Your Website Tells Its Own Story

I share an office with brilliant web designer Steve Ireland - we find that having a cross-fertilisaiton of business ideas and activities is a wonderfully stimulating environment in which to be both creative and productive.

It's not all serious, though - we have our own little game called "What does this one do?". One of us asks the other what some existing website or other is actually about: the other has to reply with his immediate gut instinct of what is the core theme and business activity.

"Spray tanning" was my reaction to one he showed me this morning. It was tan, gaudy and brash. The actual subject of the site was top end executive recruitment.

I showed him a site which promotes specialist outdoor sport equipment - "Escort agency!" was his impression. There were lots of small, clickable, images of models and a lot of flashing and bright lights, big headers and bold claims about excitement and thrills.

I could go on and on - but that would be labouring the joke and glossing over the key points.

Convergence is here. Your strategy, values and brand are merging into your web presence. It is no longer a case of having a business and a tagged-on website. We here this message a lot these days at the level of major organisations but, believe me, the message is in fact even more pressing for smaller organisations - those who don't have multiple ways of customer connecrtivity, including overlapping webs of channel partners, sales reps, trade shows, and supporting literature.

Our website is often becoming the major item of identification on which you are judged. It's no longer just perceived as a complementary couple of pages of brochureware. Your website these days bares your heart and soul - or what you choose to be seen as your heart and soul. It has become the public face of your culture and values.

Don't get me wrong - if you are in spray tanning or escort agencies, I can point you the way of some very effective templates.

But if you do something different, top of your New Year priorities might be getting the view through the world's window on you in tune with what you authentically believe should be seen.

- Malcolm Evans is a partner in The Cultureship Practice, corporate culture and business ethics specialists.