It’s been a busy week.  I have often talked about the way users now behave on the Web, in response to organisations’ approaches to branding.  Mostly people use search, not only for finding things they don’t know about, but also locating the sites for things they do, but either cannot or don’t see the need to recall the URL.  Recognising this changes the way that we promote and advertise services. 

It’s not that Web search engines are the new government portals (see Persuasive Content’s nice comments on my keynote address to public sector IT Directors) but, because that is the way that the majority behave, they have become portals to all information.  What we are doing in government is working with people’s habits to make it easy for them to get to the public sector information and services they need and that we want to encourage them to use. 

There are implications for branding – and that has been the focus of most conversations this week.  Many still think of branding as the logo or, more generally, the visual image.  But that is a tiny aspect of branding.  Thinking of John Lewis or Waitrose or Morrisons, conjures up notions of quality, reliability and cost with associated personal and internalised reactions, such as ‘my kind of place’ or ‘good value for money’ – which their straplines reflect and differentiate from each other.

The key is what people know and think about the organisation and what you want them to know and think about you. That is done through language and positioning relative to other services – hence the importance of the Title and Description fields in the Web page metadata along with Search Engine Optimisation, and straplines that people use to describe the site.  The kinds of words we are working to have associated with many government digital services are authoritative, trustworthy, up to date, and comprehensive. 

Search engines are not the only routes; link text on other websites, blogs and tweets are also widely used word-based access points and create an aroma about your site.  What people say in the blogosphere is influential – hence the guidance to civil servants that moves beyond mere permission towards a positive encouragement to get involved and participate on the issues for which they are responsible (see Engaging using social media).  

Web presence is about building reputation and credibility for a particular audience through what is offered and their experience of interactions with the organisation.  A branded Web presence has to think through SEO, SEM, linking and social media strategies to do this.   It is what you and others say, and what you choose to use, that currently create brands on the Web rather than a logo.