Social networking players in China
If you wanted my best guess as to who we would see as the next generation of 'Apples, IBMs and Microsofts' - I would say it's likely to be one of the companies on this list. Bear in mind the size of the Chinese domestic market. If these products achieve the same levels of adoption as Facebook then they would create larger online communities than both Facebook and Google!
Better get used to these names ;-)
Friday, 12 November 2010
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Business Websites - Still a Competitive Differentiator?
There was a time when businesses could hope to differentiate themselves through their website design to bring a competitive advantage. Not anymore.
A decade ago websites were seen to have the power to wow site visitors and bring them to your door. Promises made by website designers suggested that new online marketing, powered by search engines, would result in a train of new prospects and business opportunities. For most small businesses this promise has not materialized. They continue to generate more business through word-of-mouth contacts, partner referrals and direct marketing methods.
Visitors of websites today want to see a predictable structure and format. This makes it easier to know where the information is they're trying to find. It's no fun crawling around websites to find out what a business does. In an ideal world, everything a site visitor wants to find out should be on the front page. And technologies like streaming video mean that persuasive arguments don't need to fill pages of content. Just like newspapers (news on the front, sports on the back etc.) designs of websites have to tell their stories in a way that visitors don't find irritating. Over time the information design inherits dictated rules.
The idea that a website is a great source of leads thanks to search engines has proved untrue for many micro businesses and SMEs. Bottom line - Unless your business can get into the top 10 hits on a search engine, chances are you're not going to get that call. And most organizations don't have the marketing funds to make that happen. So the website often becomes the second point of contact, not the first.
After three decades of Internet marketing experiences, business leaders are more aware of the return they can expect to get from their web presence. Current sourcing options - either building a DIY site or paying a web designer to build it - don't satisfy this required mix of affordability, control and return on investment. In short, for the level of opportunity business websites bring, they are generally too expensive to design and too costly to maintain. Nevertheless, they are a necessary component of a marketing mix in the digital economy. They have largely replaced the business card as a medium of contact and they have replaced the office reception as the first place to meet and greet new prospects.
A website isn't a good replacement for a salesperson but it IS a good way of welcoming and engaging customers that visit your website. True, your business needs a professional web presence but it has to be easily maintained and deliver on its promises of professional standards of appearance, accessibility and performance - and it has to deliver more value than it costs annually.
The launch of services like Google Sites, Microsoft Office 365, Webs.com,Yola and Squork WebSpace mean that creating a professional website isn't difficult even for people with no IT background. The role and expectations of websites used for the purpose of giving an organization a web presence are changing. No longer can sites be static, show signs of home-made design or unimaginative construction.
They must be living components of the digital communications network of which every organization and business professional is a part of - like it or not. Websites today are expected to provide rich media content, such as video, and social networking features like twitter feeds, blogs and news feeds. They're also required to be transactional (i.e. To offer the capability to capture and publish data normally held in a database to support customer enquiries and process requests).
Websites started as the shop window of businesses, they have moved to become the reception room too (greeting visitors and welcoming them in) and in the next decade we can expect them to become the meeting rooms and general office of enterprises.
Cloud-based offerings like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Squork are continuously adding service components - file management, collaborative tools, timetabling tools, project and task activity management, business intelligence, performance management, contact management etc. - that are turning business websites into online business spaces.
Websites are losing their design differentiation because of the need to conform to the way people want and expect to work. Competitive differentiation is no longer about design flair, it's about how well platforms deliver the communications and productivity enablement that businesses need.
A decade ago websites were seen to have the power to wow site visitors and bring them to your door. Promises made by website designers suggested that new online marketing, powered by search engines, would result in a train of new prospects and business opportunities. For most small businesses this promise has not materialized. They continue to generate more business through word-of-mouth contacts, partner referrals and direct marketing methods.
Visitors of websites today want to see a predictable structure and format. This makes it easier to know where the information is they're trying to find. It's no fun crawling around websites to find out what a business does. In an ideal world, everything a site visitor wants to find out should be on the front page. And technologies like streaming video mean that persuasive arguments don't need to fill pages of content. Just like newspapers (news on the front, sports on the back etc.) designs of websites have to tell their stories in a way that visitors don't find irritating. Over time the information design inherits dictated rules.
The idea that a website is a great source of leads thanks to search engines has proved untrue for many micro businesses and SMEs. Bottom line - Unless your business can get into the top 10 hits on a search engine, chances are you're not going to get that call. And most organizations don't have the marketing funds to make that happen. So the website often becomes the second point of contact, not the first.
After three decades of Internet marketing experiences, business leaders are more aware of the return they can expect to get from their web presence. Current sourcing options - either building a DIY site or paying a web designer to build it - don't satisfy this required mix of affordability, control and return on investment. In short, for the level of opportunity business websites bring, they are generally too expensive to design and too costly to maintain. Nevertheless, they are a necessary component of a marketing mix in the digital economy. They have largely replaced the business card as a medium of contact and they have replaced the office reception as the first place to meet and greet new prospects.
A website isn't a good replacement for a salesperson but it IS a good way of welcoming and engaging customers that visit your website. True, your business needs a professional web presence but it has to be easily maintained and deliver on its promises of professional standards of appearance, accessibility and performance - and it has to deliver more value than it costs annually.
The launch of services like Google Sites, Microsoft Office 365, Webs.com,Yola and Squork WebSpace mean that creating a professional website isn't difficult even for people with no IT background. The role and expectations of websites used for the purpose of giving an organization a web presence are changing. No longer can sites be static, show signs of home-made design or unimaginative construction.
They must be living components of the digital communications network of which every organization and business professional is a part of - like it or not. Websites today are expected to provide rich media content, such as video, and social networking features like twitter feeds, blogs and news feeds. They're also required to be transactional (i.e. To offer the capability to capture and publish data normally held in a database to support customer enquiries and process requests).
Websites started as the shop window of businesses, they have moved to become the reception room too (greeting visitors and welcoming them in) and in the next decade we can expect them to become the meeting rooms and general office of enterprises.
Cloud-based offerings like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Squork are continuously adding service components - file management, collaborative tools, timetabling tools, project and task activity management, business intelligence, performance management, contact management etc. - that are turning business websites into online business spaces.
Websites are losing their design differentiation because of the need to conform to the way people want and expect to work. Competitive differentiation is no longer about design flair, it's about how well platforms deliver the communications and productivity enablement that businesses need.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)