You can’t control change; it controls you.
Chances are, you are in one of two camps:
1) Those who embrace technology or
2) Those who are overwhelmed with all the change.
Now, you may still be a damn the torpedos, I am going to use my printed Franklin planner and Palm Pilot Blueberry thingy kind of person, but I want to try and help you understand what change matters and what may not when it comes to you and your business.
My goal here is to help you better understand how to embrace the benefits of these changes. Heck, you can always hire an assistant to deal with all those technology changes that keep coming at you like stars in a hyperdrive Star Wars scene.
Communications and technology change rapidly.
As mentioned before, technology is constantly changing, and the pace of change is increasing. Not long ago, the jump from 1-megapixel to 2-megapixel cameras amazed us, but not as much as the jump from 2-megapixel to 4-megapixel. There was also a jump in other hardware technologies and tools that improve images, like lens quality, image stabilization, and more.
It’s not just the camera hardware that matters, but the entire digital ecosystem. Remember that as megapixels were doubling, so was the memory used in the phone to create, process, and store images.
Hardware
Back in the 1990s, desktop computers were just starting to hit their stride. I bought one of the first affordable (relative term) digital audio systems to edit audio on computers versus tape. The computer cost around $3000, the boards and software to process the audio were around $3000, and the hard drive to record, edit, and store the audio cost around $100 per megabit. YES, a 300-meg hard drive cost $3000.
Digital audio eats up around 10 meg per stereo minute, which means that a 300-meg drive would hold only around 30 minutes of audio. Remember it could take 10 minutes to record a 30-second commercial with multiple takes. Then, you may want to add music or sound effects, and then you have to mix and master the final product.
So, you had a choice to back up the files or delete them. That meant that you needed another device with much bigger capabilities to back up and restore project files.
Keep in mind that at the time, there was no cloud (backups) or CD ROMs, DVDs, USB sticks, and other things that you might laugh at seeing today. We were backing up to floppy disks and if you had the money, a tape drive. Yes, we were using tape to back up the digital so we didn’t have to edit on tape.
Today, we take it for granted that every cell phone comes with a digital audio recorder, with the hardware and software to record, edit, and master hours of audio (or video). That software is included free with the operating system. If you need more tools that come with the high-end stuff, you may have to pay $10-$100 per year for that as an add-on app.
In 2014, when the original version of this book was released, Apple released the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The base model included 16 Gig of RAM with a max of 128. In the 1990s, hard drive dollars would have been $160,000 of RAM alone. The cost of the entire phone, with software and hardware that could run circles around my entire old audio editing system, was only $1000.
In 2024 (the time of this rewrite), my iPhone 15 Pro Max cost about the same price but now offers 256 gigabytes of RAM up to 1 terabyte, which would be 10 million dollars in 1990’s hard drive storage money. That’s 10 million dollars just for the RAM and does not include the hardware, software, and other services included for that $1000, which I paid for that phone alone.
Software
It’s not just hardware that is changing; it’s software as well. And the speed of change there is about to make hardware changes feel like the differences between the prehistoric dinosaur periods.
Back in the 1990s to the early 2000s, most software was delivered in boxes. Even upgrades (which happened about once per year) required the delivery of a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and a custom serial number to activate.
Soon, we evolved to software being delivered through the cloud. An email would say the latest version was available to download, and you could enter your serial number to access and download to update.
We have evolved from annual licensing and paid upgrades to a mostly subscription model. That means that upgrades happen all the time without much interaction from you.
Now, all you have to do is turn on your computer. Without even knowing it, sometimes, the latest and greatest software versions have been downloaded to your hard drive. More likely than not you have no idea what’s changed.
No book comes with your updates and nothing that instructs you on how to use the new version or what’s changed. Most of the time, there’s not even an email or PDF that tells you what’s new with version 6.5.3.2. What you’re left with is instantaneous change.
It’s up to you to go to the company’s website, search for the updated program information, and find out what’s new. Or maybe you could go to an industry website that quickly reviews what’s changed in your program. The onus is no longer on the company to provide the documentation on software updates, It’s on you to find them.
Another consideration is that hardware and software work together as an ecosystem. As software evolves, you may need new hardware, and as hardware evolves, you may need new software. They work hand in glove.
My last computer (a Mac Pro, trash can edition) lasted 10 years before the hardware was no longer upgradable or compatible with upgrades in wireless and other software technologies.
Artificial Intelligence
AI (or artificial intelligence), also known as machine learning, will certainly change how fast change changes. It may partly be because the AI can rewrite its own code that manages the hardware, or it may be that it creates a new category of hardware that adapts more often and faster.
One thing I know is that software that can rewrite itself will totally upend how and what we do to make money.
I promise to dig more into this in a later chapter. Just know that we are at the beginning phases of 2023-2024, and by the time you are reading this book, many jobs, careers, and businesses could be upended or made obsolete by AI.
Social Media is powered by AI.
I am hopeful that I can help you learn to differentiate between being part of the social media ecosystem and a more significant social media world at large.
Social networks are foundationally built on AI. This applies to platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), Pinterest, YouTube, and more. AI has been part of them for years in the form of algorithms that get to learn you and serve up content it expects you to like and respond to.
One common complaint is how social media adds and removes features and controls overnight without any warning (or at least one that you see and remember). For some of you, change sucks, while for others, it’s exciting, and you can’t wait to get the latest version.
Here lies the intrinsic problem. It’s FREE! We didn’t purchase anything. We didn’t even install anything. We just signed up and logged in. We certainly don’t get the right to dictate the functionality of free software, although some companies may welcome your user feedback (via an AI Chatbot).
There’s a reason for all those free Internet tools.
Companies like Facebook offer you free functionality in exchange for your use of it, for the rights and ability to record information about how you use it and what interests you. The social media company uses the information thus aggregated to sell you something. Or it may sell that information to third parties. Why? So that the company can make money! Even though it looks and smells like a free lunch, we are all basically guinea pigs in this world of this new millennium marketing.
Google was the pioneer in this information industry. Google started as a project by some students at Stanford and was incorporated on September 4, 1998. It has since built itself into a stable, low-cost per share, publicly traded company. Google owns over 70% to 95% of ALL search traffic across all forms of the internet.
This model of giving you something for free so the provider can aggregate data in the form of cookies is prevalent across almost every website. Cookies are small codes written to your browser that allow companies to track where you go and feed you ads via social media.
Companies build up databases of what you do, what you like, where you are, and what you are doing, and interpolate that against what your friends like, what you search for, and where you go on the internet.
People have no problem signing up for this or that web service to explore the latest and greatest free thing. But how long could anyone stay in business if they gave away everything for free without getting something in return? So by giving you all this free stuff, they make the rules.
You can’t opt out of the internet.
Some people want nothing to do with Facebook or other social media, but they use Google every day. They think that social media is just an invasion of privacy. They also couldn’t care less about what people have for lunch, where they are going, or what awards their kids are getting at school. They don’t understand what the big deal is with social networking and just don’t want to use it.
These people don’t realize that their train has long since left the depot. Every imaginable detail about your life (except those protected by law, like your credit and medical histories) can be found on the internet: your phone numbers, where you live, what you and your neighbors paid for your houses, and so much more.
Do you know those rewards cards you use at in-person stores? Cookies. Your credit card purchases? Cookies. Even the cookies you buy at Starbucks? Cookies (although they are tracked via your gift card).
People who think they can stay private by avoiding Facebook or Twitter are kidding themselves. Refusing to look at or use social media sites or join the social media networking revolution will not protect you or your privacy.
You may feel proud that you resisted the temptation to go where all these crazy people are going. But you only have two choices: either punch your ticket and ride the train, realizing that you’re not in complete control of the destination, or stand back and watch everybody else wave goodbye. I guarantee, that as you sit in that train station watching millions of other people moving forward, you will end up second-guessing yourself.
The people who stubbornly hold onto the past are easy prey for mailing lists or Yellow Page salespeople, who convince them that their customers are just like them and will look for them in a printed book or check their mailbox rather than on the internet. They hold onto their beliefs like Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha.“
But, no matter how much they want to resist, the rest of the world is forging ahead and leaving them behind. The internet is everywhere, on our computers and our phones, in our coffee shops and cars, in our appliances, and anything else with a battery or an electric plug (including our electric plugs and light bulbs). You may respect and love the past, but change will not stop happening just because you ignore it! In the end, all you are doing is permitting yourself to be left behind.
Fighting Back
So, with trying to get up on a soapbox and preach from the bully pulpit how you should avoid the sins of the internet marketing world, I am going to make a case that you should learn and embrace them.
While social media companies are all entangled in fighting for eyeballs and the attention of audiences, I am going to propose that you are fighting for their hearts.
For Consumer Business
Consumer business has been moving from retailing to e-tailing. Not all business will be done online, but more and more will be.
If you just try to ride the Amazon or Walmart coattails, you will be fighting a low-price war that you can’t win.
It’s about using social media to build a relationship with your business and not just to make a purchase.
For B2b Business
B2b business online and offline is very different than marketing a consumer business. Agencies and experts may try to squeeze B2b clients through a consumer hole.
B2b businesses need to create awareness and then conversations. Consumer tactics are optimized for sales, which may sound attractive until you need repeat business. It’s about nurture versus mind-numbing ads.
It’s Not About You, it’s about people choosing you.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: In today’s reality, it’s not you choosing the customer, advocate, or power partner, they choose you!
What you have to do is find a way to become distinctive, memorable, and top-of-mind. This is the power of social networking and social media, getting you to that top-of-mind position and helping you stay there. You just have to learn how to leverage the tools in a way that creates and enhances relationships.
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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?
To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.
