Does Your CEO Get Web 2.0?
September 18th, 2007 (6:00am) Dian Schaffhauser 14 Comments
If the CEO of your company came to you one day and said, “Tell me what we’re doing about Web 2.0,” how prepared would you be for the discussion? Here’s one way to lead the conversation.
Step 1. Recap the basics of what Web 2.0 really is. Chances are, your CEO doesn’t really know but won’t tell you that. Wondering how to explain it? Focus on the idea that the customer wants some say in what products and services it’s going to be interested in and that when the company gets it wrong, the buying public will find out about it and let everybody else know. Gone are the days of Corp. controlling the message (Steve Jobs notwithstanding).
Step 2. Own up to the fact that your corporate web site probably sucks. Sharing an unvarnished truth could, of course, get you fired; but it could also be your opportunity to effect real change. How do you know your site stinks? Forrester head George Colony advises in “My View: Web 2.0 And The CEO,” that you should ask yourself two questions: “1) Do we use scenario design? 2) Do we use personas…” If you answer no to either, “you are building your site inside-out — a recipe for Web junk.”
What’s important about these concepts? As we’ve written before, one size doesn’t fit all online. A persona is a device used to personify all those types of users who visit your site — really a fictitious person. That person has a back story, specific needs and goals, particular questions and unique pain points. If the site you work on doesn’t address the goals of that individual, then it fails.
The scenario puts that persona into a situation and tests out how well the pretend user can accomplish what he or she has set out to do. When persona Toddler-Mom goes to REI.com, how easily can she find that product she doesn’t know the name of vs. simply heading to the neighborhood bike shop on her next set of errands? Or Home-Office-Worker-Guy needs to wire airfare to his college son who’s stranded in Florida. Can WesternUnion.com let him do it before his son sticks out a thumb on the interchange? Those are scenarios.
Without that stuff — and the deep discussion it should generate — your site is probably much more confusing and poorly designed than people in your company think and not as effective. In a recent CIO article, Cisco CEO John Chambers shared research that says “people are often more willing to talk to a character, an avatar rather than an actual person.” As he pointed out, this could make a difference if you’re serving in the area of healthcare, where certain types of clients are unwilling to share information of a “personal nature with another person, but are more likely to be honest when talking to an avatar.” The company that has figured this out first could capture the business.
Step 3. Gently explain to the CEO that Web 2.0 isn’t a single, mammoth project — it’s a journey. (Yes, this might generate some eyeball rolling.) And everything done in the name of Web 2.0 needs to tie back to the current business goals — not simply cater to the cool factor. Here, it might be wise to say something to the effect that your personal job is always to help improve the customer experience.
Step 4. Suggest a next step. If the CEO is still paying attention at this point, lay out a simple plan of action. Reassure the CEO that it doesn’t have to be tackled all at once, that you have a project or two you’d like to try out — all it will take is a tiny bit of funding and top-level commitment.
Where might you begin? Whatever the initiative, keep it small — a few weeks to implement — to ensure quick completion and timely results (good or bad). Then tweak from there and move onto the next project. Focus on mechanisms that will enable a multi-way dialogue with and among customers. It could start with a blog site that’s updated frequently by company thinkers and bribes customers to provide comments or weekly discussion forum threads on industry topics monitored or instigated by specific executives where customers are invited to participate. As those folks on the inside learn, they can help you lead the charge.
And remember: Throughout the conversation, don’t blame anybody and don’t whine.
Have you had a conversation with the CEO? How’d it go?
14 Comments Post your own comment
Caroline C Blaker says: September 18th, 2007 8:27am
I work for a small property in Avon, CO, Beaver Creek West, where our admin staff is 7 strong, including myself, and Web Marketing is my full responsibility and our CEO’s (my boss’s) pet project. On the one hand, its exciting to work in a place where the upper management sees the possibilities in and is excited about the internet and web marketing. On the other hand, our website functions like a 57 chevy in static html pages because he’s convinced “it works.” This website is not actually my responsibility and I am not to change anything on it without running it past at least 2 people. My job instead is to create websites around the topics of the tourist industry here. Its been fun to convince them i need a mac, and to run apache vs. IIS on our local servers. I have at least 15 url’s to populate with content over my tenure here (no links yet as our server is not live.) Please consider posting “a-traditional marketing” ideas for the web. Great post. thanks..
Dian says: September 18th, 2007 10:13am
Caroline, thanks for the feedback — and the great idea… — Dian
Eric says: September 18th, 2007 10:50am
Sometimes I have to get people on track with Web 1.0 still.
Like explaining putting text over text is a bad idea, gray text on a white background…. bad idea, explaining web accessibility and it’s importance. Web 2.0 is so far off to some people it can be scary.
» Blog Archive » Joel Spolsky and Web Worker Daily - StevenClark.com.au says: September 19th, 2007 3:49am
[...] and this one is from my nowdays favourite information site, the Web Worker Daily has posted Does your CEO Get Web 2.0? - its something I find particularly frustrating with government. Do they understand Web 2.0? [...]
John says: September 19th, 2007 7:07am
Good points but not all sites can be web 2.0 like and I think we’re not quite sure ourselfs what web 2.0 is about
links for 2007-09-20 says: September 19th, 2007 10:33pm
[...] Does Your CEO Get Web 2.0? « Web Worker Daily If the CEO of your company came to you one day and said, “Tell me what we’re doing about Web 2.0,” how prepared would you be for the discussion? Here’s one way to lead the conversation. (tags: Web2.0 enterprise evangelism socialmedia strategy consulting) Filed under Links by hyperlinkguerrilla [...]
links for 2007-09-20 | mad dog in the fog says: September 21st, 2007 12:16am
[...] Does Your CEO Get Web 2.0? « Web Worker Daily (tags: web2.0 enterprise2.0) [...]
5 Things That Will Improve Your Web Site Traffic (Plus 1 to Avoid) « Web Worker Daily says: October 10th, 2007 9:44am
[...] 2. Make it your “career” to get links into your site. That includes getting links to more than just your home page and using your keywords as part of the anchor text. To get links, Bishop said, write articles and place them on other sites. Then make sure it includes a resource box or bio at the end of the article that includes your URL in the first line and something that will compel readers to go to your site in the second line, along with another link. (For example: Dian Schaffhauser writes for Web Worker Daily at http://www.webworkerdaily.com. Read her report on how to talk with your CEO about Web 2.0 here: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/09/18/does-your-ceo-get-web-20/.) [...]
John Earnhardt says: October 10th, 2007 4:48pm
Thanks for the plug of our CEO, John Chambers…he has done a few video blogs already and will do more in the future…and he just posted his first written blog on our new collaboration blog today. See here: http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/.
He states, in part: “We are on the cusp of a new era where the Internet is transforming businesses large and small, and creating an entirely new environment for today’s workforce to communicate, collaborate and achieve. We have an opportunity to usher in a new era of economic growth and productivity and Internet-driven collaboration technologies are at the core of this transformation.”
Web Worker Daily » Archive Welcome to the Virtual Generation « says: November 27th, 2007 6:00am
[...] Organize products and services around multiple online personas — a topic we’ve covered before. [...]
Welcome to the Virtual Generation | WORK says: November 27th, 2007 8:19am
[...] Organize products and services around multiple online personas — a topic we’ve covered before. [...]
Carter F Smith says: January 6th, 2008 5:23pm
Executives do seem enthusiastic about Web 2.0 developments and seem willing to embrace them. The problem comes when they go to the same people they always go to and they try doing the same thing they always do. The social media movement is changing the economy and more, take a look at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/22534
Web Worker Daily » Archive 10 Tips for Working with the Not-So-Tech-Savvy « says: June 6th, 2008 6:01am
[...] or you may have some ideas on how to make things work better. How do you do your job well if those around you aren’t as knowledgeable in your web working [...]
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