Knowledge

about things that you dont know

The world to some people is divided into two- things that you know, and things that you dont know.
however, an interesting and useful distinction comes to mind: there are things I'm aware that I dont know, while there are other things that I dont know, and i'm not even aware of.

why is this distinction important, and why so for small businesses?

Psychological reasearch shows that people remember more information when they have a theory in mind. what they remember are both information that confirms the theory, but also information that contradicts the theory.

but what don't you remember? information that has no relevance to the theories you hold.

What i'm suggesting to managers of SMB's - encourage fact based theory building. when you have a theory, that is based on facts, this will help you advance.

the following is a useful real-life example from the Electronics Components Company (Elimec) I work for:

fact 1: from a survey of a sample of our customers, we discovered that a larger than normal percent of people do not answer a question about our website
fact 2: google analytics can show a list of companies that entered the site

now, without a theory these two facts may seem unrelated, especially when they are surrounded by a huge number of facts that assault your sensesevery day.
but theorizing about fact 1, can lead to interesting idea regarding fact 2.

the theory about fact 1: some of our customers do not use the internet to search for us, at least not directly through our website.

the idea about fact 2: comparing the list of companies that entered our website with the list of our customers, may lead to identifying which companies do not reach our website.

ok, but what can be done with companies that do not enter the site? well, easy enough, now you have a list of companies you need to reach otherwise - more meetings, conferences, direct mail.

Bottom Line:
Measure->Theorize->Integrate->Act

Search Engine Optimization and the small business

The acronym 'SEO' still doesnt mean a lot here to small businesses in Israel.
But i believe this is going to change. Why? A new anti-spam law just came into effect on 1.12
declaring that from now on, every spam mailer could be sued without the need to prove damages.

Talkbacks were furious from both sides:
Pro-Spam: people from small business "talkbacked" with frustration about the loss of customers, about how the state is killing the small business and leaving spcae only for the giants.
they also promised that phonecalls will replace the mails making this law regretable.
Anti-Spam: aside from "you can shove your spam mails where the sun dont shine..", arguments were raised that small businesses are actually the casualties of the spam, because they either waste money on expensive anti-spam software, ot waste their employees' time.

But what about targeted adword campaigns (SEM) and Optimizing your site for search engines (SEO)? it seems like most SMB's do not yet fully comprehend what they can get for their money.
I believe that this new anti-spam law coupled with the global economic crisis can be a turning point driving SMB's to the web to advertise.

Can Google and the rest of thesearch engines benefit from this situation? Oh yes.
But will they? it remains to be seen.