An Entrepreneur Blog Management, Strategy, Internet, Technology, Social Networks, Organizational Change and more!
About 18 years ago I had my first contact with Internet and it was one of those life-changing moments. This was at my high school and I was maybe 15 or 16 years old back then. The experience was simple, because the connection was quite slow (it was through a small antenna the school had) and it wasn’t even to browse the web or HTML. It was a simple Gopher connections, which had no graphics whatsoever, just text. Sometime later my family hired an Internet connection through the phone line, which was also very slow, but a few months later I had up and running my first website.
Through this 18 years, I’ve been connected to Internet in someway or another. I’ve programmed and designed websites (without being a graphic designer), done many projects, good and bad things. I’ve learned many things, formally and informally, including a degree on Ecommerce. Today I’m a professional Speaker in themes related to the Internet and I’ve also written a book about Internet Strategy. All this years that I’ve been related to this medium, I’ve done many experiments, some of which have been big failures. I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work and that is what I tell the world every single day.
Today as an Internet Strategist I speak with many entrepreneurs, marketing directors and more. One of their first questions I receive is how can they make thir Internet presence better, getting more clients and being known all over the world. My first answer is that they should have a well-designed Internet strategy, because most companies have websites without designing strategy. However this has a second element, which is to have something different in the Internet, reinventing their presence.
Internet is a medium that moves at a very high speed. Everyday there is something different and we have to keep up to answer this changes. Plus, our user are also moving at a very fast pace, each day becoming more demanding and having access to more information.
In fact, when we have an online presence, we’re competing with many other companies, not just our traditional competition. For instance, your website will de competing with other very entertaining sites, such as Netflix, Hulu and Youtube, among many others. This is true, because on the Internet you are competing for the user’s attention.
To capture the users attention, your company has to offer something with a high value. Most of the websites that I analyze are simple and offer the same basic things others offer. For instance, this includes simple designs and the same basic sections: Our Company, Our Products and Services and Contact Us. It is rare to find a company that has broken this usual design and included something else with more value. Plus, when you read the Products and Service Section is quite simple.
To attend our users and go with the many changed of the market, we have to offer different things and innovate all the time. Some things will work while others will fail. However this is the way to break the standards, give a high value to the users and accomplish success.
Image taken from Flickr.com
