State of the Online Nation
What is the State of the Online Nation? Technology, the Internet and in fact, all things digital, have seen steady growth over the last few decades especially after the “.com” bubble burst in 2001. But, over the last few years, we have seen a massive steep upward curve in tech.
The Internet of Things, Covid-19 and changes in privacy laws across the globe, has catapulted the digital frontier and the speed of digital transformation forward a few decades and we are only now starting to pick up the pieces.
As the dust settles, through the haze, we are finally able to see what has stood the test of time and what’s scrambling to “pivot” in the hopes of staying relevant and future proof.
Social
Contrary to popular belief, there has been a steady decline in the number of users signing up to social media channels. Meta is actually experiencing a decline in usage and new members signing up.
Facebook has started to roll out their new page experience to all business pages and with that comes a few serious changes. One big loss, in our opinion, and a standard KPI for most campaigns (until now) is “Page Likes.”
So yes, after all the money and time you have spent gathering “Page Likes” it doesn’t mean anything anymore. Read more on the pros and cons of the new page experience here.
TikTok has seen the most growth of all social platforms and is starting to take a serious bite out of Instagrams dominance in the title for “Influencers platform of choice” as well as launching “Reels” to compete with YouTube in the video department. What’s the difference – read this.
As you can see, social is volatile and constantly changing.
Email Marketing
Although general email is still widely used for everyday communications, and email marketing does still get a decent hit rate, email marketing has seen a decline due to the new privacy laws and policies that have rolled out through out the globe. GDPR, POPIA and so forth have forced users to jump through a few more hoops with “re-subscribes”, “double opt ins” and so forth.
It has also forced businesses to be more transparent and responsible with customers’ data with the chance of legal action for any loss or misuse of customers’ data. Ouch!
Google & Adwords
On the up side, Google still remains as relevant and useful as always. They do seem to change algorithms, tracking codes and conversions from time to time, but the difference is their customer communication.
Unlike Meta, Google is great at letting users know about upcoming changes, and allow them to adapt to the new software over time, leaving the choice to the user. Whereas Meta has forced numerous changes and updates onto its billions of users without much thought.
Adwords still perform as always! Giving brands “bang for their buck.” With innovative and adaptive ads and targeting. A phenomenal A.I. backend system guides users and provides valuable insight into their ads. Allowing you to continue to optimise and achieve a better ROI.
Websites
With out a doubt, websites are still the most valuable piece of online real estate you can have (just like gold). Yes, there are new trends and software and new code being released everyday, but you are not forced to jump on the bandwagon. You call the shots!
Having autonomous control over the look and feel of the site, it’s content, structure, functionality and the ability to make changes when and where you want. You are no longer playing catch up with continuous enforced changes and new fads; you can steer and direct your business the way you want to and with a fully branded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, salesman.
Social media is important, there is no denying that, but it has its place. It is insufficient to fulfil the ever changing and increasing needs of an online presence.
This is the State of the Online Nation!
So really, the only question is: “Have you got a website?”
If yes, awesome, when last did you do an upgrade or update?
Stay ahead of the digital curve with our website audit and have actionable steps and insights on how to improve and optimise your website. Contact us if your website needs a check up!
If not, let Banter help you move your business into the future with one of our world class, power-performing websites. (We’ve built over 200 websites so we have a good idea of what’s needed.)
The digital age is here and we are ready!
Don’t delay – Contact us today!