It is the best of times, it is the worst of times… You might recognize that as the opening to Charles Dicken’s novel – A Tale of Two Cities. Maybe the “worst of times” is how you are feeling in the present business climate.
Wow the Internet has changed everything. People turn to the Internet for information for how to solve problems, ideas for a sprucing up the yard… and to think it was just a few years ago they turned to the book shelf or the Yellow Pages for answers.
And now social networking and sharing help people ask each other for answers. Facebook, Twitter,
And the rising power of PayPerClick ads. People will click on something of interest when they completely ignore most advertising. We live in an interesting world of tumultuous change.
The Yellow Pages are fading away. Newspapers are shriveling while ad revenue shrinks. So many breakthrough technologies. What a great time to be a usurper!
But what if you are an established small company busy serving customers well, busy getting work done, and busy trying to find new clients.
Who has any time to figure out what is happening?
- What do you need to know?
- Should you take time to master social media?
- What path makes sense?
- Adjustments are required but what adjustments?
And change is always hard. All this tempest does is create stress and uncertainty.
And have you noticed the new competitors coming onto the Internet? The big technology conglomerates who masquerade as local business resources. Have you seen the paid ads for “Get 4 estimates in one hour” That certainly is a no-win situation. Homeowners need to carefully consider who they hire. 4 bids in an hour pretty much pushes towards the low price and who doesn’t know how expensive it can get and how much trouble you can find shopping on low price.
Other usurpers know that new technologies spawn new ways to take advantage, to leverage faux for their financial gain- Fake certificates of authenticity, Fake badges of certitude. Fake lists of positive reviews. All this falsity and dishonesty is anathema to you and it looks like unfair advantage.
But you have great advantages. You have an inherent advantage over the usurpers and outsiders. You are honest and you really are local. The Internet is getting better at exposing fake every day. The future belongs to honest companies who take the time to understand the new technologies and use them to connect with authenticity to the community.
