Two articles caught my eye on the BBC News web site over the past few days.  The first discusses whether or not small firms need a website, and was posted on Wednesday.  Apparently no more than half of Britain's small to medium-sized businesses have a web presence. (Interestingly the article confuses web sites with web presence, but that's for another post.)  The message from the Federation of Small Business's Peter Scargill is "keep up or lose out."

The reasons given by those who don't have web sites include not wanting to grow too fast.  That makes sense, if you don't want more customers, not having a web site is a good thing.  But this smacks to me of a lifestyle business, rather than one that has serious intentions of growth.

Even those who reluctantly have a web site, such as James Pople quoted in the piece, only have a web site because his customers demanded it.  James still does not see it as a vital business tool - despite the fact his customers were crying out for it!  What else could he provide if he thought a little outside the box and used it to engage with his customers?  James, if you're out there, then come along to our seminar at IBM on 30th November and we'll show you the art of the possible.

Then there are some success stories - Wiggly Wigglers for example who used Facebook to help them grow revenues to £2.5m - as well as using Podcasts to reach a global audience.  The key, according to Scargill is if you're not careful, the Web is "a bunch of brochures... in a cupboard and then wondering why sales aren't going up".  We absolutely agree - as would one of our clients whose conversions have gone up over 50% since adopting one of our on-line marketing plans! (sorry, couldn't resist the plug!)

So having wirtten about how useful the web can be, two days later there is an article about how future careers could be damaged over the use of Facebook.  This stated that 71% of 2,000 surveyed 14 to 21-year olds would not want colleges or employers to do a web search on them before they had removed some material.  The article also talks about protecting against identity fraud which to me is just common sense.  I cannot believe how some people whose friends lose their phone post their phone numbers in open groups on Facebook.  As one of our customers said recently "Web 2.0 is like Life 1.0.  Don't be stupid!"

But I was disappointed that the article did not cover the positive side of Facebook for college/employment prospects.  Your digital brand or electronic footprint can be an asset if used properly.  I think it would be irresponsible of an employer not to google someone as part of the assessment process - and if they found profiles, blog posts, wiki contributions which demonstrated the experience and intellectual capability of a candidate, as well as showing a 'rounded' lifestyle, it could only be a benefit.

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