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Start Online Farming Today

by Rich Lazzara on November 16, 2009

We’ve heard the sayings, “There’s no time like the present” or “Why put off tomorrow what you can do today?”.   These can be true in so many different aspects of business. However when it comes to your digital marketing there couldn’t be a more accurate way of putting it.

Here’s the little known secret when it comes to using online tools for your business. It takes time! I don’t mean time in the sense of each day sitting behind the computer working at it. I mean time as in days, months, years to establish yourself and create an online presence.

Think Like a Farmer

The problem is most people aren’t willing to farm they want to manufacture. They want to launch that website, throw up a video, post something on a blog and start seeing immediate results. Sorry it won’t work that way. You need to approach your online strategy as if you were a farmer. The ground needs to be tilled, seeds planted, crops cared for and fields harvested in order to reach success. Oh and in between each of those stages, insert time.

Look at any successful small business utilizing all of the online tools and I guarantee they have been at it for awhile. That’s just the nature of how all this online stuff works. The days are coming to an end where you can manufacture a product, run some advertising and done – the orders start to pile up.

These days it’s what you do the other 364 plus days a year that will lead up to that event which will make you successful. You need to be putting in the time now, today, in order that you may secure your companies success in the future.

Get Started Today

One other thing.  If you start today, that’s at least one day ahead of your competition. Most likely though it will be many months and potentially even years before your competition decides to use all the available tools.  Oh, and if they are already using all the online social networks, blogs, email and website tactics, well then you really have no excuse to put off today.

Today is the day you join a social network. Today is the day you update your website. Today is the day your start a blog. Today is the day you post a comment.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what your doing online today to secure you future for tomorrow. You can always email me too if you have any other comments or questions.

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Tagged as: blog, business, digital marketing, entrepreneur, future, ideas, new media, online marketing, social media, strategy, success, using social media for business, you

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  • Rich,

    Great post. I completely agree that we need to think about farming rather than manufacturing (or hunting) online.

    The struggle for some is that they don't know how to read the growth of their crops (i.e. they don't know how to measure if their initiatives are working, and they don't know when it's time to abandon something that isn't working).

    So just like a farmer has a plan when to put fertilizer on the crops, and when to weed, etc, I think we're prudent to plan how we're going to measure and tend our networks.

    Thanks for this.
  • Andrew,

    Yeah I agree reading growth is important. However dont let that stop you from getting started. Plus I dont think you should necessarily abandon something just yet as this space is just too new. If businesses are honest they cant tell you the ROI on many marketing things they do. Whats the ROI on their phone? or Whats the ROI on the "branding" event? or The joint marketing relationships they have? etc etc. I think everyone is so quick to jump to ROI proof for online that they use that as the default reason they aren't involved.

    That to me is a BIG mistake. By the time (and I think its already here in many areas) someone figures out concrete ROI measurements it may be too late to jump into the mix.

    What push back do you see from companies? What are their expectations? Is ROI something thats thrown at you often?
  • I think I may have slightly misspoke in my post earlier. What I meant was that it's important to think about a strategy to measure the growth of the network, not necessarily bottom line sales. So for sure waiting to get concrete ROI measurements is a big mistake.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is, start today and don't let ROI keep you from moving forward, but know that you'll eventually need goals and a plan to optimize your online presence.


    To answer your question, though, ROI is probably the biggest pushback I've found. Other common concerns are lack of control over the brand message (which I argue is the point...), concern that people will talk negatively about a product or the company, and concern that somehow a unique customer base isn't online (ok, maybe true of some products).

    I think there are lots of good rebuttals for these concerns out there. The next step is just convincing the people who have the power to make those decisions...
  • Andrew, I find it very interesting that lack of control and negative talk are concerns. I can't say its surprising though. I guess there are people (maybe many) who really think they control their brand. That's a shame, those days are coming to an end if they aren't all ready here. Witness Apple,arguably the greatest branding company today, bending/changing policy and procedure on their iPhone app approval process. Happened for one reason - negative talk. You cant control the brand anymore, at best you can guide it, but control (and "power")is an allusion. Good luck and thanks for the comments.
  • It's amazing how getting that start can really start to kick the momentum into high gear. When I started the podcast series a few weeks back I was able to just record one at a time. Tomorrow I have three interviews schedule and had to start using a calendar and I realized that I'm going from a blogger to product developer.
  • there you go, nice job! keep working at it and you will continue to grow. thanks for the comments.
  • Like your ideas on this. I've had a website for years and continue to improve it; recently started on Twitter am still feeling my way around - definitely not a power user; would consider a blog, but unsure how to go about it. Will begin investigating. thanks for the tips.
  • John, good for you. Dont worry about being a power user just yet, the fact that your engaging in those tools will help you for sure. As for blogging I highly recommend Wordpress Good luck and thank you for the comments.
  • So true. Most cases of "overnight success" are usually a combination of years worth of hard work and a lot of positioning/networking.

    It's hard to sell something without a solid platform.
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