3 ms·

The old-school brick-and-mortar attitude toward web presence is kinda what I was trying to imply by the vague "technical savvy." There's definitely a market ou

by pie 17y ago

The old-school brick-and-mortar attitude toward web presence is kinda what I was trying to imply by the vague "technical savvy." There's definitely a market out there that cares about small businesses on the wab, regardless of a business's current mindset, goals, or customer acquisition strategy. Either this market is small or unimportant in some fields, or it's difficult to convince business owners otherwise.

Mz 17y ago
That isn't quite what I meant. I think it goes beyond lack of "technical savvy" or attitude towards web presence. Some things that come to mind: 1) Local vs. global audience. I have noticed that websites for local resources tend to miss the fact that their audience on the web is global. If they have a brick and mortar presence and they aren't in a tourist-oriented industry, they seem to just not think about how to talk to a global audience. They often do a poor job of clearly indicating on their website exactly where they are (as in city/state, never mind street address). This probably also influences the lack of "hours" listed on the website. A lot of places have a certain local culture and "everyone just knows" that all restaurants are closed by 11pm (or whatever), with the obvious exception of a few places like Denny's which "everyone just knows" are open 24/7. 2) Staging. On the web, colors, layout, and architecture of information are the equivalent of "staging" of a brick and mortar business. But people who do staging are unlikely to immediately grasp this about web design. I bet there is little or no real communication happening in most cases about how to match the web design to the physical staging so customers get some kind of intuitive feel for the place from the website. Basically, I think the mindset/mental geography of someone with a brick and mortar business is going to make most small business owners not just technically unsavvy but actually put up road blocks to the kind of thought process and presentation necessary to make a website that would serve their business well. I hope that's a little clearer.

by pie 17y ago

Mz 17y ago

That isn't quite what I meant. I think it goes beyond lack of "technical savvy" or attitude towards web presence. Some things that come to mind: 1) Local vs. global audience. I have noticed that websites for local resources tend to miss the fact that their audience on the web is global. If they have a brick and mortar presence and they aren't in a tourist-oriented industry, they seem to just not think about how to talk to a global audience. They often do a poor job of clearly indicating on their website exactly where they are (as in city/state, never mind street address). This probably also influences the lack of "hours" listed on the website. A lot of places have a certain local culture and "everyone just knows" that all restaurants are closed by 11pm (or whatever), with the obvious exception of a few places like Denny's which "everyone just knows" are open 24/7. 2) Staging. On the web, colors, layout, and architecture of information are the equivalent of "staging" of a brick and mortar business. But people who do staging are unlikely to immediately grasp this about web design. I bet there is little or no real communication happening in most cases about how to match the web design to the physical staging so customers get some kind of intuitive feel for the place from the website. Basically, I think the mindset/mental geography of someone with a brick and mortar business is going to make most small business owners not just technically unsavvy but actually put up road blocks to the kind of thought process and presentation necessary to make a website that would serve their business well. I hope that's a little clearer.