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Community of Interest Networks Summaries - E-Commerce

Notes from March 2006 Meetings

Attendees: Michelle Lansverk-Fosston, DonnaRae Jacobsen-Five Small Towns, Tim Johnson-Edge of the Wilderness, Kate Brady-Hibbing, Ann Treacy, Jane Leonard

Summary:
Ann & Jane discussed some methods besides web sites that can help with e-commerce for businesses and organizations, including blogs, e-newletters, and listservs.

Participants noted the difficulty of small business owners finding the time and the focus to work on their e-commerce methods, especially troubleshooting and updating websites.  They asked about how to get technical help and change content regularly without having to pay someone a lot to do it. Michelle noted a new program they have started to provide website subsidies to businesses in the area who want to step into web development for their business, or step further into an existing web site. They are using some of the Blandin funds to offer matching grants. She also said they had taken advantage of existing training opportunities, such as the MN Extension courses: Intro to E-commerce and Online Marketing Strategies.

Tech support and troubleshooting: Ann noted that there were ways to set up your websites from the start that would make them easier to update without learning or relearning software. Jane suggested that a group of businesses could hire a circuit rider troubleshooter so that each business could have someone on hand part-time to help with web/ecommerce. Or a Chamber of Commerce might sponsor something like this for their members.

Companion strategies to websites: Ann & Jane noted other methods to reach customers, including blogs, e-newsletters and listservs. These “push” technologies reach out to customers, and can target customers with specific information customized just for the customer.

Ideas for Future Action

Ann will write up “Five easy steps to create a blog” for the next Get Broadband newsletter.

Get specific topics within e-commerce for the next COIN (everyone thought the COIN was a great idea.) and then market that to get more people to attend.