Telling People About Your New Internet Business (Part 1)

People used to love words. For millenia, they were the primary method of communication. Initially the words were spoken, remembered and repeated by the Elders or the wise men and women of our civilsations. Then came the written word, with the Homer's, the Shakespeares, and the Heinleins with their beautiful phrases and vivid ideas and narratives. We learned from poets, soldiers, statesmen and of course, from teachers.

Our entertainments consisted of one on one dialoques, from reading and from listening to the masters, the gurus in live performances or exhibitions. We had time to consider what we heard and what we read, because life was slower, less harried. It took time to listen, time to think.

As a result of this slower pace, people were accustomed to waiting until they heard or read the entire story. People were really good listeners, they expected to take time to enjoy, or savour all the nuances that the telling of stories provided. People were able to actively participate in the narratives, to relate to the emotions and used their imagination to extrapolate other scenarios.

Consider the current situation, where the primary communication media is television, video or the Internet. Most information is shared visually, and the written word is a secondary medium used for emphasis, or to repeat a message. We have learned that listening is not necessary, except under certain circumstances, so we generally don't listen to the spoken word.

Worse, we tend to discount what we do hear, or wait for visual confirmation of any message. We no longer learn from the gurus and teachers of old, but get our information from anonymous third party sources, controlled by businesses, or by governments. We are able to assimilate information visually, and transmit our information the same way.

Visual communications aren't novel; the visual ats have been around for centuries. The difference between then and now is that producing the visuals in days past took enormous effort and talent, and then for people to view the results took TIME.

Today, television gets visual messages to viewers with the same effort and talents required, but people no longer have to use their time to access the medium, as it is transmitted direct to our
homes, offices and smart phones or other connected devices. The effect this has on our lives and
on our businesses is profound. Most of us get all but all of our news from electronic media. The
major corporations internationally all have their own television and video production studios.
Sales conferences are rarely conducted in large rooms or halls but are video or web events

Our children spend more time with electronic media that they spend in their educational institutions by a factor of around 2 to 1.

Today, if you want a message or information disseminated, you look to video conferencing, or
produce a short digital video for transmission to the other paries. The techniques used by
television studios to produce hard information as news are replicated by business. Key financial
data is analysed, facts, numbers, ideas and strategies are examined for pertinence to audiences
and their relevance measured in traffic, and in views.

One consequence of this media transmission is that we are conditioned to interpret data in much
shorter time frames or bursts than previously. This leads us to impatience toward any message
that takes more than just a few minutes.

Inevitably, if we wish to "tell people about our business" we are constrained by the same
barriers as the large corporations. This means we either have to be master communicators to get
our message to our customers, or we need to spend huge amounts to achieve that purpose.

Luckily, to become a master communicator is relatively simple; all that is needed in information, and TIME

In the next installment we will commence discussion about the techniques for improving communication, so that you can commence "Telling People About Your New Internet Business"

See you soon...