What companies have begun to realize in mass this year, after failing attempts with things like SMS, QR codes, web apps, and websites that are not cross-device compatible, is that they must move their focus higher than individual initiatives, and they need to start building a strategy for how they interact with people in the digital world. Just think of how many companies created a QR code campaign and linked it off to their desktop website (a fail simply because I’ve never known anyone to scan a QR code with their desktop). Similarly, think about the last several marketing emails you’ve received. When you tried to open them on your phone (which 50% of you do), did you just delete it immediately because it was a bunch of big images that you weren’t willing to load? Or what about the fact that it is expected 15% of commerce on the Internet will be done with a smartphone?

It’s time companies stop plowing, and start planting and cultivating. We all know the lines between the desktop, to tablet, to smartphones are becoming less pronounced. Companies need to develop strategies that allow their customers’ experience to transcend the confines of individual devices, and create pathways for their them to move between devices without losing connection to the brand. Quit assuming your customers only want to engage with you on their desktop, and don’t guess at what their expectations are when they want to interact with your brand. Research, plan, balance and respond; build a digital strategy that is founded on your company’s goals, and your customer’s expectations.

I know I’m taking this statement out of context, and most people understand the meaning to be getting out there and meeting new people, and looking for potential customers. The point is though, this should be done with intention, and it needs a plan; a strategy.

Before arbitrarily running out on the streets, shaking hands with any individual that will look your way, take some time to consider where you could best be spending your time. Here’s a few things for you Biz Dev folks:

• Get a gist account, and see what contacts you haven’t corresponded with in the last 30 days. Give them a call, or drop them an email.
• Contact your top five customers, let me know you are growing and looking for new customers, and ask them if they would be willing to share any contacts with you they feel could benefit from your products/services.
• Create a clean email list of contacts you lost in the past, and reach out to them again with a short, one-time email. You never know if they might not be happy with their previous decision to not go with your company.
• Get on Eventbrite and UpComing to see what is going on, and what events you should be making time in your schedule for to network with potential customers.

This is just a short list to get you started. The main point is don’t run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Be focused. Be diligent. Be assertive. But most of all, be real.

Google more than likely follows their own best practices, so let’s look at one of their own URLs:

http://www.google.com/buzz/stopjon/ccZZQCviyX3/Ignorant-Question-Can-it-be-assumed-there-is

Notice the structure of the above link:

1. Website
2. Product or service
3. Hierarchy (owner of content, or what the content is relevant to)
4. Unique content id (simple alphanumeric, no crazy characters)
5. Sample of content (title or portion of first visible text)

Over at SEOmoz, Dr. Pete created the SEO Cheat Sheet: Anatomy of A URL which gives a helpful visual, and his take on making “friendly” URLs.

Often when considering your digital strategy it is focused around an order of priority: 1. Branding & Marketing, 2. Sales, 3. Customer Support, 4. Communications, 5. Operations, and after that there’s no time left in the day to address other things that may seem less important, but if unaddressed could be your demise.

Specifically, what is your digital strategy for crisis management? Let me take a minute to give you an example of the wrong way to do it in just three days:

Day 1

You’re a company that provides an online service to subscribers that rely on you for their business opperations. The servers go down, and no one can access their data… or do business. All your customers are now emailing, calling, tweeting, posting comments to your blog, and every other avenue you’ve ever created to be able to communicate with your customers. Only now, you don’t have the time to actually communicate with them because you’re so busy getting the servers back online.

So, you post a message on your site: “We’re experiencing minor problems. Check back shortly.”

Day 2

You’ve managed to get one server running, but there’s a bunch of data not yet synced. Customers can login, but are seeing stuff from a week ago. Of course this brings on the second flood of communications and inquires… which you still don’t have time for.

So, you send out an email explaining: “Our technicians are working around the clock. Your data is safe, and will be back online shortly.”

Because you are not paying any attention to the conversations happening on facebook, you don’t realize customers are giving one another recommendations for other places to take their business. All the while slamming you for not communicating what’s going on. You’ve only been provide vague statements at best, and that is not communicating.

Day 3

Everything is back online, data is current, customers are logging in, and everyone is taking a deep breath, right? Wrong! Customers are downloading their data as fast as they can, and half of those customers are setting up accounts with your competitor to start uploading data there instead.

So, to make sure everyone knows what really happened, you send out a press release: “Due to circumstances beyond our control… some customers may have experienced brief interruptions in their service… blah, blah, blah…” After all, you don’t want it to sound worse than it really was.

You post the press release to your blog, which you had already setup to automatically send out a tweet. The only problem is you have not been monitoring twitter throughout this fiasco, and now the truth is compared with your candy-coated press release. This conversation quickly gets picked up by other communications channels… oh, like television and radio news talking about how poorly this situation was handled, and “to leave comments on their site…”

You can see where this all goes from here. You no longer have any control over the conversation, those few remaining customers that were on the fence have now left for your competitor.

So what should have been done different?

Well, firstly a simple policy which identifies who will monitor and maintain communications online in the event of a situation like this is critical. And secondly, be honest about what is going on. Your customers are going to be honest about their frustrations and concerns, so you need to be truthful about the situation.

Your reputation is created for you in social media, and your company gets branded by how you respond.

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NOTICE: This is a fictional set of circumstances, based on a real situation.

In recent months there has been some great improvements in the approach some software developers have taken to building Business Intelligence (BI) applications though. Making software open-source, modular, and flexible has opened many doors for the usefulness of some of these BI applications, without crippling the companies who use them.

While we understand every client’s needs are different and unique, it is always beneficial to survey the digital landscape for assets that work with your digital strategy and business goals. Innovation and demand for excellence in BI applications will push the creators to improve, and your company to find the right solution, whether custom or “boxed.” Before you settle on one solution, first think about how it fits your organization, not how your organization can fit it.

The business perception of software has been very product centric due to release cycles and packaging – it comes once a year, in a box, on a shelf. The web began to change that for many companies as they saw how software could be developed, and improved upon while it was, and is being used. It can be centralized in it’s deployment so distribution is no longer an issue, and runs in a standard browser so support becomes far less as well. Between this and social media, it is really a new era in the business world.

What continues to befuddle web application developers though is why with this reality has not changed businesses approach to how they leverage their software. A lot of companies still see web development and web applications as products, or liabilities, and can only see how to fix their current problems with them instead of growing their businesses with them.

The reality is, web applications are digital assets – they can become more and more valuable with time. Understanding that the web-based software does not come in a box, and therefore does not need to stay in a box, opens the door to leveraging web-based applications to coincide, or parallel the growth plan of the business. They should not be viewed as an additional expense just required to get the job done, but rather a new opportunity to improve the company and do the job better.

Take the time to evaluate your business goals – where you want to be, and the opportunities you want to take hold of – and then bring that to the table when evaluating how to use web applications and digital touch-points to accomplish those goals. Take a phased approach to your digital strategy for web applications, and make them into digital assets that grow with your company, and increase revenue.

Below is an episode of the Jay Leno Show boiled down to just his mentioning of brand names. The result checks in at just over 2 and a half minutes!

Are you aware of how often you are being influenced? Is your brand omni-present in consumers’ lives? Ad campaigns aren’t enough. Cultural absorption is required to make an impact.

Ironically, just a few minutes ago Clark Kokich, of Razorfish said, “Silos kill digital strategy,” and I couldn’t agree more. The more a company isolates it’s Digital Strategy to just customer service or marketing, the more they will have to focus on crisis management instead of brand development. A Digital Strategy needs to be holistic, breaking down barriers, and focusing on engaging people in communication across the board.

Today these same companies have expansive IT departments and contract with sophisticated web agencies to execute these essential business needs. Some fortunate companies had the insight to project the value of these technologies and implemented them correctly as they were emerging.

This vicious cycle is continuing now with digital strategy. It’s something I’ve noticed personally, but recently edified by a blog post on B&T: Digital strategy is not child’s play. Radical new digital touch points and customer interactions are emerging with social media, smart phones, real-time data streams, and more and corporate leaders are falling to the age-old temptation: consulting their prepubescent relative packing an iPhone and a Facebook account.

Digital strategy is a key component to the success of today’s business. We are not dealing with a handful of fads that will blow over in the coming months. To succeed you must understand, implement, harness, and position yourself amongst these technologies or risk losing market share and your competitive edge. If you have realized the need in your company for digital strategy, also realize that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

Case Study: Hewlett-Packard

Last fall HP embarked on a massive internal over-hall, focusing on digital strategy for their marketing base. While they are in the tech sector, and many could pass their initiatives off as industry convenience, the results we’re seeing are showing social media marketing to be overwhelmingly broad across many industries and cultures, and not something to be downplayed in importance.

Here’s a synopsis provided by AdAge on HP’s approach: