The Internet Has Changed Everything – Or Has It?

Posted on 28. May, 2010 by Matthew Toren in Business, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Social Media

Everywhere you look these days it seems you find blog posts, news articles, tweets, updates, comments, etc., etc. about how business is so different now; about “new media”; and about the “new economy”.  There is also an abundance of information about “communities”, “networks”, and “social networking”, and how entrepreneurs can use these newfangled things to promote and grow their businesses.  The point is well taken, and there are plenty of such posts on this very blog, so I’m by no means saying there is no validity to all this chatter.  But are we all missing something here?  Is all this stuff really so new?

Let’s think back to the day before anyone had heard of the Worldwide Web.  Let’s say you owned a brick and mortar store and were trying to make a go of it.  What would you need to do to be successful?  There are a lot things a store owner would have to think about to build and grow his or her business, and they really haven’t changed that much today.  Let’s look at just a couple of factors that would determine success and see what we find:

Location, location, location. In order to get the maximum traffic to your brick and mortar store, you need to be in the right location.  The factors you’d want to consider are both the traffic flow that’s going to pass by your store, and the neighborhood where your store is located.  For instance, you wouldn’t do well putting a title loan store smack in the middle of multi-million-dollar homes, and “the other side of the tracks” wouldn’t be a great spot for Sacs 5^th Avenue to open up shop.

As an online entrepreneur, your “location” is your site, and you’re still concerned with the same demographic-type considerations.  Your neighborhood, some would say, is the whole world now, but really, your neighborhood – or “community” – consists of people who are into whatever it is you’re selling.  Just like the shop owner, you need to know who your target audience is, identify what their wants and needs are, and do your best to provide it.  Just because you potentially have access to everyone and his brother doesn’t mean it makes sense to try and reach all of them anymore than it makes sense for Sacs to open a store in Smallville, Kansas.  And what do you do to reach customers?

Marketing. The brick and mortar store owner of years past had a lot of options for marketing, including some inexpensive or free “guerilla” techniques.  But the numerous free options, such as social media marketing, blogging, comment marketing, article marketing, and forum marketing (to name a few) weren’t around.  The one thing the brick and mortar business owner could do that was extremely effective in gaining and keeping customers – and free – was to get to know his customers and to interact with them.  From attending community events and networking, to just getting out from the back room and talking to people, the most successful store owners were, and still are, those who are best at connecting with their customers.

Internet entrepreneurs who succeed in their businesses do essentially the same thing.  Sure, the tools are different, and you have to learn the technical aspects of using them, but isn’t the goal exactly the same?  We tend to talk about things like social media as though we need to learn a new way to communicate.  But the truth is, we just need to do what we’ve always done.  If you want to do well in business, you do so by connecting with your customers, and you do that by engaging in real conversations and genuine interactions.  How is that any different from the small grocery store owner who knows every customer’s name when they come in and stops to chat with them in the produce section?

So take the lessons learned in the old days and apply them to your business today.  You’ll find that while technology changes, human psychology really doesn’t.  And that means it’s not all that tough to figure out.  If you’re human, and (comment bots excluded) I’m pretty sure you are, you already know what people want and how they communicate – because it’s the same as what you want and how you communicate!  So don’t stress over figuring out this “new media” “social networking” “electronic age” stuff.  Just remember that for the most part what’s always worked still works today.

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Tags: Blogging, Business, entrepreneur, Internet Marketing, small business, Social Media, Social media marketing

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