The news is unusually slow at the moment as it pertains to the world of Internet marketing. We know that AT&T has purchased T-Mobile for $39 billion, but as marketers our concern is with Android vs. Apple platforms–the wireless carrier who provides the signal isn’t that important. We can follow Google and see how they make cars that drive themselves and they are concerned about energy and just about everything else on the planet. As marketers though, our concern is about Google as a search engine and how we can use it to get our message heard above the noise. We also wonder for just a little while if Google will ever be in the social networking game then we quickly move on to things that are real.
Sure, Facebook helps people talk to each other and work with each other to form revolutions. That’s fantastic but as marketers we are concerned about how we use it to present products because tying your product to human events like a revolution (Kenneth Cole and Egypt) or a tragedy (Bing and Japan’s natural disaster) isn’t a very good option most of the time.
It would be nice to have an easy list of “How To’s” or “The Top Ten Ways” but those are restricting. Those lists make for great things to pass around the social media sphere but they are empty calories because they never take into account the nuance and customization required in each and every instance of using the Internet to market a product or service. As a result, we spend time reading them, then we feel like we have “educated” ourselves but are then hungry for a real answer just a few short moments later.
Here at the Biznology blog, we try to give you a view of what is happening in the Internet marketing world and we give you our opinions about those things. What you do with that information is up to you, because our posts are one slice of the larger pie of opinions out there floating around as ones and zeros.
So exactly how do you go about deciding what is important and what is not in the world of Internet marketing? It would arrogant of me to say that I have definitive answers, because I don’t. I have general ideas and concepts, but how they apply to you in your particular situation will be very different than how they apply to others at other companies (or even in the same company).
What it usually boils down to is a lot less complicated than we like to make it. We crowdsource and share information in hopes of someone having an answer for us when the real answers always (yes always) get framed by the same principles:
- Knowledge. Do I actually know what is needed to utilize the Web for the advantage of my brand or business? Do I know everything there is to know about Web analytics, social media, search marketing, location based marketing etc etc? If you are thinking “Yes I do!” then you have bigger problems that can’t be solved in a blog post.
- Time. Do I have the time to execute whatever it is I am executing past the planning and roll-out phase? Time is more about what it takes to keep something going but we like to concentrate on how much time it takes to get it going. That’s the wrong focus.
- Money . Do I have the resources either already assigned to the effort or can I “borrow” from someplace that isn’t working and get what I need? If I don’t have enough to do it the way I want to, how much do I have now and can I do something rather than nothing?
- People. Doing Internet marketing alone is a recipe for disappointment. Notice I didn’t say failure. The disappointment arises from the realization that there is always more to do and the only way to do it all is to have more people doing it. Of course, the number of people you have to do something is also a function of the amount of time, knowledge, and money you have, so the interwoven nature of this really starts to become apparent.
As always there are more. This list is literally never-ending, but it has to stop somewhere for us all. It’s at the point of boiling over that we must decide what really matters in Internet marketing. Traditional marketing has always been a world of making similar decisions that include what can and cannot be done based on the specific requirements and restrictions. Internet marketing isn’t any different other than it is very new to most and it is evolving at a blistering rate of speed. That is a combination that no one wants to hear because it feels overwhelming.
So, in the end, do you really know what matters in your Internet marketing? Have you worked out just how to decide that for your business? Ultimately, it’s your responsibility, because no guru or expert will know just exactly what is going on in your heart of hearts. Only you know the nooks and crannies of your specific situation and pawning off the responsibility on someone else is dangerous at best and lethal at worst. You must know these parameters or you can get sucked into something that isn’t right for you. Any carnival midway huckster salesman can sucker you into it because they can take advantage of your indecision and lack of knowledge.
I suspect that there have not been any real answers offered here for you but that’s because I don’t know you or your situation. All I can do is observe and report. The rest is up to you.
Are you equipped to really decide what matters most in Internet marketing? Be honest, because if you lie to yourself because you want to feel better I can almost guarantee that when all is said and done you will feel worse. Don’t let that happen.
