Is Internet a subject of the manager or the technology department?

The question that is the title of this post is a subject that many entrepreneurs and businessmen face on their companies. Many times the easier answer is “the cobbler should stick to his last”. In this way managers think that Internet – and in general all the technologies- is a subject that only concerns their technology department. Even though the execution of this subject is technical, this answer couldn’t be more wrong and if they want to be successful in this new channel they must start by understanding that they are a fundamental part in order to obtain the business objectives they propose for this channel.

As I mentioned, even if the execution has more technical aspects, before we must think in strategy. Internet is an additional channel of the company and in the same way as in the physical world we don’t open a store without thinking first where to open it, how big should it be, what products are we selling on it, how many people do we need to operate it, among others, we shouldn’t enable this channel without structuring all the strategy that will support our web page, fan pages and accounts.

Definitely the execution must be on the technology department but the company’s manager must first determine with his team all the strategic elements and to obtain better results and at least understand the basics of a excellent strategy on this media. This doesn’t means that he must have to learn to program or that he has to learn to use technical tools on the web, but with a good idea of how a company should be present on the Internet and his knowledge about the company and the market, he is going to be able to propose very interesting ideas and understand the outcomes of this channel.

To understand what I have just stated in a better way, I am going to propose an example. A manager doesn’t need to have a deep knowledge on accountancy, it is unlikely that he is going to need to structure a balance sheet, but it is very important that once the results of the company are shared with him, he understands them in order to define how the company must answer to them. In the same way I recommend he understands how Internet works.

My advice is that at least you try to be updated with the new elements of this media. In order to do this you can look on the web for many technology blogs that talk about technical subjects in a very easy way. One blog I recommend, which is written in spanish is Reporte Digital.

If before you started to read this post you where one of those managers that thought that the subject of internet didn’t concerned you I hope this article have at least make you wonder about who is responsible of Internet. If you new you had to be in charged of this subject before you read this post, continue doing it, you are on the right path.

Image taken fromFlickr.com