Archive for May 2010
3 Things To Watch for By 2013
In the next 3 -5 years there three major things that will force how we think and how we do business on the Internet. You need to prepare today in order to adopt new ways of doing business online in the future. To adopt new ways of thinking, a paradigm shift unlike you have ever had to endure in the past. Giving customers what they want is paramount, if you don’t, word of mouth will work against you at a faster rate than you can ever recover from. The future is filled with change, how you embrace change matters more than ever today. The next 5 years will test your ability to make changes.
Questions to consider: 1.) Does the Technology you use today help fill your sales funnel? 2.) Does your current technology improve productivity? 3.) Do you have easy ways for your customers to connect with you or talk to you? 4.) Does your current technology help build your brand? 5.) Does your current technology match your business objectives? 6.) Is your company web-native, is the web your primary way of doing business? 7.) Does your current technology make paying for your product or service easy and in a seamless way? 8.) How easy is it to do business with your company online?
3 Things to pay attention to:
1.) The 3 Billion yet to come
In the next 5 years we will see the arrival of 3 Billion people, that’s 3 Billion more people online than there is to date. This will create a sound boom, an avalanche of new content and a serious need for filtering the noise. Filtering content will be more important than creating it, and you will need to be tagged to be heard. If you do business online, getting attention and converting will be much more difficult if you don’t prepare today. These new consumers will want more control and will not be forced into paying for something they can find elsewhere. Hence the phrase, Proudly Found Elsewhere. Your Ecosystem will need to harness the power of an open economy to survive.
2.) Web-Centric
In the next few years 30% of all commerce will be done online, do you have the right systems in place to adopt that 30%? It is expected that that number will eventually hit 60%, are you ready to serve them? Do you have a team working on creative ways to adopt to the web in a primary way? Are you still treating the Internet as an add-on to your business?
3.) Mobile & Social
The Internet is shifting from computers to mobile devices, eventually these devices will be embedded into eyecare and possibly bionic lenses. More text messages are being sent than actual vioce calls are being made in the USA today. Is your business channeling to mobile devices? Are designing systems to adopt mobile devices that integrate social networks? Each day new mobile devices are being developed, and each day more and more business is being funnelled through mobile social networks, is your business leveraging new technologies that maximize presence and attention?
The world is getting faster and very mobile, the web is central to everything being developed today, are you there, will you be ready? The world is coming like a tidal wave, will you ride it or be hit by it? It’s an exciting time, embrace the open economy and the open & free business model, adopt this new way of serving others and generate more revenue than the past.
The Internet Is No Longer Just An Add-On
For years we have used the Internet much like a PS3 or an XBOX, it was an add-on to our entertainment center, it was attached to the TV. The TV has been the CORE entertainment box since it’s inception, but now TV as we know it is all but done. Internet TV is becoming the primary way we watch TV, that’s killing advertisers and cable networks. I wrote earlier this week that we in our household canceled cable for a couple reasons; we can get what we want on the NET, and two we weren’t watching TV all that much. So, we cut the overhead and will put that money into something we want online.
Business owners started paying attention to the Internet when they heard a few making considerable revenue online, the problem is, it was never take seriously. Today, if you’re a business owner you must take the Internet seriously and have a strategy that meets the requirements / objectives of your business plan. The Internet is no longer just an add-on, it has and is now becoming central to doing commerce period. In the next couple years you will see 30% of all commerce done online, is that your business? That number is going to grow closer to 60% when it’s all said and done.
It’s not enough to use the Internet as your primary source for revenue, you will also have to adopt an open economy strategy. The strategy is not difficult, it’s the way you think about that open economy, and how you will participate in it. I’ll harp on this until I no longer have to, it’s a paradigm shift, and it’s a painful shift. Take a look at my last blog post on Gerd Leonhards list of 14 shifts. My question to you is, how does it make you feel when you read that list?
Are you using the Internet only for entertainment, or is it becoming your primary way of doing business? The Internet is demanding respect, and so are your customers, they want to know if you are there to serve them or if you are just playing them and the Internet. No longer can you treat the Internet as an add-on to your business, you must begin the process giving the Internet it’s due. You should be shifting to a Web-Native model, that’s where the Internet is central to everything you do. Then you need to embrace an open economy where you give users more control of how they do business with you. This open economy is also very mobile and very social, how will you adopt this model? Will you be kicking and screaming or will you invite creativity and ask your customers what they would have you do?
Is the Internet just an add-on for you and your business or is the core platform for your business? The Internet is the game changer and has given everyone an opportiunity to not only have a voice, but also build something special your customers will embrace. Make the Internet your primary platform, the Internet Is No Longer Just An Add-on.
Will You Embrace an Open Economy?
You will read much about this a great deal here, and you will hear about it in many other circles, the world has yet to arrive, but when they do, an Open Economy will emerge and swarm the Internet like never before. An open economy will bring about a new way of thinking, a new way of planning, and a new way of generating revenue. Much will change and then some things will remain the same, out of fear and creativity.
One thing that will change, regardless of you or your businesses participation, customers will take charge in this open business model, they’ve already started if you haven’t noticed. In fact, you probably are seeing a shift to where the middle-man is dead, small is the new big, it’s happening because we used to succeed by controlling, and businesses are no longer in control in this open economy. Good companies will have to find things users can do in order to keep them, open things, give users more control.
Jeff Jarvis, author of , What Would Google Do?
In the new model, attention will be the new currency, getting attention will be central to your success. In fact, if you want to be found, you will have to be in “the public”, in the open, the model will demand it. You will place value on different indicators, you will learn the value of being involved in the conversation, with your customers, do what they are asking you to do, will you listen to them?
Here are a number shifts that are going take place, some have already begun. Taken from Gerd Leonhard’s Slide presentation:
1.) A Web-Native Business Model – the Internet (Web) will be the primary way of doing business. It’s no longer just an add-on.
2.) Shift from the Network to Networked
3.) Mobile & Social 1st
4.) Open Platforms (Google)
5.) From Control to Trust
6.) From Egosystem to Ecosystem (Collaboration will be everything for survival)
7.) From walled gardens to the Jungle (You can’t keep things behind walls and generate new money)
8.) Everything will shift to the Cloud
9.) Friction to Engagement
10.) GUI (Graphical User Interface) to NUI (Natural User Interface)
11.) Linear to Fuzzy Logic
12.) New Qualifications
13.) A Shift from Denial to Foresights
14.) Yes / No to Maybe
The world is coming, and it bringing a new way of doing business, it’s called an Open Economy, an Open & Free Business Model, will you learn it, will you embrace it?
Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
Ever wondered what it is that really drives people? What gets them motivated and what incentives will help them achieve greatness? I know, every single day, right? Well, watch this and learn everything you ever needed to know about motivation!
This is brilliant, very informative and very, very entertaining, sit back and enjoy.
Start Blogging Today
There has never been a better time to be an Entrepreneur, never a better time to be a Blogger, there has never been a better time to be an early adopter. In many respects, if you started your Blog today, you would be an early adopter. Why? Well, there are only 1.8 Billion People on the Internet, not all have a Blog, and there is still another 3 Billion people coming over the next 3 – 5 years. That’s 3 Billion people you will be ahead of when the dam breaks, you’ll be on high ground, ready to serve the other 3 billion yet to come regardless of whether selling a service or product, or if your giving your help away for free. Imagine what a time such as this could do for you & your blog, do you have a Blog, are you thinking of starting one, I would, and I would start right now. But where do you turn for help?
Look no further than a site called Start Blogging Today! The site is all about you and your success as a Blogger, an incredible support team that takes the stress out of wondering what to do next. I charge you to make a good decision and visit Start Blogging Today, get involved with the community and ensure your blogging experience is a positive one. Imagine, help at your finger tips, the kind of help you can’t find anywhere else! A site that provides weekly training and tools for your blogging success.
Start Blogging Today is run by true blogging professionals, Grant Griffiths, founder of the Headway WP blogging theme, and Michael Martine of Remarkablogger. Meet the rest of the team standing by to help you.
Why do I endorse this program? The people, it’s the people behind SBT. They have built a first class how to system for any business professional who’s starting out with a blog, or even for those who’ve been around for a while and want to take their blog to the next level.
Patsi Krakoff a veteran blogging professional herself, interviewed Grant Griffiths and here are a few words from Grant, I share it with you here, taken from Patsi’s blog word for word:
“The thought which became Start Blogging Today came into existence because we saw a need and a desire in a marketplace. Every single day we saw businesses struggling to gain an online presence.
While they could all throw up a simple web site similar to the Yellow Page ad they were running. what they really needed was a way to communicate and engage with their target audience. And we knew blogging was the method they needed to use.
The problem too many businesses, whether they are home based, small or any size, face is that they think they are seeing too many other bloggers. How can they compete and where would they fit in?
What we set out to do with SBT was to provide a framework of 26 core lessons to get them past that unwarranted concern and to learn how a blog and social media can market and promote their business.
The other roadblock to their own online marketing success was their lack of knowledge on how to actually use a blog and blogging platform. SBT deals with this by giving them the tools from day one to get a blog up and going from day one.
From the very beginning of mapping out SBT we wanted to build a community and we feel we have done that with the members’ only forums and the structure of the site. We are even using Twitter and “protecting updates” so members of SBT can use twitter to communicate with us and we can make announcements for them too.
Also included with SBT is a members-only blog category which members will only see when posted. We wanted to show members that all of the tools we were suggesting to them to use could be used and used well.
While our target audience for SBT might be the noob blogger, the newbie or the brand new blogger, it’s good for others as well. The just started, and even the blogger who has been around for a while can use Start Blogging Today to correct their course and kick an existing blog up a notch. We feel any level of blogger can benefit from the core and bonus lessons in SBT.”
THE END
Enough said, whether you’re a veteran blogger or a blogging noobie, or you haven’t considered setting up a blog, before you do anything else right this moment, visit Start Blogging Today right now, get a free report on blogging while your there!
