Same procedure as last year

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9105942950207814319

Same procedure as last year James?

Dinner for one is pretty much totally unknown in the country of it’s creation, yet a great number of other countries – of which Sweden is one – seem to know the script off by heart!

Over the years that I’ve lived in Sweden, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve introduced myself as James (especially around Christmas and New year) and heard “Same procedure as last year James?” in reply. At first I just gave a puzzled, but polite, smile as it was clearly me who was missing the joke. Then I saw “Dinner for One” the sketch and received a bit of a briefing on it’s history.

It’s a good example about how something can be so visible and well known, but yet totally unknown at the same time – what is obvious to one group, it a mystery to another.

Which brings us to the web connection…

What you think or see is not always what your visitors think or see. With personalised search, Local search, mixed media search – you may think you have a top 3 listing in SERPs, but for your visitor perhaps you’re a fair bit lower down.

You may think that you have all the information your customers need on your website, only to find that they are all discussing your products on a price comparison site.

Perhaps you thought no-one would notice that 2 hour downtime you had in the early hours of the morning, only to find that all your Australian clients have been talking about it from the moment it happened on Twitter.

Understand your web presence

It’s not the same procedure as last year, it probably never will be. You need to be part of the Internet, not just on it.