Artefact 1 Evaluation

Artefact 1:
For my first artefact I gave local business owners a questionnaire to fill in to find out to what extent they use the opportunities of the digital world, to advertise their business. I thought doing a questionnaire would be a bit useless and draw results that I was already expecting, however on reflection it showed some interesting information about companies use of the digital media and certain things that could effect it, for example when established and the industry of the business. All 30 companies sampled used either social networking or websites or both, with 29 using a website. This high level of online activity suggests proprietors recognise the importance of the digital age they operate in. Websites were used predominantly for advertising and social networking to encourage online “word of mouth” I found that service industries focus more energy on social networking, especially hair and beauty companies.My results showed that businesses established 15-20 years ago don’t use social networking, although do have websites.All 30 used business cards which always included links to their website and social network sites. Clearly not all business believe social networking to be a necessity, however the fact that all 8 service businesses established in the last 5 years, show it’s a growing phenomenon.
My research project focused massively on both how the companies advertised themselves and how they used digital media to achieve this, as well as selling the products and services. The questionnaire results show that that all clearly think having an online presence improves their business but how much? and how much are they using the opportunities of the media to do so?
My results have lead to onto artefact 2 in which it left me wondering that although the local businesses have some sort of online presence, to what extent are they using the web to sell the business? I want to compare all 30 companies websites and social networking sites to ascertain levels of effort, investment and relevance.