Welcome to Web 2.0!

Our first foray onto the World Wide Web was six years ago when we launched our initial site. It contained dozens of pages detailing the sixteen different services we offered, the numerous companies that comprised the Vann Group, our biographies and our business philosophies. It was an opportunity to provide a vast amount of information to virtually anybody in the world without killing thousands of trees and enriching the post office thirty two cents at a time.

Despite this potential the site went unchanged for five years. Our business transitioned - people came and went, addresses changed (twice) and our services evolved but our site never kept up with the times. The potential of delivering our message to the world went unrecognized as we used the site the same way most businesses have used the yellow pages; as a glorified way to provide contact information. Sadly, this was the fate of many of the early sites on the web.

What we didn’t realize then is that the web can be so much more. Over the past year you’ve likely heard terms such as blog, wiki, podcasts, RSS feeds and social networks but haven’t figured out what exactly they are. These are the tools of web 2.0, which allow a site to go from a static placeholder to a platform that serves as the centerpiece of a Company or individuals communication efforts. Some say they are revolutionary and others say its just an extension of what is already been done. Either way, their growth into the mainstream makes them tools to be reckoned with.

Over the past two years we’ve been pushing our clients to embrace innovation and to recognize the power of branding their business. In doing so we’ve advocated the need to utilize web 2.0 technologies as a key tool in these efforts. We’ve done this because we believe in their potential as a game changer for mid-market businesses. Then we looked at our website and our brand and realized we were not practicing what we preached.

Today I am pleased to announce that we are now practicing what we preach. We've just completed a brand new flagship piece (email me if you would like a copy). And, if you’ve come across this page it's likely because you just received an email announcing the launch of our new site. In addition to clarifying who we are and what we do, the site will now offer white papers, surveys, e-zines and a whole host of other downloadable resources that will allow us to provide business information that is timely and practical and focused on topics that matter today.

With the launch of this site we are also launching our first blog. The blog will allow us to communicate our thoughts and opinions and information in real time to our customers, referral sources and anyone else who stumbles upon us via a search engine. More importantly thanks to the interactive nature of the site it will enable you to communicate your thoughts and opinions easily with us as well. I have no idea what the topic of the blogs will be, but we plan on using our virtual soapbox as often as possible as we hope our insights into the world will generate some great dialog. At the very least it should be an interesting experiment.

We have no idea where this site will take us or whether or not it will be successful in serving as a communication platform. We hope that it will help grow and enhance the ever expanding Vann Group community. We also hope that it will provide a tangible benefit to our readers via the information we provide. With that being said, we know that regardless of the success or failure of this site in meeting the expectations we have set we must constantly try new things to improve our businesses. Otherwise our businesses will end up like our first web page - static and obsolete!

With that said, I invite you to take a look around our site. Please sign up for our monthly e-zine and also subscribe to this blog. You can do that by just clicking the RSS button at the top of the page. Clicking it will open you up to a whole new world of web 2.0 – just like Alice chasing the rabbit down the hole to Wonderland.