It was a little more than 10 years ago that a national conversation started about “the digital divide,” the fact that not everyone had the same access to digital technology. The infrastructure simply wasn’t there. Regions of the country were woefully underserved, and socioeconomic status dictated how easily you could connect with the world online. With time, that gap has narrowed. Advances in technology have made it possible for nearly everyone to have reliable access to the web. The playing field may not be entirely level, but it’s a lot smoother than it used to be.

Yet the digital divide hasn’t gone away; it’s changed. We’re divided, not by technology, but by understanding. There is a fundamental disconnect in our culture where technology is involved. It’s not a gap in access; we have a breach in our understanding about the role digital technology has in our culture and in our businesses.

The Internal Divide
On one side of the new digital divide, we have leaders and executives who developed their businesses before the advent of social media and online marketing. They had to learn about and adopt new technologies. They had to spend time and resources figuring out things like how Facebook, text messages, and Twitter fit into existing corporate structures and protocols. Also on this side of the divide are new business owners who are not accustomed to early adoption. These are not the people who have grown up with digital technology, social media, and online marketing as part of their reality.

On the other side of the digital divide are the individuals who have digital technology integrated in their everyday lives. This segment is often referred to as “digital natives.” These are folks for whom technology is inherently positive. They need no transition period to adopt new technology: it is ubiquitous and unremarkable.

The experiential difference between the groups is critical. On one side, we have older entrepreneurs struggling to integrate technology; on the other side, we have a generation that needs no integration, a community that doesn’t see why this conversation is even necessary. Bring that disconnect into your corporate culture and something as simple as letting your team know that you’ll be fifteen minutes late to a meeting due to a mass transit delay becomes a legalistic minefield: is notifying via text message appropriate, or does this situation require a time-consuming phone call? There are two immediately obvious answers to that question—and your answer will reveal which side of the digital divide you’re on.

Bridging the Gap with Your Team
Bringing your entire team onto the same side of the digital divide yields many benefits, including enhanced organizational efficiency, better communication, and improved corporate culture. Start the process with employee education and smart policies. Then, create an ongoing process of implementation and evaluation. Open the discussion.

Have your team discuss, regularly and in depth, changes in technology and social media. This can be done as part of regular staff meetings or trainings. It’s essential that everyone in your organization operates on the same basis of understanding. While some team members may be early adopters or super users, you can expect all employees to have or gain a certain level of understanding. Providing ongoing education can bring those members of your team who aren’t familiar with technology up to speed. The members of your staff who are comfortable with technology still need education and clarification surrounding effective and appropriate use of technology in the workplace.

Foster an open atmosphere where discussion and questions are welcome. Designate a person (or team) to handle questions and concerns that come up between staff meetings or trainings: you don’t want these inquiries to default to your IT person or department.

Integrate Technology in HR Policies
Now, more than ever, businesses are integrating social media and technology components into their HR policies and procedures. This is an ideal point to encourage the appropriate use of technology, and educate new staff about collective expectations and individual responsibilities.

Be the Change You Want to See in Your Organization
Lead your team across the digital divide. Employees look to their leadership for examples of how they are to conduct themselves in the workplace. If you want your employees to communicate with you via text message, you need to send text messages yourself. Walk the walk. Tweet the tweets. Model the behavior you expect (and want) to see.

The External Divide
The divide goes deeper than a gap in understanding between employees and employer or manager. Entrepreneurs and smaller organizations are struggling to use technology effectively to connect with their customers, build brand equity, and compete more successfully against companies that have harnessed the expertise found only on the digital-native side of the divide.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what market you serve: many of your customers are on the cutting edge of the digital divide. Here, the view of relationships and online connections is inherently expansive. Customers are socialized to expect easy, immediate access to the companies and brands they do business with. This is not a population that tolerates frustration well: if they can’t connect with your organization, they’ll find another company that’s more receptive to their overtures.

Companies that want to thrive in these competitive economic environments cannot allow this digital divide to separate them from growth and profitable opportunities. Integrating the two sides of the divide requires communication and leadership. The companies that are the most agile and adept at connecting with their customers online understand the perspective on both sides of the digital divide—and they bridge the gap with a coherent, comprehensive strategy.

Bridging the Gap with Customers
The companies that have the most meaningful, well-integrated, and brand-consistent communications with their customers are the companies that are the most successful. For this reason, it’s essential to join your customers online.

Discover How Your Customers Connect with You
Your website analytics contain a wealth of valuable information. Examining the analytics will reveal what tools your customers are using to connect with your brand. This includes the type of computer or mobile device being used to view your website, internet browser choices, screen sizes, and more. Analyzing this data will help you make smart, strategic decisions about your digital presence.

Talk to Your Customers
People love to give their opinions. Online survey programs and focus groups can be used to solicit information directly from your customers about their digital communication style and preferences. Talk to your customers about the ways they’d like to connect with you. There is a deep and pervasive hunger for relationships in our culture. If you open a door for conversation, your customers will talk to you. Make sure you’re willing to listen to what they have to say.

Commit to Crossing the Divide
It’s one thing to say you’re going to cross the digital divide and communicate more effectively with your customers. It’s another thing to actually do it. Commit your organization to meaningful change. Be aware that it takes time and resources to plan and implement a digital strategy. Identifying and assessing new tools and platforms as they evolve is an ongoing process. Determining where and how your customers like to be reached isn’t a one-time deal. Allocate resources appropriately, implement your plans, and be willing to evaluate and adapt as needed to better serve your customers.

Change is scary. Worse than that, change can be time-consuming. When you’re an entrepreneur or leader of a smaller organization, it becomes critical to adopt cost-effective strategies first. Those that find themselves on the far side of the digital divide must begin the process of crossing the gap by finding those tools and technologies that deliver the most immediate results. Whether that means learning to effectively harness the power of social media, embracing the fundamentals of appropriate web design, or learning to text message, it comes down to one simple question: what technology will allow you to reach your customers with the information they want to hear in the way they want to hear it? When you can answer that question, you’ve begun the process of bridging the digital divide.

Originally published NY Enterprise Report November 2011

Though the leaves have not even begun to change here on the east coast, I have found myself already working with and reminding our clients that NOW is the time to start planning out their holiday communications.

Let’s have a quick discussion about the holiday communications you might want to start considering now.

eCommerce Site Ideas

If you have an ecommerce site you should begin by identifying the last day you can ship your product or gift certificates so they will arrive in time for the holiday. Working backward you should schedule out:

• Home page image changes
• Holiday specials & offers
• Email offers & dates they will be sent
• Social media specials
• Content changes around gifts, FAQ’s, shipping and return policies

If you know what’s going to be a hot seller you may want to take pre-sale orders and offer something special like free gift wrap.

The goal here is to start planning now. I would also recommend that in preparation for this time of year you schedule time for testing your shopping cart. You should also plan on reviewing your analytics to see if you have had a high number of abandoned purchases. This is a perfect time to make some slight changes to your checkout process to help increase sales before the holiday rush.

B2B or B2C Non-eCommerce Site Ideas

Just because your website does not offer a way to sell online doesn’t mean you should neglect the holidays. Many B2B companies plan out their holiday gifts months in advance but they forget about the electronic world.

Here are some items you may want to think about for your holiday eCommunications:

• eCards: these eCards can be a simple image or they can be animated. Either way they are environmentally friendly and if interesting enough, something people may forward to co-workers or friends.
• Home page or masthead changes: depending upon the design of your website. You may want to plan out a few items; like changing the imagery to something that feels more seasonal or inserting a little Holly & Ivy by your logo just to show some spirit. A website changethat is often overlooked is the posting of the company’s holiday hours. This should include the days the office will be closed early or closed completely.
• Social Media: If your business is using any social tools like; Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In, this may be the perfect opportunity for you to plan on spotlighting your clients as places to get unique gifts or promote your favorite non-profit organization. You can also plan out images and fun items that will show how your organization is sharing the joy during the season. Find a theme that works for you and your business. For example, an accountant might remind you to keep receipts and a professional organizer may offer tips on staying organized with holiday purchases.

Small businesses fall into the same trap every year around November 20th when all the holiday party invites and staff vacation requests begin – what are we doing for our holiday gifts, cards and general communication?

Thinking about things in November will lead to missed opportunities. You need to give yourself and your design and development firm time; to be creative, plan out edits and monitor your metrics. Starting ahead of time will help you see an increase in business in the last quarter of 2011 and new business in 2012.

Here are some samples of past holiday eCards to get you inspired:

Tip 1: Keep Your Audience In Mind
You may have an agenda for what you want on your website, but you should also always find a way to connect with your audience. Try to find out what trends your audience is following. What are they posting on their Facebook walls, tweeting, or writing on their blogs? This can help you tremendously when thinking about how you can update your website. They’ll appreciate that your content pertains to their business issues and interests, and that will in turn show that you care about what they do.

Tip 2: Content, Content and More Content
Your website might be new today, but is the content changing to reflect that?  Does it say “Welcome?” or “Check Out Our New Site,” even though it was created a month or two ago? If so then that’s a definite no no. The launching process always brings up a million-and-one ideas. Write them down and drip them into your website! If you’re running out of new content ideas, go back to Tip 1 for some inspiration.

To help keep you on task, create a calendar so that you can stockpile content. The goal is to keep your website constantly evolving. It effects how often Google spiders your site, not to mention how frequently it’s accessed through social media tools.

Tip 3: Get Creative
Work on incorporating colorful pictures, graphics, icons and videos into your website. I know what you’re thinking: But I’m a B2B company! How would that be relevant? Whether your company is an IT company, construction service or medical practice, your site needs to stay fresh and eye-catching. Here’s one idea: keep up with the seasons by putting pictures of pumpkins for the fall, snowmen for winter, and the beach for summer, a perfect way to make your B2B company’s website colorful and fun. Or try swapping out some of those old stock photos and creating some new headlines and calls to action for your marketing objectives.

Tip 4: Keep Optimization In Mind
Listen to how your customers phrase things or talk about your company. Their language can provide the greatest headlines or calls to action for you. If you’re not sure of what keywords are working for you, use the Google Optimizer tool to run A to B testing (www.google.com/websiteoptimizer.) Make sure to engage in positive SEO practices. Once your site has tracking in place, get your site noticed by submitting it to online directories such as Dmoz.org, Yelp and the Best of the Web Directory.

Tip 5: Google Webmaster
To keep from getting the dreaded 404 page, make sure you continually check the links to make sure they are clickable and accessible on your live site. We spend so much time link building and incorporating social media onto our site, so it’s important that the pages exist later. To make sure the links you put on your website still work, use the Google Webmaster Tool.  Under the “Crawl Errors” section on the Dashboard, you’ll find a list of Broken Links-i.e. 404 errors.

Here’s some homework to help get you started: Take 5 frequently asked questions your clients inquire about or the most popular services/ products you offer. Take these answers and build 5 weeks of changes and/or updates you can use for your website. Remember, it doesn’t have to be such a painful process to update your website. You just need some creativity and planning in place!