by Mark Ollig
Many consider 1993 as the year we began using the Web
in earnest.
The Web was going to be a whole new way for us to
obtain news, to learn, to collaborate, to retrieve and share information, to
work, and to entertain ourselves.
It also opened up a whole new world of possibilities
for personal interactions, and public dialogue.
Yes, we were excited about this fresh, new medium; this
global World Wide Web.
Of course, the corporate business world was undoubtedly
thinking of ways to make money from it.
During the 1980s and early ‘90s, much of our online
computing experience consisted of using a telephone modem, and dial-up services
we paid to use such as: Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL.
These sites were, more or less, large Bulletin Board
Systems (BBS’s) with a connection to the Internet.
We needed to install their proprietary client software
on our computer. This software usually came on a 3.5-inch diskette, or a 5.25-inch
floppy disk.
Many small, independently operated, free-to-access
hobby BBS’s were out there, too.
Before Web browsers hit the scene, we used a “command
line” and traversed the Internet in text mode. We typed specific commands in
order to retrieve information.
With a Web browser, we could navigate over the
fast-growing Web portion of the Internet via a colorful, intuitive, graphical
interface, and the use of a point-and-click mouse.
We learned HyperText Markup Language (HTML) coding for
creating our own individual web pages using a text editor program.
What fueled the Internet’s dramatic rise in public
usage after 1993 was the Web, and I contribute this largely to the Mosaic Web
browser software installed in many personal computers.
Mosaic wasn’t the first Web browser.
Tim Berners-Lee is the person credited with writing the
programming code which allows us to point and click our way through the myriad
of hyper-links connecting documents, sounds, videos, and information we access
via the World Wide Web portion of the Internet using a Web browser.
Berners-Lee called his creation a “global hypertext
system.”
Some people believe the Internet and the Web are the
same; but this is not true. The Web is actually a type of technology that works
with the Internet.
We know the Internet is “the networks of networks.”
This network consists of many devices, including: computers, cables, routers,
switches, gateways, and data servers – all working together.
Information sent over the Internet consists of data
bits inside a data packet. I tend to think of a data packet as analogous to a
letter inside an envelope addressed to a specific mailing address.
This data packet travels through the many devices
connected on the Internet. Each device, or “hop,” along the way determines
which path the packet needs to take next so its information ends up getting to
its desired destination.
The fewer the “hops,” the faster the information will
be sent and retrieved.
The Internet delivers packets of information between
connected devices anywhere in the world using transmission control and Internet
protocols – and it does this very quickly.
The Web browser program called WorldWideWeb, was
created by Tim Berners-Lee. This browser was made available to the public in
1991.
In 1994, a new Web browser called Netscape Navigator
became extremely popular with Web users. It ended up becoming the dominant Web
browser for the remainder of the 1990s.
During the last 20 years, many of us have come to spend
hours on end online, interacting within our favorite websites using a variety
of Web browsers.
Today, 2 billion of us world-wide, regularly use the
Web.
Along the way, businesses were very carefully watching
how the public became enamored with the Web. They soon realized, in order to
keep themselves (and their products and services) in the eyes of this
ever-growing online public;,they needed to have a presence on the Web.
Marketing firm Onyxdigital recently stated 85 percent
of customers “expect businesses to be active in social media.”
Approximately 68 percent of business Twitter followers,
and 51 percent of business Facebook fans, have a tendency to make a purchase
from online business advertising.
Studies also show businesses with blogging accounts
receive 55 percent more Web traffic.
Customers are increasingly using a business’s Twitter
account or Facebook page for submitting questions and comments.
Onyxdigital reported 71 percent of complaints made on
business Twitter accounts are not responded to. However, of the 29 percent who
did receive a Twitter response, 83 percent said they were “satisfied” with it.
They also reported 30 percent of customer inquiries
received “no reply” from a business’s online social media site. Onyxdigital
posed this insightful question: “Would you NOT answer the phone 30 percent of
the time?”
Onyxdigital’s website is located at:
http://onyxdigital.co.za.
Online chat sessions via social media need to be
utilized by more businesses to communicate with customers; much the same as if
a customer was on the phone, or inside their brick-and-mortar store.
Too many online businesses have become fixated with
their number of Twitter “followers” and “likes” on their Facebook pages,
instead of cultivating one-on-one, productive customer interactions via their
social media sites.
Companies with just a static, online social media
presence are missing out.
Businesses need to establish a dynamic, online social
media presence where the customer can easily communicate with them in
real-time. This is a good way to network and nurture relationships with online
patrons.
