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Blockbuster Video had 9,000 stores and 60,000 employees and $5.9 billion in revenues at their peak in 2004. Then the installation of cable modems made streaming video possible. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection on September 23, 2010.* Technology is a freight train that doesn’t care who is standing on its tracks. Flashback – In the year 2000, 4.4% of American households had a home connection to broadband; by 2010 that number had jumped to 68%.1 Let’s look at 2005 in particular. Katrina wasn’t the only hurricane that year. Hurricane YouTube and Hurricane Facebook also made landfall. Then, when Hurricane iPhone hit us in 2007, the whole world began recording and uploading pointless drivel. Reactionary prognosticators, drunk on technology, predicted that social media would completely replace traditional advertising. Have you noticed that no one is saying that anymore? But business people still like to think the web is the great equalizer because every customer is carrying a mobile device and every business has access to the same social media platforms. But it’s not the platform that gives you success. It’s the content. How good is your content? Is there an audience for what you have to say? How well are you saying it? One of the great myths of marketing is that promoting a business though social media is cheap and easy. But the people who are using social media successfully will tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. If you want to play at today’s table, you’ve got to stack real money on it. And even then, there’s no guarantee you’re going to win. Thanks to our friend and wizard Roy Williams for these words. |
