Guest post: The web might be dead, so what does this mean for our clients…

Made Social on 26 August 2010 | View Comments

In advance of Social Collective, we have been inviting select people to guest blog and join the SoCol debate, hopefully offering a fresh point of view. We have been asking a range of people to contribute, including those working in social, client side, techies, journos etc with a view of building a wider picture. Any questions raised during this process will be addressed during a panel at SoCol in September.

The latest in the series is from Andrew Davison, aka @AndrewJDavison.

The web might be dead, so what does this mean for our clients…
By Andrew Davison

People have been in quite a stir since the Wired article “The web is dead…long live the internet” was published. Avoiding a discussion on the merits of the argument, the main takeaway from the article, that people are spending more time inside ‘walled garden’ communities, is one that I don’t think can be disputed. It seems customers everywhere are choosing convenience over the idea of freedom the internet was originally designed around.

How we got here is balance between the natural human desire for instant gratification and maturation of economic forces driving the internet. In 18 years we’ve gone from an internet that was used primarily by academics and individuals to share research, to a vast universe where internet giants offer us better, quicker and easier, in a desperate attempt to win our attention, data and in many cases money.

Grandiose statements aside what does this mean for the vast majority of companies that want to excel digitally? I believe there is a great deal of opportunity for businesses to do what they set out to do, offer excellent service to their customers and a customer experience better than their competitors, they just need to be creative about it.

A digital presence, whatever it includes must be well integrated with all aspects of the business and it may be the case that a business would do better living inside one of these walled garden communities, be it Facebook, LinkedIn or any of the networks that allow companies to engage and interact with their customers. I’m not saying companies everywhere should ditch their website (although I’ve been known to argue this after a few drinks too many) but for the vast number of SMEs and trades people that have no chance of competing for a decent search placement and can’t afford extensive PPC campaigns, this is a way to compete.

Either way, before implementing businesses need to step into the shoes of their customers, to understand their environment and work out what they are looking for in terms of a user experience. Nine times out of 10, this is where things fall apart. This disconnect has given an army of web designers, SEO ‘experts’ and social media gurus years of easy money and has left SMEs everywhere wondering what the hell to say on “this Twitter thing”.

So this is my bold proposal – agencies everywhere should ban designers, techies and digital planners for initial meetings with clients and instead invite in psychologists, sociologists and researchers. Let them dig into what makes the company unique and the wants, needs and circumstances of the customers so they can produce a plain English list of problems and opportunities which they can move forward. If done the other way there is a risk that the agency will invent a problem to fit the solution they would like to build rather than inventing a solution to fit the problem that needs to be solved.

I want to know – How do you deal with the planning stage of a project? Do you disagree with me passionately? Don’t be shy….let’s discuss.

About Andrew Davison

Andrew Davison is currently a Digital Strategist at Ziggurat Brands, a London based branding, packaging and more recently digital agency that has spent the last 25 years creating award winnings work for Tetley, PepsiCo, Wall’s and Gatorade to name a few. In the last year they’ve extended to offer a full range of digital services to further support the brands they create and Andrew has been brought on board to help with this transition.

Andrew is at the start of his career having graduated last year with a Diploma in Computer Science from the University of Kent. While their he scratched his entrepreneurial itch running a business providing SMEs with digital consultancy and development. As a strategist he now enjoys following the fast pace of the PR/digital/tech world and using digital concepts to solve brand problems.

He can be reached at @AndrewJDavison almost any time of the day.

View other posts in our guest blog series:

“The Talk” by Max Tatton-Brown

Sshhhh; Social Media is a Feminine Model by Michelle Rodger

Social Media is Dead; Long Live Social CRM by Eric Swain

Power to your employees! But do brands have the guts? by Danny Whatmough

Helping clients better understand and engage in social media by Jonny Stark

The social media strategy series: Getting Buy In by Gemma Went

The tall and the long of it by John V Willshire

Social Media in the 21st Century – Deja Vu all over again by Paul Smith

The Secrets of Pitching Social Media by Paul Sutton

The social media strategy series: Is social media right for your business? by Gemma Went