WordPress + Small Business + Online Community
One of my favourite things about Kobayashi Online is that we used to be an IT company (Kobayashi Technology) and evolved to digital marketing based on our clients changing needs.
When I joined in October, we offloaded our last few IT-only customers soon after — all so that we could focus even more on creating a great Online Friendly experience.
I had a brief, but enlightening, conversation after yesterday’s closing remarks.
Someone asked me what I do for a living, and I offered my standard response: I’m a web generalist. I like design and front-end development, but I’m also interested in sales and marketing. Most of my work has been with small businesses, and I don’t have a specialization.
Specialization is a must, I was told. Generalists are a dime a dozen, but specialists are a scarce commodity. “If you want a seat at the table“, they said, “you need to be able to do one of three things: sell, design, or build.”
Sell, design, or build? Well, shoot. I guess that makes sense. But which one is it?
Many social media experts don’t know marketing basics, and in some cases refuse (or can’t) to deliver return on investment. Now they are suddenly telling the business world how everything must change. So, someone who knows how to game Twitter suddenly understands how to run a multimillion dollar enterprises? Social business sounds like the pedantic ramblings of middle managers ad consultants trying to justify a bigger piece of the pie.
via CONTEST: Social Business or Social Bullshit? | Geoff Livingston’s Blog.
