Great, just what you want to read. Another article screaming about the importance of putting your business on the internet. It’s not like you haven’t read this a dozen times before and balked and rolled your eyes at it. However, why are you reading another article about it and not acting on it? Are you trying to justify the marketing investment? Well let me give you two more reasons, and my opinion are the two most important.
If you’re not in Google search results, your business doesn’t exist.
There are countless businesses out there that have been well established who do not use the internet as a means to market their company. However, they are missing out on a huge chunk of exposure as well as potential clients. According to the International Telecommunication Union, 240 million users from United States were active users of the internet in 2010, that is almost 200 million more internet users than in the year 2000.
How does Google tie into this you ask? Once again let’s toss around some more stats. As of July 2011 Google had 80% of all searches where as Bing and Yahoo! only bring in about 8-9%. With that you can see if you have 80% of the population searching on Google for let’s say, a home Maid Service, you are missing out on a possible 192 million people finding your website.
With this technology age and the dawn of the smart phone, marketing your business on the internet is almost as valuable as putting your business on an radio or print ads. Now don’t make me pull out all the stats on how radio ad’s don’t supply as good of a Return On Investment (ROI) that the internet can provide you. You have to stay on the cutting edge of marketing strategies that is available to you so that you can grow your business to the next level.
Social Networking – What are people saying about your company?
Social networking is defined as a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations), and one of the fastest growing aspects of the Internet is Social Networking.
The natural need to be connected with other people goes as far back as I can remember. Think about it this way, when the Telephone craze happened. Before the telephone we had to walk down the street, or take our horse across the country, then again we were only traveling 15-20 miles in a day. Then along came the telephone. We were able to reach out and touch those who were part of our family that lived on the other side of the United States. Then a few years later BOOM, just about every home had a telephone and we would spend hours talking to each other about absolutely nothing.
Today we now have multiple ways to Socially Network with each other. Telephones, email, text messages, Facebook and that Twitter thing. Because of that, the photos from last night’s drinking binge, where the photo of you with someone’s underwear on your head, your shirt half torn and your eyes glazed over singing karaoke can become a web sensation.
Besides drunken photos, Social Network tools such as Facebook or Twitter can be used to benefit your company. This can be done by interacting with your customer base. Through Facebook you can post new specials, sales events or even candid photos to which your customers can comment and share those things with each other. Then on top of that you can comment and interact with those clients. That Twitter thing can be used in the same way. I call it that Twitter thing because that is how other people ask me about it “You know, that Twitter thing.” You can use Twitter to post short 140 character messages that say “SALE NOW! FIRST 10 PEOPLE GET 50% OFF!” and then watch as people spread that message across the internet through Retweeting it to their Twitter.
Overall more and more people today would rather do business with someone they can trust than some random company. And you can do this by tying into the social network side of things and interact with your customer base.
In summary as you can see that by interacting with 77% of the population you can in fact increase your business by adding a website to your arsenal of marketing tools. In some cases you are able to find a decent designer and developer to put those tools in place for you. Yeah it may come with an initial investment, in the end that investment will be well worth it. Trust me, I have seen it personally and several times over with my 10 years of working in this industry.
