MediaWiki talk:Cascadeprotectedwarning
From Universalwiki
I enjoyed the cotservanion with Mike and others on the SMCDSM Ning site that sorta started this cotservanion and I'm happy to throw down here on the Cathfire blog to continue the theme a bit and go a little deeper.I agree that in an ideal world, a business should have a standalone website/blog to house it's deeper and richer content. I'd like to play devils advocate though and see if I can convince you to broaden your stance a bit.There are many small businesses out there who ride a very thin margin in terms of selling their products and services. I'm thinking about the bakers, bike fixers, mechanics, snow plowers, and coffee shops. These folks are typically not connected to technology in any meaningful way right now. Many are not using email. Fax is still a big channel of communication for them. Most don't have high-speed Internet access. If they own a computer, it's an older model with a slow processor and an AOL email address. Some have never been on a computer in their lives. They still do good, solid business that keeps our economy going. They employee people and buy supplies and try like Hell to stay afloat. Let's call this point 0 on the online scale. 10 being a fully integrated online marketing strategy with multiple touch points and rock solid and responsive analytics providing real time feedback. I like the 10 point as much as you and wish everyone could reach that point. A stand alone static website is 5 on my mythical scale. I see a few points between 0 and 5 that may be a solution for some of these folks. A Facebook Business Page might be a 3 and that might be all that this business can handle as a presence to stay in front of their customers. If they had a website or blog who is going to maintain it and keep it fresh? They can't afford to pay an agency or a consultant with their thin margins. There is a high likelihood though that one of their staff or family members is an avid Facebook user and, with some good initial guidance, could maintain a Facebook Page. Perfect? No.Doable? Yes.
