WHN Blog :: Connecting

Ten years ago, I was on the Internet, I was, but guess what I wasn't doing on it that I've been doing this week?

Oh let's see, submitting press releases, reading my new "new favorite blogs," ordering more business cards - including some design tweaks and matching return of address labels (all done in moments), learning from "savvy marketing blogs" and great websites on "twitter" (where recently "John A. Byrne," editor of Business Week, posted that "BW.com," hit new traffic records set for March and for the first quarter, with huge gains in March of 41% in unique visitors), paying bills, researching a book I'm working on, coaching a client via email on how to "launch her new blog" (stay tuned, it's in its infancy, but Susan Dopart is the most talented, inspiring nutritionist I've ever met), in the beginning stages of putting together a possible new event for October, and finally buying an assortment of books on Amazon.com with a gift certificate a friend gave me for my birthday in January.

Tens years ago doing these things would have meant a lot more leg work for me, it would have meant getting in the car and trips to the store, and to the printer, needing a graphic designer, needing to have a fax machine at home, and of course needing to be on the phone for hours longer than I really want to be.

Yes indeed, the Internet makes a lot of things very convenient, and as a society on the whole we're finally taking to it. How can you not love Amazon when you can buy both new AND used books? How can you not love being able to research the best price and the best version of something online? As consumers we get the power of the Internet, we do.

But where many of us are falling down is in how we use the Internet when promoting our own businesses. Many of us are stuck with outdated buggy whips in our hands proclaiming that the horse will never go out of style as the most popular method of transportation for man!

Now I'm a big horse lover, I'd like to see them used again for greener short trip travel, I would, but I'm a student of history and know what happened - a hundred years ago the car was rearing it's head as the new method of transportation, oil was being discovered in the middle east (and all over the world), Henry Ford was figuring out a new way to manufacture things, and the world would soon never be the same again.

We're in a similar moment. What are you doing about it? Are you embracing the idea of a "beautiful photography" and beguiling website that's kept up to date (one that's modern, with an easy to use nicely integrated style?) Have you create a blog to create connection and a following clearly accessible on your site? Are you putting some of your print advertising budget towards Google Ad words, SEO Optimization (i.e. having the right text on your site to rank higher in the search engines), and say, "Yelp?" And if you can't afford Yelp, why not look into "UrbanSpoon.com?" Are you involving yourself and your company in building a "robust social presence" with social media outlets like Facebook, and Twitter, and Linked In?

Or are you shaking your fist, whip in hand?