A Word or Two about Technology

I am sitting in the Philadelphia airport American Airlines lounge waiting for my connection and reading "USA Today" on the Internet. As I lift my eyes from my computer, I gaze at my fellow travelers and notice, not unexpectedly, that all of them, (and I mean ALL) including me, are plugged into their computers or tablets or smart phones. 

In this information obsessed society, I watch an older well dressed gentleman, as he walks over to get some coffee, opens his “vintage” Motorola flip phone and begins to talk into it. I also watch people look at him as if he just crawled out from under a rock.  

If you haven't seen how fast technology is moving check out the recent battles between the Apple I Phone 5  (soon to be the 5S and the Samsung Galaxy III...or IV  It is almost hard to believe what these phones can do.  It’s Big Brother in the palm of your hand…whenever you want it.  And the people who have opted for one brand or the other have done so for their own very unique and special reasons. And might be loyal customers or might change. That's why the race for new and more vigorous applications we can instantly plug in and use on our smart phones are so important for the phone manufacturer to grow market share and expand into new markets. (Three times as many smartphones are used in China than in the USA...about 1.BILLION.)  new markets indeed!

It is amazing, to me, how, more so than ever,judge people by the technology they have! We expect our clients, peers and colleagues to have an up to the minute laptop or tablet; perhaps both. We expect them to have a smart phone where they can check email, text messages and retrieve files from anywhere they are on the planet as well as being able to give an instant presentation to an audience of thousands.

We expect them to know the weather, their calendar of meetings, their favorite places to eat and drink in every major and minor city on the eplanete and to have their airline boarding passes on their phone. Anything less than having these items immediately available plants a “negative” about them into our very judgmental psyche, We also expect them to have Email, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin accounts; perhaps even a Pinterest account.

Not to mention travel aps, driving aps, and the world at our "always ready to Google fingers" ap.  If you thinks "aps" are appetizers, read this blog several times because aps are applications or mini programs you can use on your smart phone to find anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) in a matter of seconds. Anything longer and your ap is obsolete.

And when they are unable to perform any electronic or digital task, our frustration meter skyrockets. “What you don't have or use this tool?” we say.  “What are you, a   Neanderthal?

C'mon man! Get with the program; you're getting left behind.” We mutter under our breath…sometimes not softly enough.

But what is weird to me when I send emails to people in the industry I get x% to respond. When I send faxes, I get X% PLUS.   Huh????

What does that say about some of the people who are running bowling centers? Are they so behind the “times?”  Does their bowling center communicate that too? Does their marketing communicate that as well?

For those of you who are more familiar with faxes and land lines then Emails, Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn and smart phones, stop what you are doing NOW and go find someone or some educational institution who can get you up and  into the 21^st century as quickly as possible.

It may be funny, but you are losing business by not knowing how to use these tools more effectively to generate more revenue and more customers.

More importantly, you're missing a lot of usable information to drive your business…and  a bit of fun!