Tina and I have been receiving a lot of feedback about the blog from many folks that we have run into during our typical weekly routine, from attending a weekend gathering, taking our lunchtime walk, walking into work, a direct text, or through our social media sites. We cannot say enough how appreciated this feedback is since we are writing this blog to let people know what we are working on in real-time (trying to keep it as simple as possible when I can), the challenges and opportunities we face, how a small company operates and what our vision is (both immediate and in the future). My goal with the blog is to give you an opportunity to see what I am seeing. Not everything will be roses and rainbows but a realistic view of what we are doing. Unlike a lot of businesses who like to put a positive “spin” on things even when things are not going so well (we know this all too well as consumers when we hear a store is doing great and then closes within weeks), that will not happen here. To be clear, we have a lot of challenges to face, from bringing in revenue and maintaining a strong team to generating positive data for the different ongoing programs. These are no easy feats by any stretch of the imagination. The morale support we get from people has been truly amazing and humbling and we cannot thank you enough for it. It helps keep us going.
Let’s talk a little about the feedback so far. A majority of what we hear is positive, from comments like we are excited to hear that the company is doing so well and your technology can help a lot of people to the general comments of great job and enjoying the blog. That makes writing this every week worth it. It is tough to add more onto a plate that is already full (like adding that one extra scoop of potatoes at a holiday dinner) but to me, it is important to talk about what we are doing. I would say that I have talked to a few people that have said that they do not know/understand the subject matter but still try to read the blog anyway. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my goal is to get you to understand some pretty complex science by trying to put it into layman’s terms. It may not always go according to plan but as long as you can pull a couple of things out each week (even a general concept), that makes me happy. My advice is to keep on reading because concepts will keep coming up and the way I explain it (or maybe add an image) one week may make it clearer as time goes on.
You can also let me know if there is an area that you would like to see me talk about in a blog. No question is dumb so please let me know your ideas (also makes my job a little easier in terms of coming up with a weekly topic). Science can be intimidating and I understand that. People hear it and immediately say I don’t get it. You’ve lost the battle before getting started. I believe everyone can understand science at a basic level. My goal is not to try to baffle anyone. It’s to give you a high-level view of what we are doing. We have also had a comment about the style of the blog in that is should be shorter and more directed toward business. I am writing this to a majority of the people to chronicle our business and what we are doing and not as a pitch to get funding (although if you have or know someone who would like to fund the company, I am all ears). I continue to use all feedback so keep it coming
Along with our “on the street” survey, we are also gathering data that we are getting from the website. Believe it or not , you can also get information from our website itself (I did not know this). This process is called analytics. This information ranges from what areas of the country/world view the site, how many visitors in a day/hour, what times in the day, what pages are they visiting and how long they are staying on a page to name just a few areas. Our son Cameron, who just received his marketing degree, recently joined the company to help us get better visibility. It is nice to have someone on the team who happens to live in your house be able to really break this down for you (he may not be as happy about it as I am since I will ask him questions at any point in the day/night). This data has shown that the blog has increased traffic from both current viewers and new viewers to the website. This information will lead us to make changes to the website, adding new pages, refreshing others and eliminating those not being visited. All of the data we gather, from getting feedback from you to what is on the website, even when it is not related to the technology is important as we move the company forward. You are a part of the scientific process!
Have a great weekend!
Matt