When considering whether to have a web-presence for yourself or your business, it will help to understand the many layers that will need a decision. Building web presence is a slow and two-step process. We map the effort with subjects you might be familiar with. In this article, we enumerate constituents of the two distinct processes. The healthy interplay between these two processes constitutes web presence. Welcome to the iceberg story of web presence.
Visual references are the simplest and fastest way to understand a topic.
Ice-bergs.. Famously know for a giant portion that is not visible! It is for that reason iceberg makes a good metaphor when trying to understand web presence. We map constituents’ processes of web presence with visual and not-visual.
Web presence is a 2 step process. The visual portion includes websites, landing pages, social media posts that draw the attention of the audience. It is what gets discussed most often.
If you have worked with digital marketing .. You would agree .. there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes! We describe both parts in this article. We do take delve deeper into the unseen portions that add value to your web presence.
The description of the two processes is important from an implementation point of view. Leveraging the internet as a medium has two parts to it. Phase one will include setting up the website, and associated properties that include social media and optimization. A second phase will be to devise mechanisms to drive traffic, sustain the interest and make improvements along the way.
Head to the comments section for debate over a percentage of time get split between seen and unseen effort related to web presence.
Content is the core of all activities related to your web -presence. It is the strength of all activities in both phases. Anchored in content is your …digital marketing strategy, brand personality, social media copywriting, mail campaigns and user experience.
Content is Core to web presence
The visual section includes the social media profiles, posts, websites and all the content that is up for display. It is what meets the eye of the audience. Crafted with prudence it carries the power to attract an intended audience. Also included in this section is user experience.
The unseen section will include activities that bring an idea alive in letter and spirit. Drawing strength from branding, design thinking, user psychology. The unseen part of web presence draws strength from content.
Your web presence needs to be anchored in your own WHY.
Internet, social media, digital marketing, advertisements, emails. In the digital world .. it does get busy. For the longest time conversations have been about who went viral, and who said what. The essence of your web presence is anchored in what you bring to the digital world. What you bring to the digital world is anchored in your skill, what you wish to share with the world and personal motivations of why you wish to share your experiences. Answers to the why are personal and are best discusses with oneself first.
The WHY we are present on the internet pre-empts the question, “To what end”.
#theskillalwaysyours
Adding a different dimension to the conversation will need us to step away from the current conversation and bring YOU in focus. More importantly, bring focus on your skill. Because .. the skill is always yours. I describe more about your skill and its relevance to web presence in my work describing profession and passion. A video for the same is also available. Click here to access it.
The digital medium is an evolving and dynamic space. It offers countless options to choose the type of web presence. Central to the effort is WHY you wish to be present. Among the infinite options, the time available in a day is finite. We divide time spent on all activities related to web presence in the infographic here. Notice that a large chunk of time is invested in building your skill. Equate it to the time spent on matters related to web presence.
It is your time, choose it wisely.
What to really consider when Considering web presence.
The conversation about what and how to say it well is important. Reasons described earlier show why and how content is the strength of your web presence. Let us delve deeper and understand the many layers that together describe the content. It is the one word that is well understood by stakeholders. Content yields an impact on all efforts.
The unseen process includes:
What type of web presence is suitable?
Skill, experience, thoughts and opinions, need to be articulated. Someone will have to convert the idea to reality in the form of text, audio-video and pictures. An idea can come alive on the internet by building content around it. How and where it is displayed impacts how your message is carried to the world.
Brand:
The brand gives an unparalleled advantage. Content will help shape the brand and brand helps shape the content. Consider this, when sending a personal greeting card, you would prefer to write it out .. a formal invite is often printed. The font, colour, spacing, placing add personality to the written text and visualizations. Admiralty in the armed forces has been known to sign in green ink. Colours have a psychological impact. You can read more about the effect of colours on behaviour. Colours, fonts and graphics are brand elements. A brand is needed to draw and retain attention. In a cluttered space with millions of messages consistent branding helps retain attention, even if the content gets skipped. You can read more about personal branding here.
Design thinking and User experience:
It is prudent to guide your audience. Technical terminology will include words like call-to-action, lead magnets, site maps and menus. The underlying effort is to guide a user and mitigate his struggle in finding the relevant information. Design think will include conversations on what a picture should include and what should be the tone of written text.
Content helps attract, retain and guide user attention. It is a slow land laborious process to balance the many demands that content lays down on those who construct it. Experienced professionals help bring to life your message and personality.
What web presence builds for you is a legacy. A legacy that reflects your work and personality. The options to choose from types of web presence are infinite, time and the attention span of your audience is finite. Choose wisely.