Terrific designers are doing wonderful things with WordPress and Drupal, making the world a better place for many of us. As the social networking/marketing fusion occurs at an increasingly rapid pace, we see many people standing in the dust, holding their few remaining belongings and asking with their eyes, “What happened?” as they watch the big buses recede over the horizon. And the question remains: what to do now?

We can look to history. In the very old days there was a phrase about the world wide web (or was it the internet?) “Get on it or get out of the way.” There are still some people asking, “Get on what exactly?” “What does it have to do with my business?” Well if you watch, learn and participate, the answers will come to you through participation. All you have to do is jump in and start swimming, and we can help you do that.

What if you don’t even care about the technology, but just want to have a website that you can update and maintain yourself, one that is as dynamic and changeable as the seasons, but with continuity and presence? Well this is the moment for you. It’s all happening now and it’s easily available and affordable.

A year ago we dedicated Alphablogs to provide a bridge for the individual entrepreneur or the very small business or consultancy – a communications bridge that would make use of all this wonderful new(ish) easy to use and easy to update web technology. We knew that many clients don’t need a big huge setup. We knew that not everyone can afford a total communication PR package. Others want to keep their costs as low as possible. Some small-business people just want to have a website, and some arts organizations heard they needed blogs, and some artists were ready to take that step into this form of publishing of their work, or self-promotion. In our work for real estate clients, we became aware of many dynamics of the process. It was simple to take what we knew, and offer it to the entrepreneurial clients who could use these skills.

Now we see the environment has sped up tremendously, and there is a new dynamic social marketing component that has really gone mainstream in the last year. Everyone is using the same buzzwords. If you don’t know where to start, how to approach it, or what to do, we can help smooth your entry. Some people say: “I don’t want a blog or any of that other stuff. I just need a website.” We can help you do just that – and just in case you might want to blog someday, the site we create for you will be ready for that (because we create your site using WordPress to begin with.)

(Thanks to Jabbara Edwards for her photo of Zeppi at Valdez Island)

After her article was posted, she discussed with me some of the differences in the process of writing for blogs compared with writing articles for print. Whatever the differences may be, it’s clear that good writing transcends all supposed rules – bringing both the writer and the topic vividly to life in the reader’s mind. Here’s an example of Mireille’s approach in this excerpt describing only one of the wines featured in her Taste BC article:

Dunham and Froese Pinot Blanc. A full body is what struck me most about this wine, then it dawned on me: it tastes like Alsace! So rarely do we see good Alsatian Pinot Blanc in this neck of the woods that I nearly forgot what it tasted like–and here I was tasting a fine example, only it was from B.C! Excellent weight supported flavors of white peach and chalky flint with a charming white peppery spice at the finish. A mere $16cdn is what they were asking for this gem of a wine.

You can find out more on Mireille’s work as a wine industry consultant at her Wine Umbrella website.