Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Are You Keeping Up With Technology and Trends?

As a child, early shopping for Christmas began when we received the Christmas catalog from Sears or JC Penney. I was able to go through the catalog and make a list of both the gifts I wanted for myself and the gifts I planned to give to family members. Unlike Black Friday or Cyber Monday, my shopping wasn't targeted to a specific day. One of the latest trends in Christmas shopping now is to offer deep discounts the day after Thanksgiving. Another trend is driving more and more shoppers to make purchases on line. A couple of years ago, there was still quite a bit of skepticism as to just how many people would become comfortable with purchasing products and services over the internet. Today, you don't hear much about concerns with online shopping.

Technology has rode shotgun with trends. Twenty years ago, most people didn't own a cell phone. Today, it's rare to find anyone over the age of 13 that doesn't own a cell phone. Twenty years ago if you wanted to find a local business, you either picked up a Yellow Pages or called directory assistance. Today, you use your cell phone or GPS to perform the same function. Savvy business owners, managers and executives have recognized the changes in trends and technology and have set up their companies to take advantage of business tools and applications that are now available.

Today, nearly everyone in the world has heard of Google and Facebook although neither company existed 15 years ago. A lot of businesses are currently spending a lot of time trying to improve their Google rankings and SEO performance but are not spending as much time crafting out their social media strategy. Many people may be surprised to hear this but Facebook currently gets more traffic than Google. 50% of the 500 million users on Facebook sign in every day. Do you use Google every day? People spend more time on Facebook than any other website in the world. Facebook can't be ignored any more than Google can be ignored.

Are you keeping up with technology and trends? Can I find your business on my cell phone? Are your customers or clients tweeting about the good (or bad) service from your company? Your customers and clients are keeping up with technology and trends even if your business isn't.