Welcome to the Congregation of “The Order of Digital Optimism”

Posted by Don Zimmerman in Blog, Marketing      2 comments

Sep
26

What's NEW does not necessarily have to break what currently exists, at least in an immediate and radical way. Neither TV killed the radio nor did the video kill the TV. And by the way, the Internet will not kill anything… yet.

The lack of vision of those who, in a certain moment are not able to understand that what appears under the label of "novelty" or "innovation" rather than an enemy, can be an opportunity to grow their businesses. For example, the ice making business that developed in Texas. If beef was not cold enough or frozen it couldn't be transported, therefore, it became rotten, and so the operation was ESSENTIAL and necessary to the market. However, in spite of that, it completely disappeared when cold storage companies came to the scene. Today we understand that their failure was due to the fact that they didn't know exactly what they actually sold; they didn't sell ice, they sold food conservation. They were not ruined because of the arrival of these big, new organization but because they had no clear proposition of value, which would have enabled them to re-orient their business towards food preservation techniques.

This same situation happened to industries such as music, film or media. At first, they saw the Internet as an enemy who would kill their business models of selling records, movies or newspapers. Perhaps they didn't have it very clear that they didn't sell specific products, that they were selling entertainment, amusement or information and that those products or services could be sold through another channel. We don't care to know where the information is coming from.  Who cares if the TV signal is broadcast from radio, satellite, cable or IP? If you sell information or entertainment, then use and abuse all those frames that you have available, learn to take advantage of new opportunities and know how to extract performance and compete in the territory where you belong: the content.

At this point it is no surprise that the Internet offers great opportunities for common people and businesses, the problem is that too many people don't know this. It's easy to draw conclusions: if people are ignorant about the Internet's potential they cannot use it to access information, get training and achieve greater levels of personal growth. If organizations are not able to assess what it means to live in a digital world, exploit their capabilities and do so effectively and efficiently is very difficult to exceed the current threshold of competitiveness (which is directly related to profitability).

Who tells companies and individuals what they are missing?

We again give an example. Social networks are being used by many companies as if they were a fashion, a trend, a passing style. "We have to be there", they say. Establishing communication with users using 1.0 techniques, not realizing that we are in a time of relationships, of association, of Web 2.0. Someone has to explain it to these companies that is has been already more than ten years since the Cluetrain Manifesto stated that markets are conversations.

Let's not forget that still today, some law courts in the country are not fully computerized, but the IRS itself is, for the most part, 100% automated. Curious, isn't it? Everybody, somehow, will have to take the subject of Information Society seriously to facilitate and enhance the development of technologies that enable all citizens to be more “connected” with more bandwidth at a cheaper price. That is development and work towards a society’s competitiveness.

Those of us who are closer to the "Internet world" are privileged. We have access to much, while others are outside. Maybe we do not know exactly what to do, but we have it very clear to where we don't want to go, because that way only leads to missed opportunities. We can try to pass our knowledge to those closer to us (friends, small businesses), and persuade them that it's worth it knowing and daring to get digital. Therefore, it is important that each of us wear the white robe of the congregation called "Order of Digital Optimism" and we spread around the world for our apostolic work and disseminate the doctrine that will truly change our society.

5 Good Habits for your E-commerce Operation

Posted by rocket.girl in Blog, Rocket Tech Stuff      3 comments

Sep
26

Electronic Commerce or e-commerce involves the buying and selling of products or services over the Internet and other computer networks, using online payment methods like credit cards and electronic funds transfer, among others.

This is an incredible business opportunity for entrepreneurs, so here are 5 habits of some of the leading and most succesful e-commerce stores around the world:

1. Empathy with the consumer

Making products easy to find is one of the premises of these stores. For this, we must bear in mind that people buy more and experience greater satisfaction in a website when there are cross-selling opportunities by offering such a product in multiple categories or giving a list of prices from lowest to expensive.

2. Simplicity

One of the most used practices from the most succesful e-commerce companies is to make simple, easy to navigate websites, with clear policies for return and easy access to customer service. They do not want the visitor and potential buyer leave the cart for not understanding how to make the purchase.

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