The future dominance of digital communications is beyond doubt. The extent to which it will displace old media and the timing are debatable, but not that it ultimately will. A surprisingly large number of companies and organizations seem reluctant to accept this. Some simply don’t get the Web. Others grasp its potential as a selling channel, but fail to put it at the heart of future communications thinking. Websites drift out there on the periphery like misunderstood and shamefully uncared for stepchildren.

The world is rapidly dividing into those who have seen, understood and embraced the light of digital and those who haven’t. Scan a cross section of corporate sites and the difference is quickly evident. High-tech companies, budget airlines and other creatures of the digital age cluster on one side of the divide with the hipper, faster-moving consumer-facing businesses. The bastions of “old” industry and commerce and most public institutions lurk uncertainly on the other. The gulf between them is growing fast and that should be scary for at least two reasons.

Digital is changing the fundamental dynamics of communications and with that, our personal expectations of giving and receiving information. Enough has been written about how new levels of accessibility, micro targeting, and capacity for dialogue are redefining relationships between communicators and audiences. Well managed, this is good for both: it should improve the timeliness, relevance and effectiveness of communication with employees, customers, consumers, media and whoever else out there is important.

But the flipside is dangerous. As audience expectations rise, the quality of corporate and institutional communications will become an increasingly powerful differentiator and shaper of attitudes. What you say and how you say it will be important like never before. Unfortunately for laggards, here’s no opt-out here. The first truth of digital communications is that you are no longer in change: others set the standards you will be judged by.

The second – less widely recognized – is that unless your digital presence is skillfully managed, cultural fault lines will be ruthlessly exposed. Most large organizations subdivide into a networks of product or brand or project or geographically-focused units. Most strive to present the sum of the parts in a coherent way – project a single, hopefully positive image.

Digital communications sets this particular bar higher, too. Websites are an open invitation to peer into every window of your house. Too often, they are a jumble of randomly sourced components. The quality and consistency of what’s on view – or rather, the lack of it – is stunning. Old media can be used selectively and is mostly one-way traffic. The impression on a given audience can be controlled to some degree, so there is some tolerance for image inconsistencies. Websites can be browsed end to end by anyone. Tolerance of image inconsistency should be zero.

Digital will dominate the communications mix within the next decade. It should be at the center of strategy and the benefits of putting it there sooner rather than later are enormous. If your Web presence is a poorly managed add-on, you have work to do.