Craig Reardon

In just the past fortnight, I’ve been lucky enough to mine two wonderful success stories out of the marketing treasure trove that is social media groups. If you’ve just joined us, these groups are essentially communities of people enjoying ‘conversations on demand’ on their favourite personal or business topic. Sometimes these groups contain tens of thousands of members, or even more. In some cases, a significant number of members are in the market for your product or service.

In my last blog, I outlined why many smaller businesses are reluctant adopters of the internet. But small business isn’t alone. Many larger businesses too have failed to grasp the impact the internet would have on their businesses. Just ask the former shareholders in Borders, Kodak, Yellow Pages and newspaper publishers amongst many others.

Specialising in servicing the smaller business sector for about 20 years now has given me some real insights into the IT understanding and capabilities of small business operators. And to be honest, the picture isn’t rosy at all. The reality is that a large number of smaller business operators have very little competence, and in turn confidence, when it comes to computers.