Internet Strategist: What's that anyway?
Helmi Noman
A senior manager at a newspaper called me the other day to tell me about his paper's terrible experience with the Internet.
"We have been using the Internet in all sections of our operation but we did not get the productivity we expected", he said. "We invested a lot in hardware, software, and IT staff, yet traffic to our web site is not increasing, if actually not decreasing. Our employees have access to the Internet but their productivity did not increase, either. To make things worse, one of our editors published a story based on information she found on the Internet which turned to be inaccurate. And you know what? A publishing company is suing us because, believe it or not, we linked to their web site!"
"I suggest you talk to your Internet Strategist about all of this?", I said.
"Internet Strategist? What the hell is that?", he asked.
The Internet Strategist: The big picture
Today's organizations, whether they are media organizations, educational institutions, government offices, or business corporations need specialists to strategize the advance use of the Internet's potential and develop actionable and tactical plans to deliver dependable and timely services.
Many e-businesses use the expression "Internet Strategist" to mean online marketer, Web traffic builder, or just as another word for web developer. Some businesses attribute purely technical responsibilities to the Internet Strategist.
Novell offers a training course titled Internet Business Strategist. It says the Strategist “sets an organization's Internet direction through a thorough understanding of Internet technology and its possible use in increasing productivity, expanding an organization's marketing reach, and reducing customer support costs." As to the responsibilities of the Strategist in a Web site team it says they are to “select a web site host, register the web site, set up the electronic commerce account, and advertise the web site.”
My approach to the role of the Internet Strategist in today's organizations is quite different.
The Internet Strategist: Responsibilities and Challenges
The Internet Strategist regards the Internet as a strategic imperative and adapts a holistic approach to integrate it into the organization's overall business strategy. Specifically, the Strategist's responsibilities include:
- Helping organizations create their web vision, establishing performance benchmarks for online activities, and strategizing Web site traffic building and online marketing.
- Helping today's content providers ensure that their web sites provide superior credibility, reliability, currency, and easy navigation.
- Developing organization's efficient, farsighted online policies on ethical and legal issues, as well as actions to protect the organization's online identity and trademark.
The Internet Strategist and Internet Law: A Closer Look
I recently conducted several presentations for journalists from a prominent Arab media organization on a variety of topics including Internet Law. The organization is facing legal problems acquiring a domain name that is causing confusion between their site and another newly developed site that has a similar domain and similar content.
Based on my interaction with one of their legal advisors, I think none of the legal actions they have taken was really in the right direction. The approach itself was wrong; They are going through a system that was developed to solve "traditional" trademark and copyright issues. In fact, new laws, systems, and mechanisms have been, or are being, developed to solve Internet -specific disputes. An Internet Strategist would have helped such an organization saved time and money, and most importantly, would have advised on how to go through the right system to protect their online identity.
