Channel chatter

I hear some organizations refer to their website as "just another channel." While I think the web IS just one part of an organization's overall plan, it is, or at least can be, a game-changer.

Saying the web is just another channel - like print or radio - is like saying airplanes are just another kind of car.

The fact is, the web changes what's possible. It should force organizations to re-think their communications and marketing strategies. How will offline campaigns leverage the website and vice versa? How can the website help shape the direction of future product offerings? How can the website help us better understand, engage and involve our customers?

The great Marshall McLuhan would examine technological advances with a critical eye and ask of them certain questions. The first of these was "What does the medium extend?" The car extended what was possible by foot. The phone extended what was possible with voice. Radio and television extended the ability to disseminate information and images to mass audiences. But the web extends more than all of them. It extends what's possible with communication - enabling previously impossible methods of collaboration, learning and sharing and removing the constraints of authority, time and distance.

Yes, the web changes what's possible. Your organization's website should take advantage.