The Shift

I'm going to move away from just talking about Social Media today to talk about this whole Internet thing.

There has been a shift in behavior by the general population.

That shift is away from Newspapers, away from Phone Books, away from Encyclopedias and traditional books to electronic versions of each of these items.

There was no government mandate saying the publishing industry needed to conserve paper, this happened organically.

And businesses who spent money in these paper products are needing to make some changes, according to Roy H. Williams, in his Monday Morning Memo dated May 16, 2011:

The Internet is electronic print, instantly updatable and deliverable on demand. As such, it has effectively replaced the newspaper, the telephone book, the encyclopedia and the dictionary and it is rapidly replacing the bookstore. Product brochures and catalogues are becoming “virtual,” existing only as backlit images on a screen. Lost your instruction manual? Go online. You can download it as a pdf file.

Slash your Yellow Page budget and get serious about your web presence. Are your business hours and phone number easy to find on your home page? Jeffrey Eisenberg told me recently that a high percentage of visitors to the web sites of local businesses are looking for exactly that information. Don’t frustrate these customers. Put your phone number and your store hours on your home page. Do it.

What does this have to do with Social Media?

You tell me in the comments section.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.