A lot of people might want to tell you that it is a trendy fashion or the place to be. Let’s start by asking ourselves a couple of questions:
1. Is it a business thing?
2. Is it a personal thing?
For Business.
If you want a website for business purposes, the answer is very simple; I can say whatever I want, but without facts my words are merely that… words. I’m going to present you with some facts that for the business savvy are very important.
Nowadays, in the U.S. people have access to 200+ cable networks, 5,500 magazines, 10,500 radio stations: Web pages? 1,000,000,000,000. This not only means that there is a vast sea of information out there, but also a vast market for business. Billions of people surf the web to look up restaurant locations, banks, applications for their mobiles, etc. No one turns on the TV and waits for the information they want from the commercial ads. No one turns on the radio to find out where the best deals in town are. No one buys a magazine hoping to find where the closest branch to their house is… in conclusion; traditional media has lost its grip over consumers.
Do you think I’m exaggerating? Take a look at these advertising tendencies in the last 2 years:
TV 10.1% Down
Newspaper 18.7% Down
Magazines 14.8% Down
Radio 11.7% Down
Mobile 18.1% Up
Internet 9.2% Up
In the old days, families gathered in front of the TV and watched one show at a time, in today’s new world I can get the news on my mobile device, I can watch my favorite TV shows at any given time, kids can look for information to finish that paper due on Monday… well, I can even communicate with my sister that lives on the other side of the world. All in one single place; The Internet.
Why would you want to get to your clients via magazines? Why would you stay in your business waiting for people to walk in the door? Don’t you look for the pizzerias via web? Don’t you look for the bank hours and location through their websites? You don’t look for the clients anymore, the clients look for you.
For a business there’s nothing like the internet, and it also works for the “worth of mouth” advertisement. 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content, 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands, 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily. Not convinced yet? 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertisements. Linking a website to the social media is a smart move; social media has overtaken porn as the number 1 activity on the web. If Facebook were a country it would be world’s 3rd largest. 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees. 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices, people update anywhere, anytime… imagine that!! Your company everywhere, all the time!!
Numbers never lie, my friends… numbers never lie.
Personal website.
What is it that you want to tell the world? Whatever that may be, there’s always a solution. The power of the world wide web reaches every sector of the personal relationships, events, tastes, etc. As simple as to say that 1 out of 8 couples married in the US met via social media, that the fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females or that there are over 200,000,000 blogs. Amazing, isn’t it? Truth is that the Social Media Revolution has taken over how we interact as humans.
As in today, we no longer search for news, the news find us. We no longer look for people, people find us. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV took 13 years… Facebook? 100 millions in 9 months!!
Conclusion.
As said before, numbers are there for your consideration. No one can deny that the world is changing, we are well informed, well educated, well communicated and best buyers thanks to the world wide web. Do you still think you don’t need a website? Think again…
