on Websites

The year 1998:

Imagine there's this old guy who runs a company; we'll call him Brian.  For years he's been told by young professionals that his company needs a website.  He's resisted it.  The company has a yellow pages advertisement and listing and has even paid for a couple radio spots in the past.  He feels that should be enough.  The company has printed hundreds of brochures and post cards and sent them out based on purchased lists.  

The year 2002:

Brian is at a dinner party and all of his colleagues mention their companies have websites.  Now the old guy listens.  He decides it's time to have a website built.  He spends money and has a young IT professional create a functional, utilitarian website.  He feels he has finally come into the future.  And then suddenly people tell him the website needs to be updated.  In fact, it needs to be constantly maintained.  He has to spend more money on it.  Of course Brian is used to updating the company brochures from time to time, so this isn't too big a stretch.

The year 2010:

Brian is at a marketing meeting where he is told that the company website is doing fine, but now the company needs to be on Facebook, Twitter, and needs a blog.  The old forms of marketing aren't working.  The brochures and postcards are antiquated.  Brian reacts negatively to the change.  It took years for him to accept having a website and now he's being told that websites aren't the best way to market his company anymore.  He is told that over 71 percent of people browsing the internet have a Facebook page.  By having a blog and an active Twitter account, Brian's company will increase the browser connections to its website, name and brand.  It will "optimize search engine" results he's informed.  Brian is told all this new marketing will raise something called his "Klout score".

He thinks to himself....well, at some point in the future I'll have to look into it.  Problem is, things are changing so rapidly, waiting isn't really an option.  But Brian needs a constant barrage of people telling him this is important for a very, very long time before he'll finally understand the importance.

True story; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.