Change in an unfamiliar territory

I was reading a fascinating statistic the other day.

Every second, 14 Nokia mobile phones are sold. And Nokia is not happy about it.

It promoted me to look a little closer at what Nokia is doing these days with positioning themselves in the digital media delivery world now that iPhones are starting to take over the world. Nokia has been a world leader in mobile communications for many years and suddenly the rules of the game are changing. Nokia is realizing that it needs to position itself as a promoter of social networking, with photo and video sharing and games for users of its cell phones. The market is changing and it’s a new and unfamiliar territory for them. Mr. Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s CEO, was quoted saying “Change is painful, but you have to figure this out in order to be successful. The question is, are you willing to play by the new rules?”

If a giant corporate company is having this big a-ha moment and shifting their products and marketing efforts, what are we, the small business owners doing to keep on top of the changes in the market today? I am realizing more and more the importance of teaching myself about all the online and social networking avenues out there to stay current and grow my business. A year ago I wouldn’t have cared about Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn but it seems that the world is moving in this direction whether I like it or not at a speed that is hard to keep up with. So am I willing to make the change? You bet. It’s an unfamiliar territory for too me but I am slowly getting more comfortable in it. Everything flows from the market and the market is saying “get active online!”

So how has this change affected your business? Are you getting more connected? Is it an unfamiliar territory for you as it is for me?

Comments

[Jasmine Holmes]

I absolutely agree. Over the past six months, I have reluctantly accepted that online networking is here to stay.I am still getting in the habit of using these tools and definitely still learning them. Hearing the success stories of others keeps me motivated.

My husband has a small blog that he posts to only once to twice a month but he has still managed to attract a steady following. He embraced online and social networking when he first started the blog and I believe that is the key to his success.