For every well-executed web development, there may be 10 that completely fail. Dan Bower examines why it's critical to create something inline with your brand that people want to see, rather than throw something out into the ether.

A world of APIs, widgets and development platforms is making it easier than ever to claim a slice of the web for your brand. Within days you can have access to millions of potential users who congregate online to manage their social lives, music tastes and photos. However this merely scratches the surface, as countless niches operate online that smart brands will be able to effectively deliver their message through.

Being reactive to the ever changing online world is a key success factor for those companies who have been able to stay ahead. At welovelocal we admire those companies that maintain a lean development team who are thus able to react quickly to the evolving battleground and new marketing opportunities. It's the kind of agile web development that we hope welovelocal can encapsulate. That said, quick development cycles and changing tastes (Facebook is so last month, it's all about Spock now), can result in poorly executed products that are done for the sake of it. Making sure that your application is appropriate is a key consideration: building something because you have the necessary resources and feel it is of the time will often result in little more than wasted bytes.

A prime example of the former is the Nike+ running application. Nike successfully leveraged the huge success of Apple's iPod, Google Maps Mashups, social networking and the competitive human sprit to produce an excellent web application. The Nike+ service enabled runners from across the world to compete against each other using the pedometer added to the iPod, while Google Maps allowed them to share different routes and experiences. Nike+ remains a huge success and demonstrates how the web can help a very 'non-web' company harness the creative juices of its users while keeping them heavily focused on their product and industry as a whole.

For every example of a superbly executed web development, there may be at least 10 that completely miss the mark. Take Wal-Mart for example, in 2006 the American retailing monolith launched a social network called 'The Hub' in an attempt to harness the growing social networking trend. Ten weeks later and The Hub was nowhere to be seen, as an article in Forbes at the time succinctly commented:

"The lack of interactivity between users, heavy-handed corporate messaging and parental notifications the site used could also have hastened its shutdown. After all, why would teens spend their time maintaining a Wal-Mart profile when MySpace has none of the same restrictions?"

To many it was unsurprising that the venture backfired. In no way did the offering relate back to Wal-Mart's core proposition of low prices, or to its position as America's leading retailer.

The social web presents a range of opportunities for companies to benefit from the surge in activity online; the key is creating something inline with your brand that people want to use, rather than throwing something out into the ether because it feels right and has user-generated content. Despite the seemingly endless numbers of social networks people are happy to join, it is unlikely that your brand will be the centre of an individual's digital identity. A successful development will provide something that complements your brand, rather than detracting from it. 

Daniel Bower is project manager at eMomentum Ltd., creators of social local search engine welovelocal.com.