Web Site Interactivity: Engaging Your Customer

The type of Internet presence that drives traffic through the front door will require a few interactive pieces. These interactive pieces include a photo gallery, a dynamic events calendar and a handful of interactive forms.

Let's talk about the photo gallery. You are going to be faced with a dilemma. Do you buy photo gallery software or do you build it? Photo galleries, as with many of these tools, do not need to be built from scratch. They all simply need to be purchased.

You will need to find a gallery tool that works for you personally. Find one that you understand and that you know how to install on your website.

There are two web sites that I recommend you visit.

1. SlideshowPro.com: SlideshowPro is a full-featured photo gallery. It's very slick! It looks great. It's pretty easy to implement. It was developed by a developer that worked for ESPN.com. It's a really good file management system and a quick way to upload photos.

2. SwishZone.com: Swish offers several small and inexpensive tools that help webmasters develop websites. Namely their SwishPics product. It's an easy to use gallery/slideshow creator.

Once you've decided on which type of photo gallery you're going to implement make it very easy to view the photos large and small. That is a common way to do a photo gallery. You provide the end-user with several thumbnails from which to choose. When they click on the thumbnail a larger image of the picture loads in the window.

As with all of your entire web site, a regular update will be a must for freshness. A fresh site will translate to users. It will show them that you care about what you're doing. It will garner more visits to the establishment, too.

If you take photos of your guests will be sure that you either have a sign hanging that says, "We take photos and by eating here you're agreeing to be photographed." Just as you would if you had a concealed video camera, post a sign. You may decide to have your photographed guests sign a model release. This can get rather sticky, but it's not that hard to work around.

Once you get the release figured out you probably do want to take some photos of your guests. Take what I call "buddy shots." These feature 2 to 4 people photographed from the waist up, big smiles, and lots of happiness. This actually generates traffic to your web site as people will go to it to see if they themselves made it into the photo gallery.

Another good idea to consider is putting from catering and other special events in your gallery. Take a few shots of the table of food. These can pay dividends as people are looking for a caterer.

If you have a private dining room and you do private parties take a few photographs of the private dining room just before the guests arrive when it looks its best. A few other interior shots never hurt.

An easy to view photo gallery with great pics is a very powerful and interactive tool for any website.

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