“Those members of the younger generation engaged in the excessive
use of acronyms for the dual purpose of confusing those older than
themselves and/or eliminating them from conversation altogether.”

grew my hair longer as a
youth as a statement of my
independence. I wish I
could regain, or should I
say Rogaine, my
independence once again.
Secretly I think I also
enjoyed annoying my father
with my longer hair.

Perhaps these young
acronymitors enjoy
acronyms because they have their very
own language that only those under 30
understand. Or perhaps they, as I have
suspected for some time, have created all
these acronyms just to annoy me.

I had no idea just how far this
conspiracy had spread until we met with
a web developer to replace our 2 year
old, and now already aging, Everything
Knoxville website.

It was reminiscent of that scene from
“European Vacation” where Clark
Griswald, aka Chevy Chase, was
attempting to order food from that street
café in Paris. A great many words were
exchanged but there was very little
communication.

Slamdot founder and president Sean
Christman, and now great friend, seeing
my dismay, came to the rescue. I can
now communicate, although not fluently,
with fellow acronymitors.

The truth is I’ve had a blast trying to
first learn and then to keep up with all of
my new young friends. I wouldn’t give
up the experience for the world. They’ve
opened up my eyes to emerging new
business models and ideas that I had
previously dismissed.

A word of caution to you non-
acronymitors, avoid the wisdom of this
group of enthusiastic youngtrepreneurs
at your own peril.

I’m not suggesting that they know it all
and that they can’t learn from us
boomtrepreneurs. I’m just stating that
knowledge and experience is not our
exclusive domain.

Business models have and continue to
evolve at unprecedented rates.

Traditional businesses are discovering
that they must quickly adapt to newer,
technology driven business models, or
face extinction.

Nowhere has this become more
apparent to me than in the area of
website development.

If you’re like most small business
owners, you evaluate your company’s
website primarily on appearance alone.
While your website’s appearance is an
important criteria, it’s only one of many
other criteria that are equally essential
for a successful website.

Due to the emphasis placed by website
owners on their site’s appearance,
developers ignore those other criteria
that ultimately determine the site’s
success or failure.

The truth is that very few website
developers take the time to educate
clients on how to create a highly effective
website which will drive new customers
to their businesses. Sadly, many
developers don’t understand these
principles themselves, and elect to focus,
as you might expect, on the website’s
visual appearance alone.

Technology is the “new conduit”
between business and consumer and a
poorly performing website will only handicap
your efforts to target thousands of would-
be customers that might have been doing
business with your company already.

Forget the kid next door who
offered to build your site for $100 or
the DIY websites.

A great website is far less expensive
than you might imagine, far less than the
business you no doubt have already lost.

So who should you talk to about
creating a performance driven website
for your small business?

An acronymitor!

A talented Sean Christman type that will
help you to develop a clear strategy for
your online presence, design, optimization,
monitoring and analysis of results, and the
readjustment of all of the above.

Just be prepared to learn a new
language along the way and enjoy the
journey. EK

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