Internet Marketing is changing
Just as things change, people change, circumstances change, time moves on, so is internet marketing and building a business on line. Are we ready to move on?
I am a baby boomer. I can remember black and white TV, no computers or even calculators (fingers worked good). I remember stories trying to explain to children what it would be like to go to the moon “it would take xxx months or years on a train” just to get there never mind coming back.
Speaking of trains. We were living near Edmonton Alberta when we moved to Ft. McMurray. The only way in was by train over the swamp. It was a steam engine and because of the swamps had to go very slow. It took us 6 days to make that trip which can be made now with cars over the road in 3 to 4 hours. And Ft. McMurray? Now that was another story. At that time it wasn’t much more than a trading post on the river (okay a bit more but not much!). Today it is a busy little city, the home of the Alberta tar sands having world wide impact. Who would have thought back then that it would become what it did.
We moved to Ft. McMurray just when Network Marketing or MLM was getting its start, the beginnings. Since then Networking has gone through its metamorphasis, going through tremendous changes since its early days and now entering into what Dr. Charles King refers to as “The New Professionals”. I will not take the time to go through those stages but the advent of the personal computer and FedEx have had a huge impact on how business is done. Those that have changed with the times are reaping the benefits, Network Marketing and Direct Sales have gone on to become something of a major impact on the world.
The style of marketing is changing. Moving from trying to beg or coerce family, friends, neighbors and any one within 3 feet to attracting new friends and building relationships. The methods of attracting customers or partners is changing. WEB 2.0, the next wave or phase of the internet is here. This has tremendous potential for what we can do to grow our businesses.
The sudden and fast rise of Social Networking is one of the key drivers (at least relative to what we are doing) in this change. In a recent webinar at The Renegade University we learned that 33% of internet users visit MySpace or have a page there, 29% either are on or go to FaceBook, 35% use YouTube. There are lots of Social Networking sites in cyber land with the number of users doubling every month. The top keyword searches bring up a social site. Social buyers make 20% more and also spend 25% more of their income. Some feel that over the next 2 years this is where the action is going to be and if we are going to take advantage of these trends now is the time to do it.
Social Networking is comprised of a lot of methods:
- Social Networking sites like Facebook, MySpace
- Social Bookmarking sites likeSocialMarker.com
- Content sharing like Squidoo and HubPages
-Video, Photo and Music Sharing Sites like YouTube, MetaCalfe, Flickr
- Blogging sites like SquareSpace,Wordpress or Blogger
- Adapters like Ezine Articles
If we are going to succeed in our business we are going to need to grow and develope in the relatively new art of attracting our customers not attacking. Not really new, I recommend reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People” originally written in 1937. (Okay – I guess some things never change). We need to be adapting to new methods using the tools of Social Networking to develope friendships and relationships so that people get to know, like and trust us.
