Living In An Online World With An Offline Mentality
So many businesses that I work with have owners who are “straddling the fence” of generations. On one side of the fence is the generation that struggled with “new math” and actually learned to spell using a dictionary instead of a spell checker. On the other side of the fence is the generation that could write a term paper in a matter of minutes with the help of Google. If you find yourself more akin to the former, you possibly could be suffering from anxiety created by living in an online world with an offline mentality.
There are a number of symptoms of this dreaded affliction, but the most prevalent seem to be:
1. A consistent attempt to deny that the internet has become the driving force shaping the landscape of social interaction today, and is rapidly doing the same to business. A common comment from this type of behavior is “I know I need to do something on the web, I just don’t know what.” This person can be likened to the farmer who has a bag of seeds with no crops to harvest.
2. A belief that the internet is a fad that will pass like the mood ring and cabbage patch doll. One only has to look at the number of large advertisers, both in print and tv/radio that will include a web site address in their ads. These are companies that spend millions of dollars on consumer research each year. They know buyers behavior. They also know what buyers want from sellers. Small companies would do well to follow their lead
3. Continuing to use out dated offline methods of prospecting and lead generation, i.e. dreaded Cold Calling. Nobody likes cold calling-not the prospect, not the salesman, not the “gate keepers”. So let’s once and for all put it where it belongs, in the graveyard of bad ideas (along with the New Coke and the play at home version of “Fear Factor”). With the internet, it is entirely possible to gather quality leads from people actually looking for you and your products and services. I can not tell you the difference this realization brings to many business owners lives.
The real fact of the matter is that the online world makes the offline world as obsolete as the world looked with and without the steam engine, jet airplane, automobile, or any of the life changing creations before it. As the world begins to change faster and faster, information becomes the power driving the engines of development and the advancement of modern civilization. And the internet makes the acquisition of information fast and cheap, which in turn makes business success easier.
Offline businesses can choose to continue to be stuck in neutral, and watch as their competitors pass them in overdrive or hop on the freeway and put on the cruise control.
The author, Michael Simmons, owned his own business for 27 years before going into web marketing. He now specializes in optimizing the web presence for local businesses through website development. You can visit his website at http://www.gmsimmons.com He also utilizes video, developing web video ads thru http://www.proweb-video.com He can be emailed at mike@gmsimmons.com
Tags: affliction, cabbage patch doll, cold calling, consistent attempt, consumer research, fear factor, fence, force shaping, gate keepers, google, home version, matter of minutes, mentality, mood ring, new coke, new math, offline methods, social interaction, spell checker, using a dictionary
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