Chapter 2 Discussion-Is Your Web Site a Marketing Hub?

[Diamond Website Conversion]

I found myself taking a lot of notes reading this chapter. It is a totally new way of thinking for me as a internet marketer; in an exciting way. For me it sounds so much more fun to create a dynamic collaborative "hub" that people want to contribute to over something that is static and gets lost in the clutter of internet content. I agree that there is *power* in collaboration! What have you learned in this chapter?

[Hope]

So much of the content on the internet is patterned after the “megaphone,” and is used solely as what Halligan and Shah call “a one-to-many broadcast tool.” Without a dynamic and collaborative aspect, websites will inevitably fail to impress people who have become accustomed to living steeped in an information and availability overload. Blog posts and conversations in the comments are both clever ways to interest people, and to provide them with something small and quick that they can share around. You can bet that the people who post a meaningful comment are going to share that with their friends!

[Marty]

I thought that Table 2.1 on Page 16 was really telling - the difference between most websites (ours included) and what a true inbound marketing hub looks like is pretty dramatic - in a way it's almost intimidating - going from 0 to thousands of fans - and should that be your goal? What about having a small but fiercely loyal group of customers - granted you will never be a marketing hub in the sense that they're taking about - but within your own sphere of influence you would be a hub.... I think the concept is excellent - and maybe each company needs to determine the scale that works best for them... or maybe I'm just being whimpy here

Do you think it's possible or even good for everyone to strive to be the type of inbound marketing hub they're talking about - or is there room for different types/sizes of hubs?

[Shelby]

I think it is possible for everyone to strive to be the type of inbound marketing hub they are talking about. But the size of the hub definitely varies in size and type because the consumer market is so diverse. Also, depending what type of business you are running there is a variable amount of resources (time, money, etc.) that can be devoted to creating the size of the hub.

[Laura]

My business website is still more of a megaphone. However, I think I am slowly moving in the right direction. I get traffic from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, as well as some smaller social networking sites.

I still don't have a blog for my business, but I am planning to set one up in the next couple of months. Without a blog on my website, the only page that changes much at all is the portfolio page.

On the other, I have several clients who would benefit more than I would from a "hub" type website. This chapter got me thinking more about what I can do for them than what I can do with my own site.

[Marty]

Laura wrote: "My business website is still more of a megaphone. However, I think I am slowly moving in the right direction. I get traffic from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, as well as some smaller social netw..."

We've been trying to move clients into more of a "hub" type website too - but convincing clients has been a bit of an uphill battle - the big issue seems to be the time/money conundrum (not enough hours in the day already & no extra money at the moment for hiring it out)

[Laura]

Marty wrote: "We've been trying to move clients into more of a "hub" type website too - but convincing clients has been a bit of an uphill battle "

Same here. On the other hand, I am seeing an increase in the number of clients who are open to suggestions.