Whether your strategy was developed in-house or by an outsourced consultant, chances are that you will soon find the implementation of it can become rigid, as the pace of change in your business, your industry, and your market increases, your targets will shift, and what worked before is no longer achieving the results you are seeking.

To enhance the ability of a manager to manage a digital strategy, a framework is required. I prefer the 5 Part Strategic Framework of Hambrick & Frederickson (‘Are you sure you have a strategy?’, 2005) as it encourages the practice of asking questions within each strategic element, that causes you to address the current environment. This process is vital to ensure your digital strategy remains dynamic in its implementation, responsive to the changing environment, and ahead of the pack, while your competitors plug away with static plans.

The five elements and the questions they raise are as follows:

1. Arenas: Where will be active?

The thought here should be given to looking at the markets you are currently in, both in your distribution & your marketing, deciding if it is the right one, are there additional or alternative markets that you should be focussing on.

2. Vehicles: How will we get there?

Look at how you are reaching this market, is it the right way for the time, are there easier routes to market, or tools to enhance your marketing reach.

3. Differentiation: how will we win the marketplace?

How can you take a competitive advantage in your product offering or market strategy & message? What are your competitors doing, can you do better by being unique.

4. Staging: what will be our speed & sequence of moves?

Decide what resources & assets you have available, are they the most effective means to your strategic end? Are there technologies that can enhance this route? Is there a need to recalibrate your current systems, processes, and tools?

5. Economic logic: how will we obtain our returns?

The key here is measurement, you need to constantly assess whether your actions in reaching your marketing with your communications & your delivery of service is reaping a sufficient return to justify the costs.

I hope this framework helps you in reassessing your current digital strategy (and overall strategy for that matter), if you need any help with programming this framework into your business operation, get in touch and I would be happy to give you a consultation.

(image credit: we could do no better than this visualisation of the 5 elements by kissmetrics.com)

The post Five elements to a perpetually relevant Digital Strategy appeared first on HyperWeb.

This is The Goal of business: To make money. Has this changed over the last 30 years? Do all business owners or managers agree on what The Goal is for business? What do you think the goal of your business is?

How the goal of all business owners and managers can be distilled into this simple summation is simple. From all other ambitions the end game is to make money: supply chain efficiency, exceptional customer service, the creation of a product or service that changes lives, increasing shareholder value, putting food on the table, creating a saleable business. If you keep your eye on The Goal, it makes it easier to achieve all the ambitions that you think are your goal, on the way.

One difference in 2014 than when The Goal was first published is the rise of digital technologies. Without going through the substantial sub-themes of The Goal in terms of inventory management, the theory of constraints, process improvement, changes in accounting methodology, I thought it would be useful to look at The Goal through the prism of current business development discourse, in particular, digital.

The Goal is lost without a strategy. However when a Digital Strategy is formed or enforced upon a business, is The Goal kept in mind? Or do the tools and zeitgeist distract rather than compel the business toward The Goal?

I believe the term Digital Strategy has lost sight of The Goal in way, it has become too narrow in what it aims to deliver for a business, it has elevated marketing as the primary concern and investment area for a business, this leaves the rest of the value chain without sufficient and necessary scrutiny when it comes to the use of new technologies for efficiency gains and process improvements that can increase profits and head towards The Goal.

There are critical examples of this locally, in how Federal Movement funds have been spent in “helping” business navigate the Future Economy. Here in the Hunter Region, The Digital Regions funding program was meant to assist business take advantage of high-capacity broadband and gain (or maintain) international competitive advantage. However, the output of the programs has been marketing focussed, looking at topics such as an effective website, social media marketing, eCommerce, things that were an imperative years ago and only incrementally improved by increased broadband capacity. This is a horrible waste of money.

Digital Strategy should apply to all aspects of a business operations. Most importantly it should apply in an integrated way so that all functional areas of a business are connected and responsibilities are known. How are you managing your people, your cash flow and finance systems, your supply chain, your production methods, your operational intelligence. Who is involved in managing these and is the whole of the business bought in?

Digital Strategy is not about the tools, it is about how they are integrated and into the business and connected in order to maximise The Goal. Pushing content out through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on is not a digital strategy. Ensuring that the best possible systems are in place (and competently used) in the areas of financial management, people management, production management, tangible and intangible asset retention and attraction, and customer retention and attraction, as well as the all-important marketing is key. Content Marketing and the use of social media isn’t just about broadcasting a message or developing a relationship with prospective customers, it can also be a recruitment mechanism, a customer service tool, a means of improving the supply chain, and recruiting talented staff or specialists. Some businesses use it well. Beyond this, the exponential development of software and digitally enhanced business [processes should also be included in a digital strategy.

The technological environment and the pace of innovation offers a potential wealth of efficiency gains, market reach and profit increases. While your competitors are focused on marketing, take the time to get some advice on your business systems and think about taking competitive advantage in looking at the whole system to discover where money can be made in savings and efficiency improvements in all areas of your business.

Your Digital Strategy should cover your entire business in order to achieve The Goal. The questions you should be asking yourself are:

• How can we use digital technologies to better connect with customers and markets?
• How can we use digital technologies to reinvent our operations and management systems?
• How can we use digital technologies to reinvent our products and services?

HyperWeb Communications can assist you to answer these questions and develop a comprehensive competitive focused digital strategy to take your towards The Goal. Contact us and let’s get the ball in play.

The post Digital Strategy and The Goal appeared first on HyperWeb.

Update, 2026: We revisited this piece 14 years on. Read Digital Strategy: What’s Changed in 14 Years (And What Hasn’t) for our 2026 take on the same question.

This is the year when small to medium enterprise finally realise that they need to take advantage of digital tools and platforms to increase their market reach and improve operational efficiencies. The media and business literature are now full talk about the tools: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FourSquare, Dropbox, Google+, QR Codes, not to mention the generic categories of apps, social media, the cloud, and more. With all these tools at our fingertips and on our mobile devices, more than ever business need to plan what is the best tools for them and how they will use them.

Business also need to think about the delivery of content. This is an information age, and businesses need to position themselves as custodians and sharers of information around their field of expertise. Blogging will have to come in to play for every business, as part of what they do. Not only will businesses be focussed on producing widgets, they should also be active in producing and delivering content as both a service to their customers, and a service to themselves.

A Digital Strategy is required to manage the tools, their use and intentions so that it becomes integrated into the being of the business. Smart businesses are already aware of this and have been planning their eBusiness strategy each year, but the time has come when all businesses need to use a suite of digital tools to manage and market their business. One way of approaching developing a digital strategy for your business is to treat it as AGAME. AGAME is an acronym that I have come up with for the following steps: Awareness, Goals, Action, Monitor, Evaluate.

Awareness requires an external and an internal view of the business. Have a fresh think about what you do, who is your team, what are your processes & systems, who are your customers, how do you communicate with your team and with your suppliers and customers. External awareness takes into account what is available to assist your business. These are being aware of the tools and techniques that are available that can improve your business. The may also be some major cost savings and improvements possible in finding out what’s new in terms of the tools of trade already in use for the production of your goods and services.

The Goal of your digital strategy should not be different from the goals of your business. a digital strategy will enhance your ability to achieve your business goals, business goals should not shift in regard to focus in response to integrating more digital tools into the business. Your business goal is likely to be something along the lines of either selling more or growing to increase your capacity to sell more. This stage of a digital strategy is not to develop a new goal but it is to look at your current goals and think about how the awareness in the previous step can lead to designing improvements in your business.

An Action Plan is the next step. You will have decided what to use, now plan to implement the tools of choice. The choices will have been made based on awareness and your business goals, so the chances of going wrong are now more slim. What can go wrong? If the tool takes too much time or doesn’t embed into your system. An action plan can be categorised into the following categories: customers, workflow, intelligence, people, and positioning.

• Customers: how do you get more? Marketing reach, implement the use of some social media tools to reach existing and new customers, better service to existing customers, encourage positive word of mouth, participate in the conversation already happening around your product or service.
• Workflow: how can we improve? what project management tools, time sheeting, rostering, data storage, backup, disaster recovery, business continuity plans, need to be put into place to improve workflow efficiencies.
• Intelligence: what data is available on the performance of the business. Google Analytics, productivity metrics.
• People: communication tools, social networking, HRware, voice & data accounts
• Positioning: content creation, blogging, SEO, sharing and networking.

Decide what tools and techniques fit into these areas and write an action plan detailing what you will implement, when and how. Seek advice about what tools integrate with others to further improve your system, e.g., your website should contain a blogging capability linked to social media channels for auto-posting of content.

Monitoring is very important. Tools should be used to achieve an efficiency, not to use for the tool’s sake. If it isn’t working, and you have given it enough time, stop or review your use. Time is also noteworthy though, some implementation and embedding can take a few years of continued use to pay off.

Evaluate the strategy and record improvements in your business, look again at your system and begin the process again by making AGAME of it.

It is a good idea to invest in some assistance with a digital strategy, HyperWeb Communications is available to work with business through the steps of developing a digital strategy. Managing Director, Brendan Brooks, has a Master of Business & Technology and 11 years experience in the small to medium enterprise sector and can apply the knowledge and experience gained in the eBusiness sphere to help your business navigate the digital landscape and plot the most effective path for your business to achieve its goals.

The post It’s time to play Digital Strategy appeared first on HyperWeb.

However, if businesses want to capitalise on the ubiquitousness that is Facebook in the lives of a significant market, then the risks that exist in consumer-created content need to be tackled head-on. Peer recommendation is powerful for Australian business. Nothing quite influences a purchasing decision like social proof that value is present in a product or service. Potential customers become purchasers when they are confident their investment is not misplaced, and their confidence is reinforced by the recommendation of a friend/s or relative/s.

The fear of negative comments is stopping many businesses from engaging in social media and two-way conversations that it facilitates. To counter this fear (as many business believe they cannot control negative comments) I categorise negative comments as being either constructive criticism, which is an opportunity, or vandalism (which should be removed). It is important that businesses are authentic with their customer engagement, and deleting anything that contains a negative can be perceived as hiding from issues in the business and censoring legitimate feedback.

I believe it is fine for business to simply delete blatant vandalism, if the comments contain swearing, are irrational or aggressive, it is likely that there is no real or legitimate criticism. It may even be a case of competitor sabotage or personal vendetta! If there is offensive graffiti on the front window of your business, the first thing you do is wash it off, right? I see no difference in deleting irrational sledging comments from your blog or Facebook wall. Your audience will appreciate it rather than be critical, and the experience of engaging with your business is enhanced.

Not all comments are irrational sledges however, some are legitimate comments from an unfortunate experience. I call this an opportunity as it gives the business a chance to demonstrate how it deals with the occasional criticism of its product or service. The business can show its audience that they are real and prepared to accept criticism and provide a response that shows the criticism is being dealt with. This enforces the authenticity of the conversation and provides the opportunity for effective customer service to be on display for fans to see, turning a negative into a positive.

Negative comments are rare, but inevitable. It is important to make an assessment on the kind of feedback it is before deciding on the course of response to take as deleting or ignoring it might be forgoing a real opportunity to enhance your brand.

The post Facebook Pages for business – forget the fear, take charge of your comments. appeared first on HyperWeb.