A Different Point of View
October 13th, 2009 | 
Author: I’m thrilled when something new happens that enhances ways to get to customers but this time I have to say that I’m amazed at the way my reference point changed over the last few days.
And, to tell you the truth, if your’s doesn’t also, you may find yourself in a lot of trouble in the near future.
You see, there are a bunch of things happening all at once that can, and most probably will, affect the way you do business in the next twelve months. In fact, it could determine whether you are even still in business then.
Here Comes the End
According to the latest announcements by financial experts, we are no longer in a recession. I know it still feels the same; however, they say that brighter futures are on the way. We still have about a year to deal with the uphill movement before it feels even a little better but, at least, it’s FINALLY moving in the right direction.
Couple that with the newest announcement about what is currently being coined “Web 3.0″ and the two become a huge thing to think about.
Web 2.0, 3.0… What’s all this about?
The term comes from the idea that the “web” (1.0) originally was a bunch of information arranged in the form of websites. These sites were “static” meaning that the information on them rarely changed unless something different happened at your place of business. Then, “Web 2.0″ showed up a few years ago. It described the beginning of the “dynamic” age, ushering in blogs and some of the first social sites like MySpace and Facebook, which was only available to college students at the time. Dynamic equaled interaction.
Now comes Web 3.0 and it’s promising to be one of the biggest things we have seen on the internet since they first opened it to business. (For those who do not know, the web didn’t allow business sites in the early nineties.)
It’s still all about dynamic sites (social sites) but it’s now the way we as business people have to look at things as well.
You see, before we could let our kids chat on MySpace until their fingers bled because we all knew that the kids didn’t spend the money. We ignored social because, just like the beginning of the net, it wasn’t for business; it was all about staying connected.
Well, that time is all over, folks.
It’s Going to Affect You Whether You Like it or Not
I announced this a couple of days ago on my Facebook Group page “Central Florida Local Online Marketing“. If you do not belong to Facebook, I would join TODAY even if you know nothing about it. But… read the rest of this post first.
Are you ready to hear something that is going to floor you?
The day of websites is now over.
Yup… you heard me right. It doesn’t make sense to have what we commonly refer to as a website – a bunch of pages that tell about our business, product(s) and/or service(s).
Are you still with me? Have you fainted in dis-belief yet?
I’m not suggesting to abandon your domain name and get off the web. I’m suggesting that you (and I) start using it the “Web 3.0″ way starting immediately. In fact, anyone who has been to this site before knows that, until today, this was a static website. My other sites will follow suit soon as well.
The Magic Happens
This site is only a portion of the Web 3.0 marketing plan and that’s the whole point.
You see, everything happens in tandem today. There’s a way to connect a large number of blogs, social sites, bookmarking sites, micro-blogs and the rest all together so, when you do something on one, it alerts all of the others that it happened.
Think about this… I’m writing this blog post right now and, in a few minutes, I’ll hit “Post” and it’ll not only appear on this site but on 64 other sites that I’ve connected to this site as well!
The ramifications are staggering. Instead of me trying to get a large number of people to find this site on the web, I’m sending out a link – like fishing bait – to 64 other sites that have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of visitors each day!!!
So, let’s see… 64 connected sites, hundreds of thousands of people daily. What way would you rather find customers? The old way – waiting for someone to find you? Or, the Web 3.0 way – fishing in a pool of millions of prospects?
How do you do this, you ask? Simply change your old, flat website to a dynamic one. No longer do you need up-teen pages. Three is all that you ever need. (I know I have more pages here but be patient, I won’t soon. I’m leaving them here right now just to get the info off of them and to make sure people can find the info during the transition.)
Your “home” page is a dynamic page like this one. As you write more posts (articles), you assign them a category. The posts show up on your home page in order of when they were written – unless you make one “sticky”, which makes it stay at the top. There is an area in the sidebar where you can see the categories that contain posts. When your visitors click there, they are shown posts only related to that category (doesn’t that sound like the old definition of a “page”?).
Since the Home page assembles all of your content dynamically, the only other pages you need is an “About Us” so you can tell people about your USP (Unique Selling Position) and a Contact Us page so they can get hold of you.
The moral of the story, you ask? Whether you site is a day, month, year or years old, it’s time to change. It’s also time to get your “hub” of social sites set up. But that’s another post in itself.
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