It’s difficult to ignore the number of Fortune 500 companies who have capsized under the tidal wave of online business. Kodak moments are now selfies… and Google has replaced the Yellow Pages… for number searches. Otherwise referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital disruption has had positive and negative impacts on our business and personal lives since it began to gain momentum in the early 80’s.

On a personal level, digital disruption has given humanity social platforms on which to broadcast their lives online. From Kim Kardashian posting booty shots daily on Instagram from any angle, and surface she can possibly find. Which is definitely more important than focusing her wealth and star status on saving world hunger, isn’t it? To your friends publishing every irrelevant and meaningless facet of their lives on Facebook… such as what they ate for lunch! To be honest I’d prefer to watch paint dry… is there an emoticon for that on social media?

But I believe the most dire effects of digital disruption would be the number of people who have lost their jobs because of businesses struggling to evolve in a digital age.  Whether we like it or not, the digital revolution is here to stay, and it will continue to make or break companies, dependent on whether they choose to accept it, or remain ignorant and wait for the surge of the tide.

To help you evolve as a business within the presence of digital disruption, I’ve provided a number of tips below. If you require further help creating a digital presence, source a digital marketing expert to assist you.

#1 BUILD A WEBSITE

It’s vital for you to have a website as part of your digital marketing presence. Word of mouth will only get you so far in a digital age. To grow your market reach, you need to have a website that showcases your products or services in detail. Your website has to be easy to navigate, with high resolution images and generally not too content heavy, unless it’s business to business (B2B). Incorporating e-commerce is a smart option for many businesses, so your customers can purchase products and services online. You also need to ensure your website is optimised for search engines and mobile devices, to avoid being penalised by Google.

#2 JOIN SOCIAL MEDIA

While you may have a love/hate relationship with social media, like myself, it’s essential that you connect to social media if you have a business, or you’re limiting your market reach. I suggest joining at least 2 different platforms, so you have a comparison point and can see which works most effectively for your business. You can gauge this by the highest audience response and conversion rate. Only join social media platforms that are relevant to your business, for example, image rich platforms such as Instagram are better for businesses wanting to showcase products, and content rich sites, like Facebook, are generally better for those wanting to introduce services.

#3 INCORPORATE ANALYTICS

Although it’s important to introduce a digital presence to minimise the impact of digital disruption, without analytics to monitor what is working most effectively on your website or social media, you won’t be able to build your market reach as effectively. By embedding Google Analytics in your website code, you can see which pages are getting the most hits, how often you get conversions through social media links, and the bounce rate (length of time) your target audience stays on different pages. If you tailor your website based on feedback through Google Analytics on what’s working and what’s not, you are assured of a higher return on investment (ROI) from your website.

Social media platforms also have analytics incorporated in their settings. This allows you to see which posts are working and how much engagement you are getting from your audience. It will help you determine the type of posts your audience is interested in, so you can shape your social media campaigns for better results.

Struggling to make the shift to having an online presence? Call the digital specialists at Ad On Digital to advise you and help you make the transition on (07) 5586 1412. You can also email the team if you have any queries.