Websites and The Mousetrap Mythology

Like any new and powerful cultural phenomena, the Internet and the World Wide Web have been breeding grounds for myth.

Our desire to explain this burgeoning technology, and to understand its unexpected offspring the website, has resulted in the creation of a complicated and sometimes unforgiving mythology.  The website became the new technological icon, and its very existence seemed to change everything overnight.  It soon became axiomatic in business, that if you simply had a website, you were destined for unequaled success.  Quality was irrelevant.

That was the first damaging myth, of many.

(Stop:  Before you read any further, click on the image above and enjoy “The Mousetrap Never Works!”)

THE “MOUSETRAP” MYTH

The next and most potentially damaging myth is the Mousetrap Myth.  This fabrication of the the young and aggressive web design industry, suggested that any website — no matter how mediocre or convoluted — and regardless of the absence of business acumen on the part of the designer — would work flawlessly, as it generated a guaranteed profit for its owner.  Like the childhood game of “Mousetrap” that promises to be a “delight for the entire family right out of the box,” this approach to building an Internet business was destined to fail.  Without sufficient business experience, the designer, like the plastic man in the Mousetrap Game itself, was effectively useless.  To borrow a lyric from the video above, “The Mousetrap never works!”

THE “FIELD OF DREAMS” MYTH

This myth is a basic untruth that promises… “If you build it … (any website, even if mediocre and non-Social-Media enabled)…they will come.”  This has never been true.  If anything, it is much less true today than it was years ago when the Internet carried an implicit cache’.  There are literally millions of websites now, and even the best ideas or products are indistinguishable under an avalanche of mediocrity.

As a minimum, your site must be more compelling, more interactive, more “sticky” and more useful than ANY of your perceived competition.  After that it still has the challenge of being found, and the pressure of converting visitors into customers.

Do it yourself websites are fine, if you are an accomplished web designer and a seasoned businessman with a long track record of real-world successes.  Otherwise, what you have is a hobby, not a business.

THE “WIZARD OF OZ” MYTH

In the iconic film “The Wizard of OZ,” a key character was a short, old, slightly plump man, hiding behind a screen.  He had no real powers except those his visitors imparted to him.  In the world of Social Media, there are more self-proclaimed experts than there are needy customers.  Of the 35.4 million hits on a Google search for “Social Media experts” do we really believe each of them is an authority on a medium that has only existed for a few years?  And what about the countless people trying to sell you their “secret formula” on how to make Twitter work, for example?  If it is working so well for them, why do they find it necessary to sell their solution to you?

For roughly the last two decades I have been deeply immersed in all facets of the Internet, after a career as a senior officer for a huge company, and I would be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers.  Together, the best that we can hope for is that we can isolate all of the appropriate questions.

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