Your Web site strategy, even if it is the best out there, is destined to fail. Why? Because it is a small portion of the effort and it is becoming more and more dependent on the bigger picture. Web site has been trumped by Web presence. Web presence is a combination of Web destinations, Web projection, and Web reputation. Although Gartner has been talking about this for a while now, the recent Business Week article, “How Social Networks are Changing Everything” inspired this post.
Web destination is about where on the web you wish to drive people for a more rich and comprehensive experience. This may be your web site or community but it may also be a third party web site or community where your products and services are presented, sold, discussed, etc. See Gartner research, “The Business Impact of Social Computing on Web Selling” for more on Web destinations (available to clients or for a fee).
Web projection is about getting important information assets out into the Web. RSS and mashups are key enabling technologies in this effort. Integration with social networks and third party communities also plays an important role. But, of course, it isn’t all about the technology. Web participation is critical. How do you mobilize your employees, partners, customers etc. to participate on the Web (that is contribute content) in a way that benefits the enterprise. Additionally, web projection is a primary means to the end of drawing people to desired web destinations. See Gartner research, “Web 2.0 Applications: From the People to the People” for a case example of Web projection (available to clients or for a fee).
Web reputation is all about understanding and reacting to what others on the Web are saying about you. Web reputation is a fast growing subset of Web intelligence. A strong awareness of Web reputation is fast becoming foundational input for marketing strategy and will help inform your Web destinations and Web projection activities. See Gartner research, “Policies and Procedures to Manage Enterprise Internet Reputation” for more on Web reputation management (available to clients or for a fee).
Web 2.0 (the participatory Web aspect at least) has sent your Web site strategy into obsolescence and replaced it with Web presence.
Thoughts from others?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Greg Pettit // May 12, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Anybody involved in social media can’t help but agree to a certain point. As an example, we have a Twitter search set up for some of our keywords, and are able to assist people more or less in realtime. In as many cases as possible, I dispense advice that costs the reader nothing (in other words, I am not trying to sell them a product, which is a ridiculous prospect on Twitter).
However, since the point of the article seems to be (forgive the possibly inaccurate paraphrasing) “Web site is just one part of Web presence, and is therefore diminishing in importance,” it’s important to remember that a “diminished” share of a staggering percentage is still very large. A website alone isn’t enough; that much is true. But when people become interested in you through your web presence, they will almost invariably visit your web site. And your site had better deliver the information the visitor is after.
Greg
2 Anthony Bradley // May 12, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Greg,
Fantastic point here! There needs to be a balance. You can’t be great at web projection and drive people to a disappointing web destination. I’m certainly not suggesting anyone deemphasize their web site. In fact, I’m suggesting they expand it into a grander strategy around Web destinations including a broader ecosystem of Web sites that can compliment their own.
3 Rachel Minihan // May 12, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Agreed! I’ve been talking with my clients for a while now about developing their online portfolios. I’m finding with small business owners that there’s a 50/50 split in their interest and understanding of this. Some want to tackle the work full force and others just seem to view it as more work. Glad for your article as I may forward it along to a few people as an educational piece.
4 Anthony Bradley // May 14, 2009 at 12:04 pm
50/50 is great! I’m not seeing quite that adoption rate yet.
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