Talking Domain Names and Local Search with Rural Missouri

I spent today speaking at 2 seminars focused on showing small businesses in rural Missouri how to take advantage of the opportunities they have to grow their business online. As the rural broadband stimulus money is doled out to telecommunications companies rural America will change the way they use the Internet and small business, which is really the backbone of American business, will need to be able to compete with large corporations who have been using search marketing and working online for years. It was an absolute pleasure meeting and discussing how business gets done on the Internet with the business leaders that came to the seminar sessions today.

I want to personally thank all fo them for attending and for Big River Telephone for sponsoring and bringing the group together. And I want to thank the radio station personnel and the people from the SE Missourian newspaper who were open minded and attended the discussion today that had a portion focused on the failure of legacy media and advertising companies to take advantage of the new business models that have shown themselves on the Internet. The open mind show in attending a session such as the one today shows that the companies you are working for have a chance.

It is always enjoyable to speak directly with the small businesses that do not have technology as their focus. Sometimes those of us that are focused so strongly on online media forget that that most business owners do not really care about the details, they care about what the technology changes mean to their business. Days like today prove that. We had comments come in that this is overwhelming but that the importance of changing the way they approach marketing is understood.

Other discussion topics included about how to use social networking to get customer feedback, promote the company website, and how even if the business owner themselves do not use the Internet their customers do. That is something important for small businesses in rural America to remember, as rural broadband spreads, and it will no matter what some industries want to believe, the people with the disposable income are the ones searching for products and services online.

Thanks to all that attended! The next session is being planned for Farmington, MO in the very near future.