Over the past two weeks I gave two presentations as part of a 3 week workshop for UVM Extension and the Center for Rural Studies. The focus of the workshop was getting the most out of your website and the participants were all women with ag related businesses. The two presentations I gave were on 1) search engine optimization, keywords, and how to attract visitors; and 2) social media, community building and networking.
Both topics can be challenging to understand even for seasoned webmasters. These topics were so broad and there are so many details involved with subtle and complex relationships. So I punted. I opted to skim the surface and hit as many highlights as I could in the 1 hour I had for each topic. I crammed mid-level concepts, with a modest amount of explanation and few details, into a 50-55 minute box knowing there would be a LOT of questions! And happily, there were. I think the attendees got their money’s worth.
I enjoy distilling concepts and techniques normally used by larger corporations down into bite size morsels that can be used by small businesses. But I really light up when my clients or the attendees to one of my talks “gets it.” It’s one thing to see heads nod in agreement or hear murmurs of “oh” and it’s entirely another to be asked a question that indicates the person understood the material and has thought about it.
Much to their credit, the ladies took all of it in and asked some well thought out questions. There were some basic questions that were asked – as I expected. And then there were a few that indicated they were applying what they had just learned and expanding on it. A couple of them asked questions or related stories that made me pause and decide how deep my response should be. For example, one of the women commented on how a website she visited displayed ads that were for Vermont products. She wondered how they knew she was in Vermont! SO I gave them a 5 minute tutorial on the INet backbone and how it’s segmented up into blocks of IP addresses and these are sold and resold and how they are used to identify a location. Geo-targeting in a nutshell.
Throughout the presentations I was watching for the deer in the headlights and glazed eyes look. Only one person seemed to be losing it – especially after the turkey sandwiches. Overall though, the attendees did exceptionally well and I had a great time. As I packed up to leave after my last presentation one of the women piped up and asked if I would come home with them to be their webmaster. They tempted me with offers of homemade goodies and fresh home cooked meals. It was very sweet and a very nice compliment.
I love doing these presentations for exactly the feeling I had as I left. It was satisfying to engage these people who only a few weeks ago had no idea what they were getting into. Now it was clear that they realized there was a lot more to consider. To know they took some practical tips and techniques home from what I gave them, that they were a little bit smarter and wiser when it came to dealing with service providers, and they knew a bit more about how the web really works, and their minds were working on how all of it affected them and their businesses, was the biggest compliment of all.
By the way, a special thank you to Beth H. for lunches. They were superb!
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