Embrace Technology
Google Maps launched a new feature for their mobile version today The new feature allows the user to layer other maps over the current map. There is a Wikipedia layer that will overlay your current map location with stuff around you that has a Wikipedia entry. What does this mean? Why is this so cool? Great questions….
Due to the open nature of Wikipedia, anyone can go to www.wikipedia.com and create an entry or edit an existing entry. When Joe Public is driving around your area with his Google Maps app on his iPhone or Blackberry and enables the Wikipedia layer, your wikipedia entry will appear on his map! This is free and massive exposure!
In simple terms:
EVERY SMALL BUSINESS SHOULD HAVE A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY
This is one example of hundreds where a small business owner can create free exposure for their company with minimal effort and time. However, most small businesses are not willing to embrace technology. Some think that its too expensive, or that they need to hire someone to help them. Others believe that this new media is just a fad and that old school methods are the way to go. The reality is that if they just took a little bit of time to educate themselves on what is available to them and what it takes to leverage it, they would find that using technology is easy and fruitful.
I don’t know how much it costs to run an ad in the yellowpages for every market in Colorado, but I know its not cheap. There are also a few other issues with this old school method: there is no audience targeting and the user base is shrinking. Contrast that with Facebook and the argument seems easy: Both Facebook pricing models (CPM & PPC) are cost effective. The real value, in my opinion, is that you can target your audience with information from profiles (age, gender, city, state, education level, birthdays, keywords etc). While people who use yellowpages is dwindling, Facebook has a staggering number of users and is growing every day.
Facebook, Wikipedia and Google Maps are only a few example of hundreds (twitter, google local, craigslist, backpage etc).
Embrace technology and you will see your revenues grow!
