Webformation

Can you trust the internet for accurate information? Is the news, blog posts, site statistics, etc., that you access via the internet really accurate? As more and more people turn to the internet as a source of information, I think it is wise as a business to make sure that the information reported in directories or sites reporting analytics are accurate. Decision makers, current customers and your prospects are increasingly leaning on the internet and these kinds of resources to find out more about your business in order to make a decision if they want to do business with you or not. Using our business, here are some good examples of what I would consider the "misinformation" of the "webformation" (I think I just created a new word) aspect of the internet.

Let me give you my definition of my new word: Webformation (somebody call Webster's) is information that is aggregated or posted on websites from resources or from users about a person, organization, object, event, etc., that has no responsibility for the item being reported on and through the process of how it is compiled will always be understood to have a percentage of incorrect or misguiding information. Let's call it 90% accurate. Based on my experience that seems about right.

1. One of our newest products HealthCareerWeb.com is reported on Compete.com as being owned by a health care company in Albany, New York.

2. Here is a good example of information that is wrong about the Employment Guide and EmploymentGuide.com piece of our business on AboutUs.com.

3. There is even outdated information about our organization listed on Alexa.com.

So whose responsibility is it to make sure this information is accurate and up to date? Does that responsibility fall on the shoulders of those who are monetizing the information or on the business on which they are reporting? In my opinion it makes great sense for you (if you have the time and the resources) to keep an eye on this kind of information about your business so you can keep it updated. Unfortunately for smaller businesses this might not be the case so you might have to look to outside resources to make sure your "webformation" is accurate. This can even be hard for a large organization to keep track of, obviously, given that we need to stay on top of this (falling on my own sword here) and we have internal resources.

So back to my earlier question, whose responsibility is it to make sure this information is accurate? In my opinion, I say follow the money and whoever is monetizing the information on the site is responsible for making sure that the content is up-to-date and accurate. What do you think?

Now, I must end this blog so I can go back to work directing our efforts in updating our organization's "webformation." What a great use of my time!