A little over a decade ago comedian Eddie Izzard joked that Britain built its empire by stealing countries through the cunning use of flags.

• I claim India for Britain.
• You can’t claim us, we live here?  500-million of us.
• (Smug) Do you have a flag?
• (Flabbergasted) We don’t need a bloody flag.  It’s our country.
• No flag, no country.  You can’t have one.  That’s the rules…

Staying on the cutting edge of the technology curve works much the same way.  You may think you have your market cornered - then someone you’ve never heard of comes along and plants their “flag” in Facebook or the iPhone App Store and suddenly your loyal customer base starts looking elsewhere.

It may not seem like this should be the case - especially if you’ve spent time building up your customer base through traditional, off-line means.  Unfortunately, social media and the mobile web have become the accepted stomping grounds of the modern consumer - and (in the name of convenience) these consumers are willing to accept the claims that anyone who’s anyone will be working in those same circles.

If you’re not in these modern markets then you are effectively working without a flag.

Now, just because you have a Social Media or Mobile presence doesn’t mean that you can avoid conflict with your technological Britain - even countries with flags got into border conflicts and ideological wars, but at least you’ll be fighting rather than rolling over and letting someone claim your territory as their own without so much as a “by your leave.”

Designing Your Flag

Just as you wouldn’t want to take a cast off garment and run it up a flagpole - you don’t want your first foray into either social media or the mobile web to be haphazard.

Whatever you produce, you want it to be something that people can rally about, and ideally something which supports a narrative of what your company does and stands for.

Until next time…

- Ciao