{"id":189,"date":"2007-10-24T16:04:20","date_gmt":"2007-10-24T16:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkesy.wordpress.com\/2007\/10\/24\/small-business-specialist\/"},"modified":"2007-10-24T16:04:20","modified_gmt":"2007-10-24T16:04:20","slug":"small-business-specialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2007\/10\/24\/small-business-specialist\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Business Specialist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m such a geek. As i use the mobile version of google reader i’m constantly checking my feeds. I picked up Susanne’s post (Why the SBSC Programme needs to step it up a gear<\/a>) pretty much as soon as she posted it. I’ve re-read it about five or six times since then as i try to take it all in as it’s a great post with lots to think about<\/p>\n

There was a specific line that reminded me of something i’d been thinking about a while back,<\/p>\n

“I want the SBSC Partner Directory fixed and at the front of the small business website (not only embedded with the Mr. Busy campaign”<\/em><\/p>\n

The one thing thati believe is lacking is the visibility of the programme to the “end-user” \/\u00a0the small business owner \/\u00a0the decision makers.<\/p>\n

I remember when i was putting some content together for our website and i was really pleased to be putting our shiny new SBSC logo up. I decided to add a link that said “what is a small business specialist?”<\/p>\n

The problem i had was that i couldn’t find anything on the Microsoft UK pages to link to as a reference. Eventually i found something on the US site but i wasn’t quite what i was looking for<\/p>\n

So this afternoon i tried a little experiment and put myself in the shoes of a small business owner who was looking for some help on Microsoft products for their company<\/p>\n

I went to the Microsoft Small Business website <\/a>\u00a0(which recently replaced the BCentral site). The SBSC logo is nowhere to be seen on this “landing” page.<\/p>\n

From this page there are are few places to click if i were the small business owner i’m talking about<\/p>\n

“Starting Up” and “Growing my business” are pretty self explanatory<\/p>\n

At the bottom there are some campaign links (at the moment Mr busy and ‘WOW’)<\/p>\n

As i click through the first two of these links we finally get to see the SBSC logo on the “Find an IT expert” section of the pages.<\/p>\n

When you click either of the campaign links the logo is nowhere to be seen until you dig down into the “find a partner” sections<\/p>\n

The problem i have is that at no point is there anything that explains what a Small Business Specialist is and why you should pick them as opposed anyone else. Even up to the point where i put in my post code and do the search it just tells me i’m looking for small business specialists.<\/p>\n

There are lots of links asking if you’d like to become a small business specialist thought\u00a0but shouldn’t this be on the partner page?<\/p>\n

I know there are some campaigns in the works for more exposure but surely it wouldn’t hurt to start simple?<\/p>\n

I put a great big “Microsoft Small Business Specialist” sticker on my laptop so that customer (existing and potential) ask me about it and i one thing i’m finding is it’s usually the first time they have heard the phrase “Small Business Specialist”<\/p>\n

Is this just a UK \/ Europe thing or is the situation similar in the US?<\/p>\n

We’ve been asked many times recently for feedback on the program so i hope i’m not alone with this view.<\/p>\n

Am i right or way off the mark? I’d love to hear your views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m such a geek. As i use the mobile version of google reader i’m constantly checking my feeds. I picked up Susanne’s post (Why the SBSC Programme needs to step it up a gear) pretty much as soon as she posted it. I’ve re-read it about five or six times since then as i try<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sbs-community"],"yoast_head":"\nSmall Business Specialist? - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2007\/10\/24\/small-business-specialist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small Business Specialist? - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m such a geek. 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