Your Homepage has Moved, and Isn’t Yours Anymore

Listen to your market

That homepage in your website, (you know the one your Mom thinks looks so nice), is really outdated. Times have changed a great deal since the old days, like way back in 2007. Businesses that wish to succeed into next year had better take note.

Think way back, say 3 years ago. There were no iPhones. Twitter was just coming off the back of a napkin, and Facebook was only hot on the college campus. It you wanted to shop big TVs then you went to Circuit City.

While all this was going on, trillions of dollars were disappearing into the ether-world of homes and retirement accounts. This world, the one in 2010, is far different. One really needs to think about how to take advantage of the new landscape.Fortunes are shifting, and new opportunities are openning up.

Today, as Set Godin has taught us, we live in a world of Tribes, and idea viruses. Goliath now has to keep an eye on David, plus his Facebook friends, and his Twitter followers.

When someone has questions or needs these days they go to the computer, and more often now, their smart phones. Do you still Google? Many people still do, but that’s so 2008. Now if people are looking for answers or new places they ask their peeps on Facebook or Twitter. They also cruise over to the social reviews at Yelp and check the notes at ultra-hot Foursquare.

These social media sites are your new front page. This is where the customers and prospects for your business are finding you or finding about you. What do you think they’re seeing? Do you know? Are you influencing this content and engaging anyone?

If there’s a silver lining to all this it’s the money a business can save by canceling ads in yellow pages, direct mail, radio, and other less effective media. The new media moves fast, and cheap. Great news for little guy like us.

My advice to any business person is to get off your duff and begin to listen to whats being presented to your market and where the most active and valid channels are. You dont have to do anything but find them and listen. It’s better to do nothing at first but get a handle on the places and methods of communication and find out where the info is.

I’m inserting a great video presentation here from a manager of Coke’s social efforts and strategies and it’s very helpful and enlightening. This piece is a good example of transparency and social media, sharing and engagement. Learn from it, then check the homework and start listening.

Coca-Cola: Sharing What Matters, Adam Brown; presented by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Homework Assignment:  Google Alerts

Go to google and set some ‘alerts’ for your business.
– if you need a link it’s here http://www.google.com/alerts

Put in alerts for,

• your name
• your business name
• industry and city
• competitors
• blah blah
• yada yada
• whatever is relevant

This will send you alerts via email that will include article, blog posts, news, tweets, and a variety of goodies that will open your eyes to what’s going on while you’re busy working or sleeping. Soon we’ll know more about what to do with this info but for now just listen and see what you can learn. If you have a smart phone send the alerts there and get used to looking at the emails you receive.

What? You’re not at google yet? Get going.