The past couple of days, I received countless emails asking me my opinion about what we should expect in 2017. What are the platforms and apps we should focus in 2017?
My honest opinion?
I don’t know, but whatever platforms and apps that will be thrown my way, you can bet that I will be using it.
Walk before You Crawl,
I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying that you have to crawl before you walk, however with the speed of the internet. Crawling before you walk won’t cut it anymore.
New platforms and apps are popping up every day, some gain momentum quick and you as an individual or business want to be there when it happens to build brand equity before your competitor does.
Waiting to see if that platform will work in a couple of months time won’t cut it anymore. By the time you wait to see if that platform is going to ‘work’. You’ll get a hard time getting your voice across.
At the end of the day, the noise ratio increases as more people are jumping onto that network leaving you further behind and rewarding the early adopters.
I like the way Gary Vaynerchuk approach social media. Mr Vee talks a lot about striking when the platform when it’s hot and not worrying if that platform and app will be the myspace or Friendster in a few months or years. Seriously, if you want to know if a social media platform is going to work, just follow what Gary says. So far, he has hit it on the nail 100%
What if you’re late for the party
As I mentioned earlier, it’s tough to get through the noise if you’re late to join it. Imagine before a party starts there are only ten people and when you get there are over 100,000 people.
There is a saying that my grandma instilled me growing up, she always tells me that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best time is today.
The same goes to social media, while the noise may be loud, you can still work your way through the noise if you work at it. I’ve proven this building a new brand for myself on Shortofheight. I explained how I did it on Mark’s blog on how to become an influencer.
What if the platform dies……..?
Well, two things can happen:
You focus too much of your time on one platform that by the time you know it, people have left the building. It’s just like everyone in your town has left, and you’re the only one who is in the town.
Plan ahead. Join other platforms and play around with it. Strike it when they are hot.
The Mindset
You can join every social network, however, if you’re approaching it the wrong way, it probably won’t work out for you on all the platforms
Before joining any network, you first have to figure out how you as an individual or business can add value on that platform rather than how that platform can help YOU.
Remember, that it’s not always about you. That is where the concept of walk before you crawl then run comes in.
WALK: For every social media platforms, you have to join quickly to giving you that early advantage.
CRAWL: After joining, you have to slow down for a minute and figure out how you can add value. Here most business FALL because they try to sell immediately.
RUN: After you’ve figured it out, it’s time to RUN and go all out and run. Don’t forget that this isn’t a race; it’s a marathon, however, don’t slow down too much. Run the freaking marathon.
Summing up
If you’re a startup, take advantage of the concept of or walking, crawling and running. The reason you want to do that is larger business will always crawl, crawl, crawl.
You have the advantage of speed because you’re hungrier.
I’ve seen businesses fail to understand this and all they do is WAIT because it doesn’t meet their current KPI.
The only KPI they should be worried in the future is going out of business because they are too late to the party.
What do you think?
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