Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 16, 2026 | Worcester Business Journal 29 BY JULIA BECKER COLLINS Special to WBJ I f your business has been around for 20 years or more, your web- site probably isn't the only thing showing its age. Your entire online brand may be carrying decades of digital baggage. And your brand is much more than your logo. It's how your company looks, sounds, communicates and directs people to take action. Over the years, new websites, rebrands, acquisitions, staff changes, social media accounts and third-party listings pile up. e last thing you want is someone Googling your busi- ness and not being sure which one is the "real" you. at's when it's time to get your online house in order. Consistency matters. Wherever someone finds your business online, it should look and sound like the same company. Your logo, colors, photos, messaging and tone should match. And don't overlook the basics: phone numbers should be current, forms should work and links should go where they're supposed to. But that doesn't mean everything has to be identical. Cross-posting — sharing the same content across multiple social media platforms — is perfectly fine. But strong marketing also recognizes what works on each platform. A LinkedIn post doesn't belong word-for-word on Instagram, just as your Google Business Profile serves a different purpose than your website. e brand stays consistent while the execution adapts. I recently worked with a client getting an established family business ready for its next phase. e business was solid, but the marketing hadn't been touched in years. e brand was dated, the photography was old, business information needed updat- ing, and Yelp reviews had gone unanswered. ey didn't need to reinvent the business. ey needed their online presence to reflect who they are now and where they're going. at's why, for an established business, a refresh should start with figuring out what's already out there. Review your website, Google Business Profile, social media accounts — even the ones nobody has touched in years — and review sites like Google and Yelp. Look for old logos, outdated photos, former addresses, dead phone numbers, broken links, old staff information and descriptions that no longer sound like your business. You can't clean up your online pres- ence until you know what needs fixing. Businesses that have gone through a merger, acquisition, name change or rebrand need to pay especially close attention. e internet has a long memory, and old listings and forgot- ten profiles can stick around for years, confusing potential custom- ers or sending them to outdated information. Cleaning it up makes your business easier to find, understand and contact. Sometimes better marketing isn't about another campaign or a bigger budget. If your business has been around for years, you probably have some digital baggage to clean up first. ere's no point paying to get more people to find your business if what they find is outdated, confusing or wrong. Clean it up, make it consistent, then drive people to it. Julia Becker Collins is the chief operating officer at Vision Advertising, a Northborough-based digital marketing agency. ADVICE & OPINION BY TIMOTHY MURRAY Special to WBJ C oined by former House Speaker from Massachu- setts, Tip O'Neill, "e House is run by senior- ity, and Massachusetts does not discard its seniority." is reflects how a geographically compact state with just nine congres- sional districts can punch above its weight, and how Massachusetts has relied on its seniority rather than high delegation turnover to steer national policy and federal investment back for almost a century. In January 2027, the Common- wealth and Central Massachusetts will sit in an influential position on Capitol Hill. Rep. Katherine Clark will serve as Democratic majority leader; Rep. Richard E. Neal, repre- senting Western and Central Massa- chusetts, will lead the House Ways and Means Committee as Chair; and Rep. Jim McGovern of Worcester will lead the House Rules Committee as chair when the 120th U.S. Congress is sworn in. While seniority provides the gavel, congressional influence is time lim- ited, as representative terms last only two years. Majorities shi, committee gavels trade hands, and national pri- orities fluctuate dramatically between administrations. While having members of Congress in high-level leadership positions creates a rare window of opportunity to write legislation and win grants for Massachusetts, that influence is mean- ingless if state leaders fail to capitalize while the window remains open. Federal dollars must be converted into shovels in the ground before shiing political winds can unmake them, and there is no clearer example of this than the Allston Multimodal Project in Boston. A generational megaproject, the Allston Multimodal Project is critical to transit, highway safety, and re- gional economic development across Boston to Worcester and eventually to points in Western Mass. Designed to dismantle the decaying elevated Interstate 90 viaduct, the project would bring the highway to grade and dramatically reshape transit west of Boston with a new multimodal transit hub on the Framingham/Worcester Commuter Rail Line, called West Station. is will provide connections to neighborhood bus lines, regional rail, East-West Rail, and potential future passenger service along the Grand Junction corridor, linking directly to Kendall Square in Cambridge and North Station. In March 2024, drawing on pro- grams created under a Democratic leadership hold, Massachusetts secured a $335.4 million federal grant through the Reconnecting Commu- nities and Neighborhoods (RCN) / Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) program. is grant served as the federal cornerstone anchoring a state and local financing package to- taling $1.9 billion to $2-plus billion. Unfortunately, the House and Senate flipped in 2025, and the Trump Adminis- tration targeted the project, rescinding $327 million of the $335.4 million award in part be- cause Massachusetts had not encum- bered the project. e Allston experience demon- strates why Massachusetts cannot afford complacency. Leaders like Clark, Neal, and McGovern are essential to capturing once-in-a-generation opportunities, but turning paper awards into perma- nent infrastructure requires state and local execution that stays a step ahead of Washington's volatile, two-year rhythm. Timothy Murray is president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. Massachusetts must move faster on federal dollars Timothy Murray CHAMBER CORNER W Is your business's brand disappearing online? Julia Becker Collins KNOW HOW W

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