Do you still question online?

If you still question online, it’s time to face the facts of the importance of online. Right now too much time and effort are put into thinking, questioning and discussing the effects and the ROIs of online marketing and communication.

It’s important to understand that those thoughts, the questioning and the discussions are based on the knowledge about your own behaviour and habits online, and the stress that it causes. Stress that demands changed behaviour by you and by your company.

There is still too much time spent on talking about and questioning why people spend so much time online and how companies and industries shall make money online. My advice is, stop wasting your time talking about it and start facing it.

The online evolution leans on the same habits, behaviour and needs we have always had. And this evolution is already such a core part of everyday life globally that to question it is a bit like questioning if the Earth is round or not.

Online, both in business as well as in personal life, is an add-on and a new way of working with and using communication in all parts and situations of business life and life in general. It has already changed the availability of information, increased the speed and the possibility to verify everything, changed our ways of preparing and making purchases, preparing for meetings, interacting with others, building relations and so on.

Through online, we can interact instantly, wherever and whenever we want. And as hard as it was to get through the initial buzz and hype of online, it is even harder today. And yet it has never been as easy to reach people, companies and organisations.

So to flourish in this new environment, you need to face the importance of online and the offsite communities, use and show real creativity, become transparent and flexible, responsive and continuously available. And you need to truly realise and embrace the importance of relations with friends and target groups, both online and offline. People do like other people and companies that are genuinely interested in them, and when it comes to whom they like, their initial gut feeling is always correct and always in the here and now.

I am sure that the way to organise companies and organisations will be different in the future. And so will traditional education and what unique skills that will be needed. Everything will change. And yet everything will be based on the same habits, behaviour and needs that have always been around. The main difference is and will be that “I and We” decide and that “They” will be aware of and need to adapt to that fact.