When I was first developing corporate Web sites in 1994, business managers were asking how they would make any money or get business results from having a Web site. I’ve been in it from the very beginning and I remember the early years required a lot of evangelism to convince them. Case studies about online success from house hold brands began showing up in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. By 1998, we couldn’t build new Web sites quickly enough and there was a major shortage of professionals in the work force to keep up with demand.
In 2000, we were still building them, but the budgets dropped dramatically for Web site design after the tech stocks crashed and the events that followed such as 9/11. In 2001 and the early part of 2003, there were many starved Web design companies.
From mid 2002 to today, I’ve seen the majority of businesses suddenly wanting a total “redesign”. Budgets have been slowly increasing, but this time around companies are focused on using the Web to save money for their business. Content management, contact us forms, site search and other functionality changed from expensive extras to baseline offerings - and charging for premium services such as custom programming were replaced with open-source solutions or off-the-shelf products. Businesses wanted efficiency, automation, and real business results from their Web site with tools to measure success.
Having been through all the industry cycles before, my experience tells me that it will likely be several more years before Social Media is recognized as “mission critical” by a majority of businesses. We are still in early adopter mode. The mad rush for more businesses to “get in the game”, with dramatic increases in budgets and another shortage of specialized professionals to design, develop and manage social media initiatives will likely hit a peak in 2012.
