Firm Voice: What's Your Company's Digital Aptitude?

BY: FIRM VOICE, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008, BY: STAFF

PepperDigital, a Peppercom (www.peppercom.com/) service offering, has launched a proprietary tool that will provide communication professionals with the power to assess their company's precise thoughts, feelings and actions about current internal and external digital communications. The Digital Aptitude Test is a diagnostic tool designed to provide clear details on a company's digital strengths and weaknesses and match future communications efforts with overall business objectives.

According to PepperDigital's survey of more than 500 communication professionals earlier this year, the greatest impediments for a successful online presence in many companies are internal gaps of knowledge about, perceptions of, and budget for digital initiatives. This tool looks not only at where a company's digital offerings are according to best and worst practices but also how the organization perceives the quality, quantity, and organization of online initiatives. The Digital Aptitude Test identifies vertical and horizontal gaps in Web 2.0 perceptions and focuses on specific issues that can be repaired to improve a company's digital aptitude.

"Most companies may be struggling with how to just 'catch up' with Web 2.0 and ensure that the senior leadership truly understands the importance of the organization's digital presence," said Steve Cody, managing director and co-founder of Peppercom. "Our goal with this tool is to take a company's digital temperature and then empower communication professionals to take clear and digestible results and remedies to senior leadership in a language they understand demonstrating the value of digital."

The Aptitude Test is an approximate 80-question survey that provides an organization with a "score" generated by a proprietary scientific algorithm. The score gives an indication of a company's current digital strengths and weaknesses, as well as internal inconsistencies about digital initiatives and perceptions.

PepperDigital is also launching a website dedicated to bridging the digital gap with senior management and the Digital Aptitude Test at www.digitalaptitudetest.com. The site will feature a 7-question abbreviated aptitude test widget that can quickly produce top-line scores and personalized analysis for individuals. In addition to the mini-quiz, the site will feature white papers, bylined articles, blog postings, industry news and press materials designed to educate and enable public relations professionals to demonstrate the viability of Web 2.0 communication efforts. Additionally, the tools and information available will help with addressing the gaps in digital knowledge and power between chief executives, marketing and communications professionals.

The Digital Aptitude Test explores multiple areas in digital that will have a short-and-long-term impact on the company, including information transparency, tools for audience engagement, internal management of digital tools, intellectual property management, budgeting/forecasting, measurement, ownership of digital and more.

Leveraging these critical measurement components, PepperDigital will give companies a set of overall scores, ranked on where the company stands between best and worst practices. These scores will include how the company performs with regard to allocation of resources, management of information on the corporate site, and overall communication management. The team will also identify specific areas where there are disconnects within the company, highlight trends that arise throughout survey results, and develop a set of recommendations about specific pain points that a company could target to improve their digital presence and internal organization around digital.