First of all, apologies for my lack of absence over the past 3-4 weeks through all online mediums. I was quite sick and didn’t have the energy to contribute. As my friend @phycodes said when I made my first tweet in weeks ‘I was glad when I saw it. I thought you were dead’. Sadly neglecting this world means weeds (spam, emails, rss feeds) get out of control so I’m sorting through as fast as I can. If I haven’t responded to your contact it will happen, just give me a little time.
Being off the internet for so long gave me some fantastic perspective though. I see all too many ‘consultants’ (though everybody is these days) talking about how using the internet is going to double, triple or quadruple revenues.
What these people seem to forget is that while the internet may have reached a tipping point in Western Countries, ‘Social Media’ really has not. All too many connected people (my parents for example) struggle to track products online. It’s a generational thing and sometimes the Yellow Pages / local newspaper really is easier.
Being so active online makes it very easy to forget how the others live. If you run any form of local, offline or small business the internet is likely an extension, not the solution.
Ask yourself, do you target the others? Do you even know who they are and how? Before getting caught in the hype did you cover the bare basics for promoting your business? Or did you just forget about them and let somebody steal a very profitable, local and cheap market from you?