The way we interact in the digital space has changed the way we communicate

The digital age not only requires a change in physical elements but in thinking as well. A website can no longer just be a one-way street. It must have the ability to communicate, be functional, and express a particular brand. In a way, it must be an authentic representation of the company. The days of a website being a simple placeholder is over. What has taken its place is the ability for people to actually use the website and gain an understanding of the company/brand without having to be in contact with the physical representation.

This shift in the way we interact in the digital space has changed the way we communicate. The U.S. government though late to the game has noticed this shift.

The U.S. government is shifting the way they think about digital. They are using websites and mobile marketing techniques to not only reach but also communicate with their users. They realize that the digital space is a way to help people understand and communicate with a government that has been up until now unreachable. As opposed to being some entity that is deemed too big to understand, the government is employing techniques that include actual user-friendly websites and applications to communicate with their citizens.

They are able to relay data that can be beneficial to people. They are able to help keep their citizens up to date on projects that are taking shape in their area, they are able to relay the data of the census without having to go through snail-mail, they are able to keep a two-way street open between the government and everyday people. This however is not a wide spread phenomena throughout the bureaucratic system just yet but the transformation is in deed taking place.

How are brands doing this – they have changed the way they think, going from a consumer-based mindset to a user-based mindset. A consumer-based mindset usually entails that there is some occurrence where a customer visits a website for a particular reason and makes a purchase. A User (coined by Aaron Shapiro, author of his recent book User’s Not Consumers and the CEO of Huge Inc.) is the person/people who interact with your company through digital media and technology. These people do not necessarily have to be a customer of your company. They do not even need to make a purchase or buy a product the first time they visit your site. They might have been told to visit your website or have happened to stumble across it. They are simply people who use or rather interact with your website or digital representation of yourself and brand.

This is what the U.S. Government is realizing. By updating their digital look they open up interactive pathways for a conversation to take place between their users and themselves. The users might not initially make a purchase on a website but they are introduced to the brand. The likelihood of them returning to your digital representation is very high considering the ability of the user to understand the information in front of them. And when they do return it might be for a purchase or transaction of some sort. In terms of the government it could be for information that might have been previously difficult to relay to the user. But with the advent of digital and brand recognition this information can be easily accessed and obtained while conversing in real-time.  

by Nage Gibson-Thompson