1. 1 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
kw-digital.com
The challenges, strategies and management
issues for Web Managers in 2013
à
2. 2 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Inside the
mind of a Web
Manager 2013
We asked people who run corporate websites about the challenges
they face in 2013 and their priorities and plans. 137 professionals
from 123 listed companies in 22 countries participated in the sur-
vey. 44% of the companies that took part in the survey are in the
Financial Times’ Europe 500. These are our findings from the survey.
Web managers are concentrating on ensuring that their websites
work well in mobile devices – responsive design is high on the list of
priorities for the year. This is a sound priority since around 17% of
visits to corporate websites are from a mobile device (according to
a KW Digital analytics study of 15 corporate websites). Apps on the
other hand are a low priority this year and also have low degree of
satisfaction among the companies. The trend is clearly moving to
responsive website design.
Companies tend to spend more on their website and prioritize
their website more. Their biggest challenges are their social media
presence and digital strategies.
3. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 3
123123123123
from of them
44%44%44%44%
$$
Decreased
17171717
%
Increased
28282828
%
48484848
%
Unchanged
50%
47%
43%
39%
35%
%
%
40404040
18181818
Who we asked? Website investment
Main content areas for improvements Technical solutions
Use of social media channels
83%83%83%83%
Used by
76%76%76%76%
KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
4. 4 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
The corporate
website is a priority
– but not always for senior management
Senior management involvement is important for building a long-term roadmap and communication
strategy for the website. Many companies lack a clear online strategy signed-off by the senior man-
agement which often creates a gap between the business strategy and what is communicated on the
website and other corporate digital channels.
Strategy-related issues were also one of the key challenges mentioned by respondents. e.g. “Separate
business units have different goals when it comes to digital communication – they prioritise differently
and it’s difficult to reach a shared vision.” Formulating a shared vision is key to producing a digital
strategy, but once established, it offers significant guidance to those involved in developing corporate
websites.
Nearly 40% indicate that senior management is highly, or fully, involved
in determining the goals and vision for their company’s digital corporate
communications. About 20% have little or no involvement from senior
management. The respondents who give the corporate website their full
priority (about 31%) have their senior management’s involvement and
full attention.
percent have
little or no
involvement
from senior
management
20
Source: KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
To what extent is senior management
involved in determining the goals and
vision for your digital corporate
communications
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Not at all involved
Slightly
To some extent
Involved
Highly
Fully involved
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
5. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 5
à
What content do you plan to improve or
emphasize in digital channels in 2013?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Other
None
Risk information
Debt information
Contact information
Complete overhaul
Corporate governance related
Online annual report
IR
Media
Career related
CSR/sustainability content
Information about the company
The corporate website and online corporate communications have the highest priority when compared
to social media and corporate mobile apps. The corporate website will be prioritised by over 92% in
2013 compared to social media 67%.
Companies will primarily work on improving information about the company (50%), CSR/Sustainability
content (47%), Career related content (43%), Media and IR.
How will you prioritize the following
areas in 2013?
0 20 40 60 80 100
Online corporate communication
(strategy, presence, effectiveness)
Corporate website (strategy, content, look and feel,
message, traffic, transactions, stakeholder satisfaction)
Social media (strategy, content, distribution, response)
Corporate mobile or tablet apps (strategy, integration,
content, presence, distribution, response)
Not at all prioritzed
Slightly prioritized
Prioritized to some extent
A priority
Very prioritized
Fully prioritized
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
6. 6 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
40% say they plan to improve or emphasize re-
sponsive design during 2013, in comparison, only
18% plan to improve or emphasize their mobile or
tablet app.
Social media is a challenge for many companies.
It is also an area where they see a need to focus
their efforts. The integration of social media
channels within the website creates added value
with traffic flowing from one medium to the other
and using the already established technology with
the social channels rather than having to develop
them on your website. A great example of this is
a LinkedIn plugin which lets your visitors see if
they have any 1st or 2nd degree LinkedIn contacts
working at your company. Another example is us-
ing an integrated slide-share module for showing
and archiving your public presentations instead of
developing your own. A bonus is that the presen-
tations will be available both on Slideshare and on
your website without any extra efforts of upload-
ing them more than once.
Which solutions linked to your
corporate website do you plan
to improve/emphasise in 2013?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
None
Other
Design
A new content management system
iPad/tablet/smartphone app
Internal search engine
Mobile adaptation
Functions to increase interaction with visitors
Search engine optimization
Social media – integration
Responsive design
Functionality (e.g. charting tools, databases)
Content structure
Traffic coming from mobile devices
to 15 corporate websites
(Nov 2010 – Apr 2013)
%
0
5
10
15
20
2013-032013-012012-112012-092012-072012-052012-032012-012011-112011-092011-072011-052011-032011-012010-11
Source: KW Digital
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Companies plan to improve the content structure,
functionality, and integration with social media.
They are also turning their attention to responsive
design. These are sensible priorities. Responsive
design has started to become a corporate web-
site must-have, since more and more traffic
to websites comes from mobile devices.
We have studied traffic from mobile devices in 15
websites between November 2011 and April 2013.
The trend is staggering, going from 5,3% in April
2011 to 11,3 % 2012 to 17,5% in April 2013. We
are getting to a point when the visitor expects the
website to be optimized for their mobile phone or
tablet.
Preparing for visitors from mobile devices
7. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 7
Purpose of the website
The majority of the respondents indicate that the
purpose of their website is to give relevant and
significant information to key audiences. 25%
indicate that it should be the central hub for the
company’s external communications. This tells us
that 25% use the corporate website for company
related information as well as to market their
products or services.
Social media, strategy and consistency
– the biggest challenges for 2013
We asked respondents to indicate what they
think their company’s primary challenge in digital
communications is for the moment. Social media
was by far the largest challenge with comments
like “Learning to adapt social media in a very
conservative company” and “We should improve
our presence in selected social media channels”.
Other challenges faced were finding a strategy
for working with social media and deciding what
channels to prioritise.
Digital strategy was also mentioned by many as
their top challenge, “Social media should more
and more become part of the online corporate
communication strategy”, “[our primary challenge
is] how to change focus from traditional printed
media to a fully integrated digital strategy”. These
are both great topics for discussion when working
on digital strategy.
What best describes your purpose/vision
of your corporate website?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Other
To be compliant and provide regulatory information
To increase the valuation of the company
To increase brand awareness
To be the central hub for the company’s
external communication
Give relevant and significant information to our key audiences
(investors, shareholders, journalists, job seekers)
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
à
8. 8 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Social media
of increased
importance but
also one of the
largest challenges
The importance of social media is growing stronger. 79% of companies
use social media for corporate communication today. Of the 21% who do
not, a third are planning to become active in 2013, which tells us that the
trend is continuing to grow. Social media was also the most cited chal-
lenge for web managers in 2013, where many struggle with the absence
of any strategy or framework for working with social media.
percent use
social media
for corporate
communications
79
Source: KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
9. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 9
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
are most popular
61% and 50% responded that they actively use Facebook and LinkedIn
respectively. Twitter is the most popular social media platform among the re-
spondents – it is actively used by 69% of the respondents’ companies while
83% indicate that they actively or less actively use Twitter for their corporate
communications. This can be compared to 59% a company page on Twitter
in 2012.
Facebook competitor Google+ is actively used by 23%, SlideShare, a pres-
entation sharing service is actively used by 18% and Scribd is actively used
by 2%.
When it comes to choosing your strategy for social media and deciding
which channels to be present in the most important part is to decide what to
communicate, how often it should be updated and who should be responsi-
ble for doing it. Consistency over time is key to keep interest from your audi-
ence. Although SlideShare and Scribd are used by a few they are channels
that could be of great value for your business. They will make your docu-
ments and presentations reachable to many more people than they would if
they only reside on your website and depending on your business this could
be a great way of establishing you as a knowledge-leader in your niche.
Major investments in social media
The trend towards investments in social media continues, with more com-
panies investing more money on social media. 28% have increased their
budget related to social media while only 5% has a lower budget than last
year. 67% of companies see social media as a priority in 2013.
A majority of the active companies
have a social media policy
84% of the companies who are active in social media have a social media
policy. The most common content is guidelines for how employees should
use social media at work (58%) and guidelines for employees’ behaviour in
relation to corporate social media channels (47%). Other popular content
includes the instructions for internal social media teams on how to respond
to questions published through corporate social media channels (41%) and
how the company’s social media accounts should be run (34%).
Surprisingly, only 28% have a crisis plan with instructions on what to do in a
social media crisis. There are numerous examples of social media crises that
could have been eliminated, or at least minimised if the company had a well
prepared crisis plan. A social media policy should give mandate and guide-
lines on how to act in a crisis in a given circumstance.
69percent use
Twitter actively
for corporate
communications
à
Source: KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
10. 10 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Monitoring social media
75% of the respondents use a system for social media monitoring and 40%
use a social media management tool (SMMT) to manage accounts, content,
monitoring and measurement of corporate communications.
Web managers plan to prioritise their social media efforts to surface infor-
mation related to Press, Careers and Corporate Responsibility in 2013.
75percent use a
system for social
media monitoring
Do you have a social media policy
and what does it cover?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
We don’t have an official social media policy
Other
Crisis plan - Instructions for what to
do in the case of a social media crisis
Instructions for the social media team on what content
to publish in the corporate social media channels
Instructions for the social media team on how to respond
to questions in the corporate social media channels
Guidelines for all employees conduct related
to the corporate social media channels
Guidelines for how all employees are allowed
to use social media channels at work
Source: KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
11. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 11
More focus on
mobile-friendly
web
41% of the respondents currently have a mobile-friendly website with
content tailored for mobile or tablet devices. Of those that do not
have a mobile-friendly website, 31% plan to develop it in 2013.
However only 20% have a responsive website, which is the most current technique for creating
mobile-friendly websites. Out of those who do not have a responsive website, 39% are planning on
making their website responsive this year. This clearly shows that responsive web is a strong trend
going forward.
38% of companies currently have an app, compared to 29% in 2012. Of these, 98% have an app for
Apple iOS and 58% for Android. 67% indicate that they will prioritise corporate mobile or tablet apps
in 2013.
67percent, will
prioritise cor-
porate mobile
or tablet apps
in 2013
Source: KW Digital Web
Management Report 2013
12. 12 – KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Web Managers:
Who they are and
what they do
137 professionals from 123 listed companies in 22 countries have participated in KW Digital’s survey this
year. 44% of the companies that took part in the survey are included in the Financial Times Europe 500.
The majority of the respondents are Head of Online Communications, Web Managers or Head of
Corporate Communications working in a Corporate Communications department. Most are responsi-
ble for web content and digital media and around 40% indicate that online annual reports and overall
corporate communications are included in their responsibilities.
In most cases the Head of Communications is in charge of the company’s corporate website. 57% of
the respondents have 1-3 people working on the corporate website more or less full time, 19% have
seven or more people. Interestingly, 7% of the companies do not have a person working full-time with
the website.
In 62% of the companies, senior management is involved in determining the goals and vision for your
digital corporate communication.
Head of Online Communication/Digital media, 19%
Web Manager, 15%
Head of Corporate Communications/Communications Director, 12%
Head Corporate Web, 9%
IR officier, 7%
Communications officer, 7%
Head of IR, 5%
Web editor, 3%
Other, 23%
Title
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
13. KW Digital Web Management Report 2013 – 13
Corporate communications, 64%
Investor relations, 17%
Online/Web communications, 12%
Corporate Affairs, 2%
Media Relations, 1%
Other, 11%
Department
0, 8%
1-3, 58%
4-6, 16%
7-10, 10%
10 or more, 8%
People working full time
with the corporate website
Areas of responsibility
0 20 40 60 80
Other
Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility
Investor Relations
Marketing/Communications strategy
Press and Media
Budget
Online annual reports
Overall corporate communications
Digital media/multimedia
Web content/web editorial
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013
Source: KW Digital Web Management Report 2013