The changing web

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You have only to look back five years to realise how fast the web is changing. We are more dependent on it, use it more and we use it in many more flexible ways. But what are the implications of this for the searcher and for the business trying to keep up with developments web-wide.

The first element has to be the explosion of growth on the web. From March 2011 to June 2012, the number of users grew from 2,095 millions to 2,336 millions (source www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm). This thing called the net looks like it may be here to stay!

A quick look tells us that people no longer use a PC as their primary method of searching the web. The explosion of mobile displays, whether they are on mobile phones or iPad types of product mean that you can access the web pretty much anywhere any time you can grab a connection. Expect this plethora of devices to grow - minipads, larger phones, changing inputs. All of these will be the devices people in the future use to access their information.

So the third change is that more and more information is being piled high and jostles to present itself to us - well less jostles, more  waves faintly in the background hoping we might see it. For businesses, this creates the additional challenge of being seen rather than swamped by the avalanche of information.

Worse still for a business, the information is increasingly being mediated via the Search providers (I use this term rather than the traditional search engine, because social media is increasingly providing alternative ways for you to find what you are looking for). The thing is, these guys want your money - Google, Facebook Microsoft and the rest of them are not in this for charity, so they will slant searching to ensure the visitor to the web finds the results they want you to find.

The final piece of the jigsaw is the army of third parties, ranging from genuine developers, through the "wizards and witches" who want to develop your SEO, through to the outright fraudsters and hackers who want a piece of the action. Security is a eal and growing issue, and one, which quite frankly is being inadequately tackled.

For working people, the expectation will be that they become more mobile, more flexible - a return in many ways to home and hotel based working systems away from the all-embracing office of the 20th century. In turn, this will mean managers will find it harder to manage, contracts will be based on immediate, project needs and people can expect to change their jobs more often than in the past. Assembly lines will continue to move to the lowest cost centres for mass-produced goods, while artisanal work will move back into the less competitive economies.Image may be NSFW.
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So what does this mean for any business wanting to be found. 

1. Whether you are a global brand or a starter business, you need to be there. Where else can you do 24 hour a day business at so little cost?
2. Your marketing needs to be clever and thoughtful. Where businesses in the past might be happy with some passing trade travelling along the road, now they are up there with the big boys. The problem is being with the big boys is, now more than ever, you need to stand out. Strangely enough, it is often established businesses who do not know where to position themselves. They are so wedded to their traditional channels of communication and distribution, they fight tooth and claw against embracing the new technology.
3. Start thinking flexibly and fast. The keys to your growth will be making sure you are seen by the clients you want to attract. Not all the web is public. Learnt to use private tools to attract your clients. Improve your direct communications. Make it easy for them to buy. 
4. Enhance your customer experience. So many mechanistic web tools are designed just to complete the transaction. Fine, we all want the transaction to run smoothly, but we dont mind sitting in a congenial environment while we do. So avoid the web-equivalent of the telephone answering machine and make your web presence the equivalent of service with a smile.
5. Learn to think social. Even if your business is not suited to a radical social media offering, the experience of online networking has taught us that we can reach out to our clients in a social way.
6. Stop thinking of the web as the place where customers look and the web lists the information they need. Look at the cloud to provide you with new routes to market, with more active ways of canvassing your potential client base.
7. Be secure. They really are out to get you.
8. If you can, make sure you are familiar and able to work flexibly to take maximum advantage of the job opportunities this will offer you.