When I first started working on websites, the idea of appearing bigger was the goal. Companies concluded that one of the advantages of having a website was so that you could seem larger than you actually were. A small business in western Massachusetts could sell to customers across the country just like their larger competitors, all they needed was a website. Even if the entire company was one person on a computer in the basement, the web became the store front and that was how the world saw you. The internet was the great equalizer, with every body following the examples set by the bigger companies.

Today it is a little different. Some examples of the most successful social media and web marketing strategies were started by small companies that decided not to act like the big companies. One of my favorite examples is Ramon De Leon (#Ramonwow), who used social media to grow a business and demonstrate what the new web experience was going to become. #Ramonwow, as he is now known, used social media as a way to connect with his cutomers. He often speaks about his basic strategy, that if I get the customer to know me, then they will buy from me. He did this by engaging his customers where they were on social media and by providing personal content that customers saw as high value.  His success has shifted the way many companies want to be seen on the web. Smaller and personal are the new goals, with companies now trying to adopt a web presence that social media has been proven successful. People want to interact with a company that engages and relates to them as a person. The value they want to get from a website isn’t just information about the services or products but about high value content and a unique brand experience. The web experience has changed to one with personality.

Now the big companies, who you may have pictured their websites as a series of computer servers and impersonal electronics, want to present themselves on the web more as a person. Someone, who is sitting there, willing to engage or react to all questions and comments from customers. Users have shown that it isn’t a bigger presence they want but a personal one.