| Keep up or Perish
Recently, as I was enjoying the Eaglesham Fair, I noticed some of the young people texting or surfing the internet while visiting together. Some, I noticed, were even busy with their Blackberry or iPhone while riding their horses. Have you ever shaken your head and wondered at our young folks engrossed with their mobile devices, seemingly detached from the world around them? My, how things have changed! It wasn’t many years ago that my employer had to strong arm me to learn to operate a computer so I could do my job. At that time my modern desktop computer had a 65 pound monitor that took up half my desk. The hard disk memory in that technological marvel was almost one gigabyte in size with a RAM of only 32 megabytes. This, of course, is ancient technology compared to today’s standards but it firmly prepared us for the computers that we take for granted today. Now, in 2010, the desk top computer and indeed those beastly old monitors are already becoming extinct. Laptops, mini notebooks, tablets and mobile devices are the handy new computing tools that are filling their place. At this point you might say, GRAND. . . how does that concern me, I have managed okay up until now so I probably don’t need the Internet. Well, you might want to recall that it was not that long ago that skeptics predicted that the horseless carriage would never catch on. Can you even imagine what the world would look like today with out the automobile? I think that today’s businesses might even learn from the old buffalo herds that once roamed the prairies, in that if we don’t keep up we will either starve or be eaten alive. I am not trying to frighten or muscle anyone into something that they don’t possibly need. What people need to understand is that the business landscape in the Peace Country and indeed across the world is changing, and changing fast. Five years ago we only needed to advertise in the newspaper, on local radio or hang a poster on the town bulletin board to be sure that we have done all that was possible to promote our business. Today, however, the new mobile communication devices are so actively used that if our businesses are not also found on the Web, we will miss a good portion of clientele looking for what we have to offer. Newspaper and Radio advertising will always remain an excellent way to advertise our business. But today, the first thing a modern consumer / client will do to find your business or after reading your advertisement is to jump on the Internet to see all you have to offer on your website. The look and feel of your webpage combined with a clear choice of content information will help your potential customer decide whether to do business with yourbusiness.ca or thecompetition.com. Your website is your showroom, the location of choice to advertise your business. Mary Meeker, an Internet Analyst for Morgan Stanley Global Financial Services states, “The world is currently in the midst of the fifth major technology cycle in the past half century. Mobile Internet usage is ramping up substantially faster than desktop Internet usage ever did. One of the implications of mobile access is a growth in Ecommerce, featuring things such as location-based services, time based offers, mobile coupons, push notifications, etc.” What does all this mean for you here in the Peace Country? Well, if you are retired, independently wealthy, or simply don’t care, then it likely won’t spoil your morning coffee. However, if you are trying to do business and are praying for the phone to ring or a new customer to walk through your door, then what I have written here will help you to catch up and keep up with the business herd. If the buffalo lesson is correct, that means you will not only survive, but live to thrive in your business. Good Luck in your business future. Doug Greenfield, Web developer in the Peace Country. Helping Peace Country businesses establish themselves in our fast new digital world. www.artscriptcanada.ca |