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PM Forum - Manchester
Creating an engaging user experience online.
To create an engaging online experience, you first have to work out who your user is. Professional Services firms have been relatively slow to embrace the internet and all the glorious opportunities that Web 2.0 has to offer but that needn't be the case.
In this year's presidential election Barack Obama raised around $100million online, with the average donation being around $200. In any other election would this be a surprising statistic. Add in the fact that he has a presence in 16 online social networking groups and two things become increasingly clear 1) the world is changing and the web is shaping that change rather than reacting to it and 2) almost every group of consumers are active on the net.
So, if a presidential candidate can manage to use Web 2.0 effectively, then why can't a professional services firm? The answer is - they can.
The way all people are using and interacting with the media is changing including the usage of the traditional professional services client.
Early adopters have unsurprisingly led the way when it comes to the concepts of Web 2.0 becoming actual websites for non web-based companies, with recruitment currently driving the way.
However, the graduate of today is the partner/director of tomorrow and such candidates will continue to use the web in the work place whether there is structured procedure to do so or not.
Not many people would now blink an eye if someone told you they did all their banking online so why should these people not want/expect more online usability and presence from their other professional services firms? The answer is that they probably do expect more and would at most be willing to accept more.
Marketers have the role of working with their creative agencies (the early adopters) to strike the balance. If you can not offer your services directly online (which many professions can't) what can be offered? Blogs, videoclips, 'how to' guides? All such material can help to build up a picture of the firm and its values even if the work has to be carried out in a more traditional way.
Embrace the Cultural Revolution: Senator Obama ended up with bloggers doing some of his hard work for him for free, simply because he made an effort to embrace their way of sharing and absorbing information and they shared some or all of what he stood for.
Keeping up with the Jones' does now not just constitute buying the car they have on their drive or using their accountants to do your tax return but has expanded into reading the blogs that they read and posting comments to sites they are members of.
For professional services the web can still be considered pretty much a clean slate with almost endless potential.
The key, therefore, is undoubtedly to know your "user" and to allow your users to share and spread your views to other sites they use and not to be afraid to experiment. And if we as a profession can find that balance, there is really no end to the online possibilities.
This discussion continues online within the PM Forum Linkedin group.
The slides are also available to download from www.mandogroup.com
Scott Hadden
Aaron & Partners LLP
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