If you’re a start-up and you don’t have a sophisticated and teeming presence online, you don’t exist. Yes, yes, you exist, but you’re invisible. You’re kind of like a tree falling in the forest, with nobody there: You might as well not exist. Perhaps you don’t want to seem to exist. That’s a legitimate strategy, and possible; the potential disruption wrought by your value proposition is of such consequence, that you don’t want anyone to know you exist, until the time is right for you to exercise your right to world domination. Fine, that’s OK. But for the rest of the entrepreneurs out there and the start-up companies they’ve established, the consequences of having no online presence, or an amateurish online presence, are palpable and deadly. You’re dead in the water practically before you start swimming.
Solopreneurs, Stop Here
You now know all you need to know. Grab the free #CareerGravity Blueprint, an ebook of more than 30 pages whose instructions are just as applicable to you as they are to a jobseeker or anyone professional, really, who seeks to improve and elevate her career.
Still here? Then maybe you employ workers, or plan to, or want to plan to. The rest of this blog post is for you. …
Your Brand, Fallen Trees, and Death in the Water
See what we did there?
Fallen trees in forests and death in the water—already, the flight of the entrepreneur online has inspired two overwrought metaphors. But they’re accurate. Your stakeholders measure and judge everything that you are by looking at it online. If there’s nothing there, or something lame, you’ve lost a potential customer and a potential employee. A tree fell, and nobody heard it. You are dead in the water, courtesy of lameness.
You see, they don’t care that you worked 20 hours yesterday on an upcoming presentation, or that your product’s launch next week is the result of four months of 15-hour workdays; they don’t care unless there’s a fluid, interactive, engaging and sticky legacy or document of it online in the form of a blog, tweets, Facebook updates and LinkedIn group participation. …and more.
What’s there, in your case? It had better match the quality of your product or service, and it had better appeal to the kind of employee and customer you want to attract. For some, this comes naturally. For instance, if you offer a service, and that service is consultation around social media or search engine optimization, the chances are strong that your own web presence will be impressive. Additionally, public relations agencies, marketing agencies, advertising agencies and the like tend to have an impressive, highly presentable web presence. That’s just second nature kicking in. But accountants don’t necessarily, and neither do lawyers. Search for them online. See for yourself. As for the rest, they and you run the gamut.
Yes, entrepreneurs need gravity, too. Share the #CareerGravity Blueprint with your entire team. Make sure your entire team is projecting a loud, disruptive digital footprint. That’s what loud, disruptive start-up organizations do today.
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