About two years ago my wife and I were looking over the fence at other home options as our family was growing. My wife’s brother and sister both were working for Plantation Homes at the time. Before I knew what hit me, we were buying a new home in the Lantana community which is in southwest Austin at William Cannon and Southwest Parkway - very near the new AMD campus. Purchasing the home was a great experience because we had two insiders looking out for us. During the process I mentioned that I wasn’t a fan of how new neighborhoods had centralized locked mailboxes. I grew up with a mailbox in front of my house and liked the simplicity of walking out to get our mail. At the same time, I was quickly reminded of a key benefit of locked mailboxes - added security from identity theft. What a smart point which had totally slipped my normally very paranoid approach to identity theft protection.
So back to the mailboxes - here is a picture which got me thinking:
For the past couple of weeks, each time I drive by the mailboxes (fortunately, it is my wife’s routine to actually get our mail) I have noticed the same number of unwanted telephone books. So how do you feel when someone leaves phone books at your door step? For me, I am not a fan and feel frustrated when I have received phone books on my door step in the past - I didn’t ask for the clunky phone books and now I have a new task which is to recycle the very unwelcome phone books - thank you very much nefarious phone book people.
So what is my point and how does a locked mailbox tie into web development and online strategy? The reality is we need to evolve and accept the fact the rate of change will not slow down. Our online strategies need not to fall victim in becoming unwanted phone books. The brutal facts of our reality are that social marketing for one isn’t going away. Further, the way we build loyalty and engage customers online will continue to evolve especially with the rise of Gen Y. Is your web site going to evolve at the same rate of change to build rather than loose momentum? What are you doing to add build loyalty? How are you using web technology to engage your audience? Take action and talk to us today about staying relevant in the fast, cool world of the web.
Steve C. Kahle
Managing Principal
White Lion Internet Agency