Let the Technology Fit the Rhyme

The World Wide Web has terrific appeal,
With technology galore with which to reveal
Your very best message, your very best face,
The one that will win in this dog-eat-dog race.
And the choices abound for ways to declare
How your products and services are better than fair.
There are tools for conversing and software for chat.
There are methods for having your say to a cat.

Innovation is endless and mores on the way
So heres a quick lesson on the tools of the day.
Use these new programs to dress up your site
Or be seen by the industry as old, boring, or trite.

But first, heed this warning and dont overdo
By working in everything exciting and new.
There is plenty to choose from but dont use them all
Or your clients will leave after hitting the wall.


The very first Internet intercom tool,
Was the Unix talk command, which is still pretty cool.
Short thoughts are exchanged in a textual dueling
Great for short banter, but the pace can get grueling.
When multiple typists are brought to the fore
The content grows silly and likely to bore.
Chat rooms are fun for a while in a Forum
But theyre bootless for business, lacking decorum.

Then e-mail arrived and is still number one
For transmitting a thought, a contract, a pun.
E-mail expanded to newsgroups and lists.
You should harness the power of communication like this.

Lists public or private, groups moderated or not
Can increase your foot traffic and make your Web hot.
The sharing of thoughts in your congregation
Can engender ideas past remuneration.

You can use these techniques right on your Web
There are tools to post what all others have said.
Most let your visitors post what they wish,
Which is so much like chat you might give it a miss.

You should solicit each persons perspective
And publish the good ones (sans uncalled-for invective).
A Web site is mostly for public relation
So edit at will before publication.

Still, chat could be used for personal sessions,
Answering customer service type questions.
Use WebChat for pictorial identification
For those you engage in a Net conversation.

Perhaps your clients would relax just a might
With a hand-held, personalized tour of your site.
For that there is WORLDS for surfing in tandem
At Web sites specific (no surfing at random).

With a whiteboard you draw electronic attention
To items of import, as an aid to retention.

Streaming audio tools have appeared on the screen
If youd like to heard in addition to seen.
A couple of realtime telephone tools (1 & 2)
Are threatening long distance family jewels

And now we have video. Its small and its slow
More flip-book than Masterpiece Theatre show.

If you want to reach out to your clients PC
You can play what you want on their ROM, CD.

Virtual reality is the next game in town
To visualize space: left, right, up and down.
You can create a 3D Web model,
Through which your clients can walk, fly or waddle.

And what for the future? Where are we headed?
Will we be cyborgs with electrodes embedded?
Between you and me, its not my predilection
But truth, as they say, is oft stranger than fiction.

Whatever the Internet ends up containing
Theres one thing for sure thats well worth explaining.
This newest means of information transmission
Is constantly changing - thats its stable condition.

So look to the future of the Internet WAN
As you embark on your new Web site plan.
Whether you want to play Java games
Or trick up your home page with Netscapes frames,
Avoid the trap where all tools are used
Where theres risk in leaving your clients abused.

Too much technology will leave them all cold
Its content that keeps them well in the fold.
Marshall McLuhans message re: medium
Is quoted these days ad nauseum, ad tedium.
But he also said, before he went,
(Most important of all), "The audience is the content".

Your Web sites for clients to do as they please,
Not where you show off your expertise.
So dont get transfixed by new software toys
Or the techno-whizbang buzzword noise.

If you trick up your site with the latest thing
Thats sure to make your Web site sing,
If you forget your client, well next see your name
In the Enhanced for Netscape Hall of Shame.

About the Author

Jim Sterne stays active as a public speaker and as a consultant, helping each client set Internet marketing goals and determine customer relationship strategies.

Please contact Jim Sterne at (805) 965-3184 to find out how his talents might help you achieve your marketing objectives. Or visit his webpage targeting.com

:To contact see details below.


jsterne@targeting.com
http://www.targeting.com