Ever got teased by your friends because of your lack of online presence? No wonder! 1 in 13 Americans are on Facebook. It's ok to be among the other 12, if you're not that sociable in real life either, but, as you will see, it's bad for business. If your business doesn't have a website, you're literally invisible to all the people who don't know you or your business personally. If they can't search you on the internet, they won't become your customers, because they can't make informed choices. Online media helps you a bunch, according to these figures: 97% of consumers report using online media when searching for products or services in their area, 90% use search engines, 48% use Internet Yellow Pages, 24% use vertical sites and 42% compared prices.  Moreover, in 2011, people's internet time spent on social media websites such as Facebook was almost four times (12.3%) bigger than the amount of their internet time that they spent on three major search engines - Google, Yahoo, Bing - altogether (3.5%). And that's not all! The trends in online shopping are even more promising: it is estimated that by 2015, 65% of the U.S. population will shop online. 
Aside from the social media factor, there's also the mobile factor. Since most of the online shoppers use a smartphone, it only seems fair that major online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon report either an increase of 134% in mobile shopping or bringing in $1 billion dolars anually from mobile sales. If these figures didn't convince you that online presence is vital for your business, nothing will! Keep in touch, Alexey |
