Web Strategy in 2010: http://bit.ly/ae33LL (by @baekdal ).2010 is now only a few months away, and that means that many companies are now in the process of planning next years strategy and budget. So what should your web strategy be for 2010?
Here is something to think about...
In 2010, the internet will move into the "use economy", as opposed to the "find economy" of the past.
Focusing your strategy around building a website that can be found on Google and present your entire product catalog as a visual stunning and engaging presentation is a thing of the past.
You can't use a campaign. You can't share a product catalog. You cannot make a package a part of your stream.
People do not share or discuss a newspaper or a blog. But if you write a really good article, then that is certainly sharable. Just as you cannot share a shoe campaign, but you can share that one shoe that all your friends talk about.
In the "use economy":
A traditional website doesn't solve any of these challenges, and as such your web strategy for 2010 is not about a website.
The biggest change in a use economy is that the focus of your attention is not even about the content itself. Your content plays a very important role in that it functions as the motivator. It is what gets people interested in using it.
But the real value is in the use itself. What do people do with it? What kind of reactions does it create? How do they share it? What kind of conversations does it start? And most importantly, how does it make people feel?
That is the point of the use economy. This is what your brand should be all about. It doesn't matter if it's an article, a pair of shoes, or a cup of coffee.
You web strategy for 2010 should be about people, and interacting with them directly.
In 2010 everything online is about people, communication and using that to your advantage. It's not a platform, it's not a thing, it's not a system, it's not about CMS, it's not about IT, and it's not even about website design.
There where two interesting stories this week about emerging digital markets. First, we heard from Amazon that the sale of ebooks has now surpassed the sale of hardcover books.
It is not unusual for many websites to lose 20-50% of their traffic during the hot summer months. It happens every year, because people rather want to be outside with their friends, having fun barbecuing, than sit inside in front of a computer.
Gatorade has released a video of their social command center. It is quite impressive, and ultra-geeky. It looks more like something from Norad, than anything you would expect from a soft-drink company.
You might have heard the stories about Digg losing 50% of its traffic in just one month, based on data from Compete.com. They are all asking the same question. Is Digg dead? (no it isn't)
I was watching several of video from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce - or simply the RSA. Besides having a YouTube channel filled with interesting content, they have created some of the best story telling videos I have ever seen.
Traditional marketing is pretty simple. You ask your graphic designer to create a beautiful presentation of your product. Next, you give a magazine a handful of money to buy exposure to a certain amount of people. That’s it. You create an ad, pay money, and get exposure.
Isn't it odd that so many companies fight change instead of embracing it? Shouldn't we welcome it with open arms? See it as huge opportunity to get ahead of our competition?
Companies are constantly trying to come up with something new and exciting, but most of the time they to tend to focus on the wrong thing. Instead of creating a story, they make a book. Instead of creating interesting articles, they created a printed magazine. Instead of making remarkable products, they design a new website.
Privacy is a big topic online, and there are many different opinions about it. But all the privacy problems can be summed up into one simply rule that cannot be broken.
Not a day goes by without someone talking about security issues on Facebook and Twitter - and how scary that world is for companies. Recently, we heard about a phishing attack on Twitter, and Sophos posted a graph showing Facebook to be a really scary place.
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