A few years ago I read about how it now makes sense to have an internet based business; and this, according to a guy called Mcportar now includes the advertising strategies. So what does this mean? And how does it apply to the serious true African business woman?
First of all, we need to understand what the term “Global Village” means. In a not so complicated way, the term simply refers to the internet and world wide web. In this village, physical distance is hardly a hindrance and this makes business even more appealing because an extremely large market is available.
So what does making your business global village friendly mean? It means whatever kind of business you are in, to get the maximum possible returns – you ought to focus beyond just your physical location. Let’s say you are in Harare, why should you limit your business to Harare based clients only, when you can have even more customers from as far as Greenland even?
How do you do this? This is where having a website and being social network savvy comes in. Nowadays “Google” has become synonymous with “look for”, “search for” and “find”. Today’s people also, before they can be comfortable with you, want to know if you are legit and they do this by looking for (googling) you on the world wide web.
Now if they do find you, your presence on the internet must show that you are a force to be reckoned with. Hence, make sure you have a website that adequately portrays your business. Make it easy for people anywhere in the world to contact you. And make your goods and/or services accessible by anyone from anywhere.
The social networks now work as your advertising platform and creating lasting relationships with current and possible clients. About the advertising, Mcportar calls it content marketing. Where you provide content that does not come off as spam. It could be a video, podcast, article, etc that you constantly put up on your social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin… so as to appeal to your market.
Over time, you will build a loyal following which will consist of those who will SHARE (this is the social network version of referrals) your material. This is the important bit, as more people share, comment and respond to your posts, your material starts appearing in more people’s newsfeed and your coverage is growing.
This is unlike the traditional advertising of using newspapers, TV and radio ads, because not many people pay attention to that anymore. If it’s the newspapers – people want to skip to one or two interesting stories; if it’s the television, during an ad, people are talking and getting up to do whatever whilst waiting for the program they are watching to start again –same thing with the radio.
Now, that alone shows you why it makes sense to focus more of your advertising energy on the world wide web. And if you are taking the global village theory seriously, then how would someone in Texas find you if you are not active on the internet?
So yes, in the age where virtually everything is just a click of a button away – it’s time you made your goods and services also a click of a button away.
By Shanée R. Banda
For more articles by Shanée, visit her blog http://www.trueafricanwoman.net/
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