about great custom design flexibility, check out California Giant and PMA Foundation. Pretty great, right?
Now, I’m sure you are wondering which platform is our go-to choice with a handful of notable open source options out there, and we give a hands-down recommendation for Word Press. Why this one over the others? It is the most flexible by far and allows full creative freedom without the limitation of preset modules within a template. Word Press allows you to start with little to no preset design or development parameters and create a website that looks and acts exactly how you want it to. And the best news is that you don’t have to know any more about Word Press than that. Just talk to your web developer when you are ready to start the project and they will know exactly what to do.
Cheers to your new content management system! Oh, and have we mentioned lately that we’re happy to help you with your next website project?
Posted by The Analyst (Marci Allen)