Revision of Week 3 from Wed, 2011-01-05 05:50

Week 3: Web presence

Objectives:

• To understand the importance of a web presence
• To identify the key goals of having a web presence for your project
• To learn some inexpensive ways to create a web presence

Readings:

Assignments:

• Make-your-own-case study: Identify an enterprise with an effective web presence. Post a link under the Forum prompt and tell why you think it is effective (including relation to the enterprise's mission and marketing mix)
• Think through the elements of our own enterprise's web presence
  • Write a post in the Forum prompt for week 3 about what type of web presence your enterprise should have; include information such as how your mission and vision will be reinforced by your web presence, a brief outline of your web site's content, and what tools make most sense given your goals and budget  (Note: This assignment can be expanded into your project for weeks 5-9 by actually building a web presence for your enterprise.)

---

Every enterprise, whether a business or not, should have some kind of web site. It doesn't have to be a full-blown commercially-produced masterpiece; in fact, it could be as simple as a Facebook page or blog. In today's world, there are a million free easy ways to create a web presence.

Here are some tools and ideas to explore (in rough order from super-easy to more complex):

• Hosted social media site
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
• Hosted blog
  • Wordpress.com
• Hosted wiki
  • Wikispaces
• Other hosted site
  • Google site
• Cheap hosted site
  • Register.com
  • GoDaddy.com
• Piggy-back on someone else's server; you probably know people who have small businesses that host their own web sites. It's pretty easy to have them host yours too.
  • WP CMS

Please add your own suggestions to this list!

In addition to having a web site, make sure that you are findable other places on the web, for example:

• on Google maps (assuming you have a physical location)
• on any directories that are relevant to your business (e.g. restaurant guides)
•