Kick your business up a notch by embracing technology

By:  D. Bucholtz

Kick your business up a notch by embracing technology

March 13, 2014

Let’s face it, I think it’s a natural tendency to be complacent in what we know and we tend to put off new things.  Learning about new things like digital marketing, updating websites, mobile applications.  None of these are new ideas, concepts or products but many still have not been adapted by business owners to help grow and streamline their business.

I have had meetings with so many business owners (of varying ages) that tell me that even a website is not a necessity for their business.  I had one owner tell me that “it’s just an online brochure” and my customers don’t use it.   If this is you, it’s ok….you don’t know what you don’t know and technology probably isn’t your business but I would bet that your competition is using technology.

I am here to tell you that if this is your train of thought that you better hop off that train before it derails.

If your business has been running along fine without the utilization of technology, it is just a matter of time before you crash.  Technology is not going away, it just keeps evolving.  As it is right now, more people utilize mobile devices in the form of smart phones and tablets that personal computers.  People are using these to replace most of the things they did on their personal computers.  They are easier to carry to meetings, travel with, get through airport security, etc.

That just covered the main technology.  What about Social Media?  If you think that Social Media outlets are just a form of communication for families and friends, then you need to re-educate yourself on the realities of how it is impacting businesses on a global scale.  Social media is the quickest way for you to interact with your customers, to build your brand and presence and build rapport and trust in an online community.  It can also be the quickest way to tear down a brand if you don’t pay attention to it but the Pros of utilizing social medial definitely outweigh Cons of not using it.

A perfect example of an amazing community built through social media is Zappos.com.  This company rocks at what they do and their online presence embodies the culture and brand of the company.  I will gladly pay more to buy from Zappos.com because through their online community they have established trust with me and I know that they got my back.  Therefore, I am a loyal customer for life.  And how many people do you think that I have told about Zappos.com and how awesome they are???  It’s been so many that I can’t even tell you but I should probably have earned some free shoes by now (a plug for Zappos.com when they read this).

A perfect example of ignoring social media.  In doing research on a new employer I found a complaint on the first page of Google before this company even showed up as they were on page 3.  This raised some red flags with me so I researched the owners of the company and discovered that they had numerous lawsuits citing non-payment of wages to former employees.  When the company contacted me with a job offer I politely refused and when asked why, I stated what I discovered online.  They had no idea, because they had no social presence and nobody keeping tabs on things like this.

You don’t need to know everything about technology/social media your just need to know what it does and then put the right people in place to get the job done right.

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