The Power of the Internet
I am encouraged – this month I’d like to highlight a couple of stories that you will have noticed, but essentially it shows how important the Internet is becoming to us.
The first story is political and I do not want in anyone to take notice of the actual politics, but I am keen to promote the power of the Internet. An unknown MEP called Daniel Hannan made a speech in the European Parliament. The speech went onto YouTube and overnight the MEP was a sensation – the following morning he was on Television across the world, his speech had been watched over a million times and whatever it was he said it made a connection.
However the reaction of the UK press was more subdued – they hardly knew he was there and it took the BBC over 24 hours to even put out a story about him. The key fact here is that the Internet gave instant access to an online story – something which tradional media just cannot do.
The second story is Susan Boyle – another not quite overnight sensation – she did a live TV audition on a Saturday night TV show – Sunday nothing happened, but by Monday evening she had hit the Internet with over 12 million views of her YouTube video clip. Again traditional media made nothing of this story until it hit the Internet and then immediately Susan Boyle became a sensation.
Again the key fact here is the power the internet holds over us.
Now taking this on board – my constant campaigning to use the new technolgies of today is being slowly vindicated. YouTube is the only place you should consider putting your videos, we all need a Facebook Account, we need to keep our Blogs updated and we need to start Twittering.
Why? The simple answer is because we need to make ourselves available and this is what the Internet does – we need to publish our whereabouts, news, availability and services so that people can contact us when they want to. And that is the difference – we need people to contact us when they want to – not the other way around.
So if we want to stay in business – all we need to do is make efficient use of the dozens of services that make-us-available to people. In then end it is no different to sending out an eNewsletter – except that is us trying to generate interest in our services – instead if people see us on eBay, LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, MySpace, wow we they are suddenly seeing us everwhere they turn. It’s a message that is significantly more powerful than a simple eNewsletter.
If you want to disucss these ideas in more detail then please do contact me.