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Are You Afraid of Change in 2011?
Posted On: February 4th, 2011

Technology is changing so quickly that it’s no wonder business owners become overwhelmed.  There are so many things to take into consideration that it can seem like an insurmountable challenge.

Realistically, a smart business owner understands that the business must undergo some change.  It’s inevitable.  And nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to the Internet.

A vast number of businesses are online these days…selling, communicating, networking, marketing, branding…and anything else they can do to increase profits and improve customer loyalty.  It’s not a matter of *if* a business should be using the Internet to improve its bottom line anymore.

So that brings us back to the question posed in this post: Are You Afraid of Change in 2011?

You really don’t have to be afraid, but you do have to be willing to embrace change…so you aren’t run over by it (for lack of a better phrase)!  If your corporate website is sadly outdated (like it hasn’t been given a face lift in years) you seriously need to consider having it updated.  And while you are at it, there are other things to tackle:

• Reviewing Your Brand – while I don’t recommend that you completely overhaul a brand that’s been working for you for years (if a logo is good, it’s good) you may want to consider revamping the design of your website, especially if it’s still using frames and animated gifs.  While a great logo is a great start, an outdated website can do just as much harm as a bad logo.
• Implementing a Social Media Strategy – 2011 may be the time when you decide to jump on the social media bandwagon.  And just because millions of others are doing it doesn’t mean you *shouldn’t*.  Social Media is one area where you want to be just like everyone else – participating, getting in on all the action and carving your own little corporate social area.  You can use social media like Facebook and Twitter for so many things…like building your brand, launching active marketing campaigns, or just for building good old fashioned customer service.  The sky’s the limit.
• Starting a Corporate Blog – blogging can be so effective that it might even make sense to hire a full time blogger for your company.  Seriously.  Use your blog for customer service, to build your own extensive product FAQ, to inform the public of new products and/or services, to stir up controversy, to share case studies, to build a knowledge base, to build a community of loyal customers, to build a product affiliate network and just about anything else you can think of.  If you don’t like to write or this seems like a huge job (and it probably is), either hire someone to start or start small.  You aren’t expected to do this overnight and anything good takes time to build.  Like your business.
• Creating a Mailing List – you should probably have taken care of this by now but if you haven’t (and if you’ve thought about it but haven’t a clue how to do it), now it definitely the time to start a mailing list.  You can use a free service or you can use a subscription service.  Depending on how much you want to do yourself one will be a better choice than the other.  If you are just too busy to bother with a mailing list then you owe it to your business to hire someone to create it for you and implement it on your (updated) website.
• Considering Your Competition – while this is something every smart business owner does anyway, I’m throwing it in here in the context of considering your competition based on this list.  So if you think change in 2011 is just too much hassle, think about your competitors embracing change.

You know what the result will eventually be.   So just do it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 4th, 2011 at 2:59 am and is filed under Branding Ideas & Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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