If I am older than dirt...

then why am I mired in the blog?
A way to jumpstart your marketing efforts with some 21st century approaches.

BY KEITH DUNBAR

Recently in an email from a friend, I was prompted to take a quiz to see if I was “Older Than Dirt.” The questions ranged from do you remember high-beam switches on the floor of a car and milk delivered to your home in glass bottles with cardboard tops, to wax candy “Coke” bottles with colored sugarwater in them. For me it was a trip down Memory Lane, and yes, in the end, I was officially pronounced to be “Older Than Dirt.” I’m still debating if there was any advantage to me printing my official “Certificate of Membership,” however.
As I reflected on the time gone by and to a simpler life of business and communication, I began to wonder what is consistent about our current day and the “Older Than Dirt” times. In its simplest form, business today is still much the same as business in the past – business exists to provide goods and services to markets that want them. And in the end, it’s our ability to communicate what we do, and how we do it, in a manner that reaches our audience in a timely fashion that still defines success or failure.
So with that in mind, if it’s still about getting the word out, and it’s still about being in touch with customers, what makes business communication different today? In a word, “speed.” The various ways we use to communicate today have adapted to our fast-paced, instant gratification world. And that’s OK, as most of us have learned to deal with this to some degree. But in the coming months, we’ll learn that there are some things that are best to be taken advantage of, and others that are better left by the wayside.
Future installments will explore different ways we communicate and hopefully help demystify them as we go along. So, if you wonder what you need to do to keep up, we can provide some guidance toward the best choices. Maybe it’s a website update, a blog or Twitter account, email marketing or micro-blog that is right for you. Or how Facebook, Flickr and YouTube might have a place in your business. Along with how advertising and marketing has changed to keep pace, as well as how you can take advantage of what you already know and have at your disposal, to improve how and when you reach your customers. If this is what you’re looking for—then stay tuned.
Well that’s the overall idea. And if nothing else it should prove to be an interesting and educational trip for those that come along. And you never know, you might just end up understanding the various ways to take advantage of today’s abundance of communication opportunities and possibly (though probably unlikely) what your teenager is talking to you about. Your comments and questions are always welcome and will help shape future installments of this column – because I’m old enough to know that I won’t have all the answers, but smart enough to know how and where I can find them, I look forward to your input, and the challenge of balancing some old tricks with new technology to solve age-old challenges.
Oh, and if you’re one of those multi-tasking techno-freaks that are all caught up in all the hype of instant gratification, check out our website, there might just be something there of interest for you. For additional ideas and information, visit www.sabrepublishing.com/satisfaction. BXM