Your Business

The internet is spreading by the second… Wider and wider in every country across the global village… each day, each hour, each minute… more people are connecting to the ever expanding web of the internet.
Not just a few people are connecting weekly, MILLIONS of new folks are connecting into our digital global village via the internet.  Hungry searchers, hunting for information, looking for information to help them understand… connecting, communication, collaborating, learning, sharing, doing research and discovering answers to their most vexing problems and needs.

As of today over 2 Billion people, that’s about one third of the globe, are connected into this life- giving matrix of possibility and connection. And the web continues to expand at an ever increasing rate. Every 2-3 months, new connections onto the internet are almost greater than our total SA population. Presently Africa has a 11% penetration with an explosive growth rate of 2,357.3 % since 2000.

It’s Here to stay!
So firstly, you have to concede… the web is here to stay. Soon more people will watch viddler and YOUtube than TV…? WhoTube?  Right!...Even now, huge segments of the web population only use the web for their day to day info / media consumption and communication.  Old style media/print /Marketing is dying… and will virtually disappear as we move more into the digital –everyone-connected-everywhere-all-the-time-to-everybody-in-an-instant era.

Secondly, where are you in this modern day “gold rush”? Are you standing on the sidelines, watching, waiting wondering and wishing? Or are you smart and active in exploring possibility? Are you getting yourself web savvy?

Are you web-active or web-dumb?
The comments in business and social life today are no longer “do you have A website?”, but… how many sites do you have? And how are they ranking right now? How many page #1’s do you have? And are you leveraging the power of Social Networking? (aka word of mouth). If you don’t have web presences and some smart SEO/Search engine optimization to enhance your first page rankings – you are losing out… dummy?

Think about this… just a few short years ago, typical sales and marketing was the “shotgun” approach… i.e. Advertise at a bunch of people and hope they would respond to your marketing blurb and not your competitions’ blurb. Hope that it was… at the right time, with the right message, in the right channel, to the right demographics. It was an “MARKET AT THEM” approach.  No manners, no courtesy, no consciousness, no real care or connection.

Are you feeding the “hungry” properly?
Today… The direction and dynamics of marketing, sales and promoting have been transformed by 180 degrees. Now it the hungry prospects who come looking, searching, hunting, researching, collaborating, exploring, asking, referring, sharing and warning. The challenge now is that it’s ALL on the WEB. It’s at the speed of life. It’s unfiltered, unfettered and uncontrollable. And it’s unfair!  But it’s better than before.

Did you see that critical line?... It’s ALL on the WEB! ALL.  100% of my business in Appreciative Inquiry Team Building, Business Coaching and Public / Keynote Speaking business comes from hungry searchers on the WWW LOOKING FOR MY SERVICES AND PRODUCTS!   They are looking for me (service keywords)… and not me looking for them with shot-gun cold calling or high cost low response old-style advertising

How do you rate?
So now rate yourself on a scale of 0-10. How web savvy are you? How dependent is your company on old-style marketing. How well do you rank for your product or service? If you are not on Page#1 of big G, your marketing might as well be a sheet of paper, hidden at the bottom of the trash dump. How many “Fans” and “Likes” do you have on Facebook? Do you tweet, twitter, blog, bbm from you pad, pod,  PC or fruitykeyboard(Blackberry),

What is your Word of Mouth Strategy? (WOM). Are you tracking your analytics. How are you tracking your competition? Do you have a plan to dominate the Google first page for all of your product or service keywords?

Old thinking = dinosaur destiny
What got you to where you are now, won’t keep you there, or catapult you towards further success. To do nothing or to little can be devastating to your future viability and success.  A new plan is required to ensure visibility, viability and more business volume.  The world, the web and business-as-usual has shifted… Have you?

Either you will pay a web specialist to do it for you… that is web desigm , web building and polulation, Page Optimisation, SEO, Social Media, Blogging, Web 2.0, Analytics etc… at a heft hourly or monthly rate, and you won’t understand a thing, or you can begin to learn more about it now.  Knowing more can save you time and money and protect you from “Gold-rush” predators… It’s time… for you to discover the excitement, potentials possibilities  and prospects of being effectively web-ucated before it’s too late.

Invest time to update and upgrade your knowledge and expertise regarding the web, social media marketing, SEO. Arm yourself with understanding and insights on how you can begin to tap into the “rivers of hungry searchers” – seeking solutions and satisfaction.  Every day there are hundreds and thousands of searches for your products or services.
Go to the Google “back door” where you can discover just how many people are looking for your products and services.

Web-tangled or Web-ucated
I can promise you this… You are going to be IN, or ON, the web. Either, IN the web, as a poor me... “I moved to late” Victim…or ON, as a Power Me, “I made a smart decision to act now” Vanquisher. It’s all up to your mind (thought) and mouse finger (Action).

Either way, history is strewn with woulda, coulda, shoulda’s holding their sagging heads in shame. That fact you are reading this tells me you are different from those duds.  It’s time to be a Stud (Or Stud-ess) and take charge of your personal domain. Become a digital adventurer and a Google First Page Warrior.  Learn the tips, tricks, tactics and trade secrets of those who compete in the digital dimension of the Internet.

Irrevocably, the web continues to impact us in every aspect of our lives…daily.  That is… until the next ice age gets here, or the next Giant meteor collides with us… But until then… Get smart, get lively, get yourself Web-ucated… It’s the smart thing to do… today.   For information, talks and coaching on how you can fast-track your webucation contact Tony Dovale.

Inspiringwomen and LifeMasters are presenting a one day Webucation Workshops in Johannesburg and Cape Town and Durban in April and May. For more info on thse workshops, click here