Recently, I watched a documentary currently trending on Netflix – My Octopus Teacher. It features filmmaker Craig Foster capturing a year he spent with a wild common octopus. It’s a beautiful film, showcasing the dramatic and inspiring life of this young octopus using her wits to seemingly outsmart a long line up of sharks and other predators that hunt her constantly. Beyond the narration of the host, what you witness in the forest kelps off the Southern tip of Africa is evolution at work.
Millions of marine creatures in a constant dance to stay alive and propagate life, deploying a range of strategies to survive. Of course, choosing the wrong strategy means you become lunch. Nature is both beautiful and brutally indiscriminate. Adapt – or die.
If you have a business, cause or event that you want to bring attention to, then you too need to dive into the world of digital marketing. Note: we didn’t say “get your feet wet”, we said “dive in!”.
Online marketing is the new dominant business ecosystem. There are few businesses that can afford not to compete in this space and expect to survive. This is our new environment, and it is here to stay.
Digital Darwinism
“Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it. Digital Darwinism does not discriminate. Every business is threatened.”
Is it Time to Evolve
Yes. Always. The World Wide Web is our digital ocean ever expanding, ever increasingly in competition and diversity. Covid 19 is the digital equivalent of a great flood, forcing those that can and are willing to adapt, sinking those won’t or can’t, and lifting those that were ready to keep up ( think of how well Zoom is doing!).
Evolution is about strategies
It could be easy to be overwhelmed when considering all of the ever-changing options and strategies that are available to us. Which are worth pursuing? What should be avoided? What is best for me and my business?
And here is the beauty of evolution. There are many, many ways to get to your goal. The blue whale went huge. The barnacle went small. Did you know that a snail was once a slug? Probably. Well, I now know that the common octopus was once a snail (that was once a slug..if you follow me).
Evolution is adaption
In the process of evolution, it decided at some point it needed a shell, and later the octopus has given up its hard shell in favour of speed, dexterity, and intelligence. (Interesting note: Octopus now feed off snails amongst a range of crustaceans!)
The Octopus has tried different strategies and chosen these. The point here is that as a business, we can look at our digital marketing strategy in very much the same way.
Where can we make a real difference? What platform is right for my business? What do we need to develop further and what could we afford to shed?
Dive in..
Every creature in the ocean has a strategy. Every business should have one have too. And remember, you don’t have to be the biggest fish in the ocean to make a splash, but you do have to jump in.
