Online has only just started

You hear a lot about content, inbound, outbound, cross media, SEO, etc etc.

Everyone who has a business has comes to terms with having to create and manage an online presence and appreciate that their online footprint is a deciding factor.

To put it simply - you can't be in the room when you or your business is being evaluated, but you can manage those perceptions with a positive, endorsed online presence.

There is a view that online has got about as intrusive as it can, and with an engaging well optimised site and an active social media strategy all will be well.

What happens when connection speeds are 100 times faster than they are today? 

I suggest we all have to take a different view, and here's why:

1. The current infrastructure that delivers online is at the Morris Minor stage of development. Perfectly adequate, but bugger all performance and dubious reliability. Over the next 5 years the majority of the UK will be benefitting from an online infrastructure that will feel more like a Porsche 911.
   
2.  The use of real-time screen communications like Skype will increase 100 fold. Inbound enquiries will be dealt with customers who want to and will expect to see who they are talking with and complex screen sharing will be normal.
   
3. Mobile/Tablet platforms with even current software will enable decisions to be made very quickly - with many decisions being made by AI.
   
4. Many of the professional services we pay through the nose for such as accountants, lawyers, marketing consultants, designers and even lowly copywriters will have to compete with very low cost alternatives. It is already muted that 50% of court cases will be held online within 10 years. And new automated business software based on scanned documents will mean that management accounts and final year end numbers will be available instantly.
   
5. Staff will be very savvy not just with Word, but with Excel and all of the adobe Creative Suite, so designers will have to add value elsewhere.

So my message is we all have about 5 years - some market sectors a lot less.

I'm looking forward to it.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net