The business case for free wifi

I would love to be at Demo. Or at least I thought I would, until I read this:

After an evening and morning at DEMO in Phoenix, my only observation is:

Great companies. Too bad there is no Internet access here so that we can write about them.

No access in the hotel rooms, no access in the main hall. Only a few lucky people who are allowed into the press room can get on the Internet. I feel like a prisoner.

There is a great story here. 700 people. New innovative companies. Buzz.

Regardless of why the wifi is down (some say it’s too many people requesting IPs, some say it’s the provider’s suckage), this is bad. And it made me think that maybe providing free wifi should be a default investment for any business, charity, or event whose backers want people to be enthusiastic and evangelistic about what they do. I’m talking about restaurants (not just fast food joints), doctors’ offices, car repair garages (I can’t be the only one who’s wasted hours watching bad daytime TV and reading ancient copies of Fisherman’s Monthly in such places), sports tournaments, bowl-a-thons - you name it.

No, none of this is original thinking. I’m just newly irritated that it’s taking so long to get through to people who need to know it.

Last week, my friend and Engagement Alliance advisory board member Hillary Johnson flew in from LA to see me while I was visiting family in Ohio. It took us three hours to find some wifi - in the public library, finally. It’s only offered at one branch, and is the only wifi gig in town. No one’s even offering paid access. This is dumb, despite the population of Chillicothe being only about 23,000.

Actually, it’s dumb precisely because the population is so low. That 23,000 is the figure within Chillicothe city limits; the figure for Ross County is about 75,000; the population for the state of Ohio is about 12 million.

The Kelsey Group estimates that local search accounts for 20% of all search activity. If you’ve got a business or event to promote in a limited (that is, especially niche) geographical area, you should make it a priority to get as many of your satisfied customers as possible talking about you online. Get their raves in the search engines‘ indexes and let the other people in your area find them as easily as possible. Give them free wifi while they’re on premises, actually experiencing your great service and fine products. Especially in smaller markets, it often doesn’t take much buzz to make a big impact.

My friend Nancy Rommelmann and her husband Din Johnson (Hillary’s brother, as it happens) have a café in Portland, Ristretto Roasters. People come to drink the coffee that Din personally roasts, eat Nancy’s awesome baked goods, and use the free wifi. Just check out their Google results. There are tons of glowing reviews - most of which mention the free wifi - of the café, the coffee, the baked goods, and the total package.

Meanwhile, in Chillicothe, Hillary and I sat frustrated in Joy o’ Java, which had comfy chairs and a breathtaking variety of teas...and nothing but re-runs of Laguna Beach to entice us to stay any longer and keep spending. (Did I mention there was no wifi?)

Knowing the organisers, who are all great and clued-up entrepreneurs, I wouldn’t have expected an event like Demo to fall victim to such lame circumstances. REALLY enthusiastic attendees like venture capitalist Jeff Clavier are blogging about it from their wifi-enabled hotels...and blogging about how great the hotels are for offering the connectivity. Connect those dots.

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