Expert Advice

Make 2010 the year you master the online world

By Penny Power of Ecademy

I wonder as I write this article how many of you feel you have mastered the online world. Some of you may still see online as a place you try to avoid, some will be dabbling, a few of you will be total addicts, making a huge amount of ‘white’ noise and a number of you will have found the way to master the technology so that you now reach the right people at the right time with the right message.

So why do some see the online world as a mystery, why are some business people exhausted by it and why do I believe that the online brand building and marketing in 2010 will be a critical skill for all businesses?

In 1998 I created a place for business people to meet online, a virtual water-cooler, where ideas, thoughts, skills and products could be exchanged in a social way between people that respect and like one another. Ecademy was created as an online world and mirrored all the values, hopes, desires and spirit of collaboration that many business people are aware of from the offline world. Somehow though, the fact that the access to these people was through a keyboard, people feared the technology instead of realizing that the technology was only an enabler to get yourself ‘known, liked and followed’.

Over the last year social networking has increased within the business community. So, how do you migrate from creating a profile on Ecademy, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn and begin to actually find value for your business and for yourself. I suggest you make 2010 your year of online success with the following tips and predictions.

Become known
Build your brand and visibility so people see you are in the game, a player in the social world of conversation. You need to establish in your mind what it is that you want to be known for, decide what conversation you want to be part of online and how will you be found. Social networks are conversation engines, a massive room of people talking, sharing and being sociable with one another.

Being ‘known’ is the start on your journey, it gets you found in Google and Twitter, it helps people bump into you online and it ensures traffic to your brand.

To be ‘known’ you need to be active. Actively blogging, actively taking part in blogs and commenting, adding videos of yourself and your work to YouTube, or adding PowerPoint presentations to slides. There are many great ways to broadcast online. These are your new marketing tools. This is social media.

Become liked
Being ‘known’ provides a branding message and visibility but it does not create trust, conversation or friendship. Social networks and social media are called social for a reason, they are about having Open, Random and Supportive© conversations in a friendly way. They are not about direct marketing and selling. Once you fully understand this you will create ways for the strangers that see your content online to engage and have conversations with you. This is social networking. This is how you build social capital. This is when you move business strangers into business friends

Being followed
With any brand that is created it is fantastic when people know you and like you and start to want to read what you say, watch what you are promoting, share in the excitement you have about the launch of a new product or service or just like to support you and advocate you. Being ‘Followed’ is not something you can force, it is the output of great marketing and of being a likeable person. Once you achieve a following you have begun to master the world of social networks and social media and you will begin to achieve value in your business.

MY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010

Growth in start-up businesses
Many individuals will turn to social networks to start their own businesses as a low cost, highly effective way to raise their visibility and create their trusted brand. The need to have a fully formed business with a website is no longer required to start a business and promote yourself as a consultant, sole trader or freelance worker. The Social Networking profile will replace the CV as people turn to the networks to find work rather than find a job. This will encourage advocacy and collaboration between business owners.

Mobile Communication and access to networks on the move
The tools to enable mobile access from phones to social networks will increase. Already we are seeing the ability to create videos on the move and upload directly to YouTube. Twittering your status and having that distributed across all your networks is as easy as 123. Access to sites like Ecademy where you can upload your Blog while on the train or waiting for a meeting, will enable people to build their business brand while on the move.

Responsibility for members of social networking sites by the owners will become essential. As we see the mass market enter the social networks, the need to create a philosophy and culture inside the networks of trust, authenticity and ant-bullying will become key.

The book publishing world will experience the attack of Apple
Apple will launch their e-book reader which will impact the publishing world and create a desire for Bloggers to become book writers. Content in the form of e-books will be sold through micro-payments and there will be a growth in the e-publishing world. We will see the beginning of the demise in the traditional publishing world as more people create their own e-books and sell them online via their social networking profiles.

Differentiation of networks
People will start to understand Twitter and leverage it as a ‘search engine for conversations’, creating a place for people to seek out the conversations they want to be part of or create. This will be the start of the differentiating of the networks where the competition for audience time will be replaced by a mutual respect by all the networks toward one another. People will use multiple sites depending on their desired outcome and their sense of where their ‘online home’ is. All four online networks will provide a place for people to meet and have conversations. The business market will spend time in all of them as they learn to master the technology that can serve their business.

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