Traditional Job versus Online Marketing Work
The biggest challenge I face when visiting with friends is them asking “What are you doing now?”.
In my attempts to conform to their understanding of traditional jobs I have tried to simplify my explanation. I still have yet to keep the majority from going glassy eyed on me the minute I mention
Online Marketing.
I discovered however, that when I am in a conversation with these folks, if I remember more about what their interests are and use those examples to integrate into the sharing (just as I have done all
these years in my offline work) they are able to grasp and maintain some interest.
I now live in a very small Oregon Coast community (Lincoln City Oregon). The folks in this area are unfortunately not up to speed with the internet other than checking email or looking at a few sites. They are at the point of knowing what Google.com is , however, they really do not understand all that it does or what it represents for online marketing.
Even more interesting was when I was out with my boyfriend this last weekend and his sister. We went to a local “icon” of a restaurant that was purchased by new owners 4 years ago called “Gracies Sea
Hag” in Depoe Bay Oregon. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the owners who happened to go back to school and graduate in 2003 with a computer science (?) degree. Of course he was very savvy on the php and other lingo. What was amazing was, even though the restaurant has a huge following, he did not feel it necessary to do an optin or develop more.
I am doing my best to promote the area I live in and that of course involves the local businesses. You all know that the best way to help our economy is to put money into our local economy. If everybody does that, we all get better. The most frustrating part for me is that all of these people, including the city site,visitor’s site (we are a huge tourist destination), casino site etc… are lacking in a professional and aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate site.
So, it should be no surprise to me, that when asked what I do and the majority go glassy eyed… it seems I have an entire “Market” wide open to me locally to help them understand what is really going on on the internet and how it can help our local business revenues and in turn our local economy.
Never assume that they do know what they are doing. It has certainly surprised me and helped me understand that all of my efforts will genuinely help my little place here on earth by helping others as well.
Food for thought to all of you.
Most Sincerely and humbly
