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The Project

The main goal of Mediasect is to explore ways that can help people find a website especially small local business websites. Without a direct link, it can be extremely difficult to locate a specific web page in the vastness of the internet. Even a perfectly designed website will have few visitors without a little outside help. That’s where this project comes in.

Mediasect was made to determine which sources can help the average person find the website of a small, local business. It primarily explores the effectiveness of offline media in accomplishing this goal, although online sources are being used as well.

Print Media

Any media not found online can be classified as offline media or, for this project, print media. This project, utilizes two main sources of print media: posters and business cards. Each poster and business card contains a Quick Response (QR) Code. By taking a picture of the QR code with a smart phone or other mobile device, you are linked to Mediasect. If you are currently reading this, it is very likely that you found your way here through one of these offline sources.

Offline media, can be placed in locations where a small business is most likely to find its customers. Mediasect is focusing on two locations within two

cities. Posters and sets of business cards have been placed in Decatur, IN and Fort Wayne, IN. This will test the effectiveness of print media in two different cities with populations around 10,000 and 250,000 people, respectively. Within each city I have also placed the print media in two different locations a busier and a slower area. In addition these areas cater to different audiences.

Social Media

One of the new trends in communication is what most people call, “social media.” Social Media is where you can post personal or professional information on a social media website and than most people will be able to view your post. Surely you have heard of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, and my Space. Well, these are considered the giants of the social media world.

Social media can provide a friendly and unique way to advertise your business. You can show your followers on twitter what new is coming to your business. Or use facebook to show your friends new sales. I plan on making a Facebook and Twitter account that have links that are linked to mediasect. I can keep track on who comes from where with Google Analytics.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Offline media can be important for a variety of reasons in attracting customers to the website of a small, local business. As mentioned before, the internet is large. While some websites can be easily found through a Google search, thousands of websites, that also match the search, are buried beyond the first page of results. This is due to something called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While whole books are devoted to this complicated process, the important fact is that it uses a website’s popularity and meta-tags to produce search results. This can cause problems for a small business.

For example: In Decatur, IN there is a store that recently opened called Bagels N’ More. Even if it becomes the most popular location in Decatur, it

still has to compete with every business and website throughout the world that is related to bagels. That’s a lot of competitors!

One reason I have chosen Mediasect as a name is its uniqueness, which will hopefully give it a higher chance of being found through SEO, especially given the relatively short duration of this project (approximately 5 weeks). You can test SEO out by typing mediasect project into Google and see the results it produces.