Today, Google and Bing and FaceBook announced deals to include Twitter status updates in their search engine results. Let me say that again, soon, your Tweets and FaceBook status updates will appear real time in Google and Bing search engine results. The magnitude of these new developments cannot be understated. In a nutshell, it means that you will be capable of reaching your target customers 24/7, 365, with live, real-time messages.
It's no less than astounding, and while it's been discussed as a possibility for months, the fact that all of these announcements were made on the same day is surely no accident. Here are just a few of the things this means for Indies.
- Your Traditional Website Will Be Buried. When your customers and people in your target market use Bing or Google to search for you and people like you, they will surely gravitate toward the up to the minute status updates and Tweets that show where you (and your competitors) are, and what you (and your competitors) are doing that makes a difference to them. A website with static content will become useful only to the extent that it connects to your shopping cart.
In fact, if I were launching a business today, I wouldn't get a website. Instead, I would get a blog (at least one), integrate shopping capabilities and then integrate the blog(s) with my Twitter and FaceBook accounts. Period.
- You Need A Fully Loaded Mobile Device. I don't want to sound like an iPhone commercial, but the future is now. Your success and as business owner will depend more and more on your ability to quickly share Tweets, updates, pictures, audio files, videos, product photos and blog posts with the world. Share fast, get business. Share slow, get less business. Share not, get no business. The iPhone is tops at facilitating the sharing of information. It's a serious financial investment, I know, but it pays for itself, and fast.
- Focus! Focus! Focus! With all of this real-time mobility, it will be tempting to set up multiple accounts and feed the search engine beast with stuff after stuff after stuff. Don't do that. No. No. No. The search engine beasts are smart, and their ability to screen out stuff and fluff is extremely impressive. Don't throw spaghetti at the wall and hope that it sticks.
Focus on who your target customers are, where your target customers are, what they want from you, how they like to get information from you, and then engage with them and give them what they want.
Question: What do you think of the big news? What will you do differently to adapt? How will you make sure your business rides this wave?
