Bandwidth. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s allowed so many innovations and possibilities over the last ‘x’ years; it has aided millions of businesses to trade far more easily via the web, download large files with ease, (and of course, same goes for upload). And you know the best part? It’s still constantly evolving, day after day.
Even from the earliest days of dial-up, it was very useful. It allowed us to do things we didn’t consider imaginable. One of the most noticeable things in my eyes is the continued development of web-based video; the fact that you can just sit back, relax and let someone tell you their message to save reading a load of text (!). It’s that it gives it much more of a personal touch.
In today’s society, I think we’ve almost lost what it means to communicate. I mean really communicate. We rely so much on digital means to keep in touch with each other – Facebook, MySpace, and everything else, we seem to be ignoring the tried and trusted ways a bit. I really think it’s important that we keep as personal as possible, especially as we’re becoming even more what has been coined a ‘global village’. For all of us, we have the technology at our fingertips to communicate with family, friends and business colleagues over the other side of the globe, whilst sitting in our homes drinking tea, without even having to pick up the phone!
There are countless mediums on offer now, everything from VoIP, webcams, internet phones, chat rooms, instant messaging services, video file sharing site, social networking sites, all on offer for us to utilise. None of this would be possible without the wonderful benefits of broadband! I think many of us take for granted just how much of advancement in technology we’ve had over the past 10 years. I know at times I do. It’s only when we take a step back and look at the tools we use on a day-to-day basis that we realise that none of this would have been possible all those years ago.
Web-based video back then was really quite primitive looking back; very grainy, pixilated, bad sound, but people really used it despite its poor quality. It was something new, video actually playing on a domestic computer, via the internet! You could tell back then that there were only going to be improvements upon improvements to the theme of using video on the web.
And how right that is. More and more businesses are integrating video production into their websites, as it gives a personal introduction to their business, instead of them reading through endless web pages which eventually get to the point of what you do. No one likes a cliffhanger of a website where you don’t find out ‘whodunnit’ until the last page you look at, by which time the viewer could be bored of your site and can’t wait to click the ‘back button’ to escape back to the search engine!
A carefully thought out site with integrated video can work wonders for your business, grabbing prospects’ attention from the start and making them want to contact you now they understand fully what you do and how you can help them.
And none of this would be achievable without our friend, technology. So remember, don’t dismiss all the new technologies available by any means, embrace them. Just ensure you keep your communication as personal as possible. Show yourselves to your clients and prospects, and reap in the rewards.