David Bowen commentaries

In his regular columns for the Financial Times and ft.com, senior consultant David Bowen has pursued themes ranged from customer relationship management and career marketing to ‘ethical’ retailing and royal family sites. His collected Financial Times and ft.com columns from January 2001 onward are indexed by theme and available for viewing on this site.

You can access articles directly by selecting a link below.

  • Who drives the web Neither technology nor social media are the most important issue determining the shape of the web, according to David Bowen in his keynote speech to the Web Effectiveness Conference.
  • What was in the air in Paris First reflections from the Web Effectiveness Conference identify the issues exercising online corporate communicators as they learn to live in exciting times, Elizabeth Olsen reports.
  • Why ‘social media’ might not mean much Companies looking to make sense of ‘social media’ must recognise the diversity of communication tools that the catch-all phrase covers, David Bowen says.
  • Where to pick your fight back BP is the latest reluctant case study in how companies caught in crisis can use the web to respond, even if sometimes there is valour in discretion, David Bowen says.
  • What makes the Index credible Publication of the latest FT Bowen Craggs Index inevitably prompts requests for an explanation of its provenance and worth, David Bowen says.
  • How to get out and about In the age of social media companies are counselled to listen before ‘joining the conversation’, but what if they want to start one of their own, Dan Drury asks.
  • What makes a good home Most visitors to a website still arrive at its front door – the home page. Getting them to cross the threshold involves a complex set of considerations, David Bowen says.
  • How 'Avatar' could be for real History’s highest-grossing film has revived an interest in three-dimensional experiences that should inspire corporate site managers, David Bowen says.
  • Where to read the future Newspapers may be struggling to survive in the digital present but one of the most venerable could have a website scoop on its hands, David Bowen says.
  • How the decade really went As the calendar runs down to 2010, most reflections on the decade just passing show an attention span deficit that clouds their perspective, David Bowen says.

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