Notes From the Desk

We launched The Barking Goat Tavern website last week. This new site was developed by Cow Dog Design LLC to promote the new Castle Rock, Colorado tavern. The site design is by ClearMindGraphics.

Eric Warner founded The Barking Goat Tavern with the simple idea that great beer and great food CAN be combined in a casual environment. We have the best selection of draft and bottled beer in Douglas County. According to an old brewer and vintner saying, “It takes a keg of beer to make a good bottle of wine and a bottle of wine to make a good keg of beer,” and we offer a wonderful selection of wines, each available by the glass or bottle. The Barking Goat Tavern also has a full bar with a wide variety of spirits.

The greatest thing about the World Wide Web is the way it levels the playing field for the little man. The web puts small businesses and Indie bands in direct competition with their larger counterparts. The bonus is that unlike TV ads or a traditional print ad, you don’t have to break the bank to compete.

Scott Terry, the lead singer of Red Wanting Blue, was talking about this subject in a recent interview. Terry commented on how bands utilize the web as a promotional tool. In the beginning everyone had their own website and would stencil it on everything from t-shirts to equipment boxes. Then with the success of people like Colbie Caillat making it big with MySpace, everyone switched from their own website to their own MySpace page and began plastering that address all over their equipment and shirts. Finally he expressed wonder of where all the self-promoting on the web would go next.

Right now we are starting to see the next phase of this self-promotion and brand identity cycle shake out with other social media options taking center stage. With all of the options out there where do you begin?

No matter what your company or group does on the web, if it is going to succeed you have to build your web identity on a solid foundation. That foundation is your website because you have complete control over the design, features, and content. This is the one place that is 100% your company. Social media sites like Facebook & MySpace are no substitute for a custom website. Social media sites only give the illusion of control, not real access to all facets of the site.

After you have laid the foundation of a great website, you should next integrate the features like a blog, online store and discussion forums. The days of hosting your blog, online store, or forum with a third party site (i.e. yoursite.blogspot.com) is over. There are too many full featured, easily customizable options out there to use a third party site. The URL for your blog, forum, or store should be yoursite.com/blog, anything else and you are really promoting the blog company and not your site.

Then there are the social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. What do you do about those sites? To put it simply, use them to your advantage. In my opinion every company should have a Twitter account, it’s too easy of a promotional option not to. When choosing social media outlets, choose wisely. If you can’t do it well, you shouldn’t do it at all. A forgotten or poorly utilized Twitter or Facebook page is quickly giving potential clients a bad taste in their mouths. Always be on the lookout for the next trend that fits your company and helps you reach your goals.

Finally, know that a positive web identity that pays its dividends isn’t something that happens on accident. It’s something you build and cultivate over time. To start, be sure to build on the solid foundation of a great website and grow from there.

Recently a former coworker of mine was telling me about her experience teaching an older colleague how to use Twitter and Facebook. Basically the lesson ended when my former coworker discovered the older gentleman didn’t care to learn. Not every businessman or woman is like this, but integrating new technology with old-world business styles is a problem many companies are going to face in the coming years.

The problem isn’t that the two business styles clash and cannot co-exist. The real problem is the presentation of the ideas. Too many young up-and-coming professionals paint their way as the only way to do business and the dinosaurs of days past need to step aside. On the flip-side, seasoned businessmen and women create an air of superiority over their new and younger counterparts. From the start, this attitude creates a rift that prevents one style of business from learning from the other.

The difference between old and new business practices is this: In the past, if you didn’t meet with a client and make the perfect presentation you didn’t get that client’s business. However, today people can create that bond through LinkdIn or Twitter and garner a client’s business without ever meeting face-to-face.

I’m not going to sit here and preach to you that one way is better than the other. Nor am I going to explain the ins and outs of both styles down to the last detail. I’ll run out of writing space and you’ll be bored to death. Instead I’ll offer a quick insight and a good example of a hybrid of these business styles (I won’t make a quasi-trendy name like Fusion  or Synergy Business either).

As I hinted at before I believe a hybrid of these two styles is what is going to help you succeed and get you the furthest in the business world. While the face-to-face meeting with every client can eat up a lot of your time, a non face-to-face relationship through Twitter or LinkdIn is easy to sever because the client is not invested in you. The perfect example of the hybrid business solution succeeding is the Obama Campaign last year. I don’t care if you voted for him or not (I didn’t). Barack Obama and his campaign infused new ideas with old ideas and created a great blend that is hard to beat. The campaign used Twitter and YouTube to reach people outside of the box and direct them to traditional meet-and-greet events. They also invited people on YouTube to submit questions and the Obama staff is still using this hybrid method today to get policy ideas supported by the public.

To wrap it up into a nice little package for everyone, just remember this: if you are too stubborn to learn, you will be a stubborn fool trying to chisel a wheel while everyone else is flying their jetpacks to work.