I’m no different than anyone else, well maybe just a little bit, but what I do believe to be true is that we don’t always find ourselves agreeing with change. Change for most of us is difficult, but something that must occur during the course of our lives.
The same applies to business. We must change to meet the changes in our market as well as the various environmental influences. Take, for instance, the Experimental Aircraft Association. In their January 2009 publication Sport Aviation, Tom Poberezny, EAA President outlined the changes they must face to remain a viable organization and industry.
Also their magazine Editor, Mary Jones, points out about the various methods of delivery of content – electronic as well as print. They must adapt their content delivery methods to meet the changes in the way we prefer to receive information.
Newspapers are “dying” because their readership/subscription base is shrinking. Some can barely afford the cost of production. Fewer readers lead to fewer advertisers willing to spend their ever shrinking ad budgets on this form of media.
The problem is evident; we must change how we do business to remain viable and visible to our customers. The question is how? Business owners and managers need to understand exactly who their customers are, what their habits are, and how to engage them.
Years ago, all you had to do to stay abreast of local information was to pick up the telephone. Everyone on the “party line” was in the know of the local happenings and who was doing what. For a broader scope, newspapers were once a source for gossip and facts. Today however, the world shifted into the electronics age and gave birth to social media.
Essentially, social media is very similar to those early party lines people once shared through the phone company. Those connected to the same circuit conversed and shared information in a very public forum, as we do now through twitter and Facebook.
As business owners, we must all adapt our methodology of doing business to keep our brand awareness at the forefront. Today that means getting familiar with and using the new social media methods of interaction. How are you adapting to change?
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