I have been struck by the ever-widening digital divide.  If you have worked for someone else for a long time or been used to giving things to your tech guy and forgetting them, you may have been skating by without much technical knowledge.
My mother called me recently to ask how to copy a photo to put on her Facebook page, something I can do in my sleep.
A conference I attended recently reminded me that not every one is tech-savvy: some folks are still using AOL email addresses that they share with their families and when I ask if they registered a URL they give me a blank stare.
On the other hand--when I go to local networking meetings, I am always running into social media gurus, SEO experts, app builders, web developers...and when I come home my 17 year old daughter tells me the stuff I don't know. (Vine? Snapchat?)
As much as I would like to remain in denial, in order to be an effective business coach, I need to stay on top of all of this craziness.
As a business owner you need to at least understand this stuff, too.
Even if you hire someone to help you in this area, you should know what you are paying for, at least at a high level. One referral I got this week came from someone whose web developer disappeared and his company website simply disappeared. Oops.
I remember running a webinar last year with a Google Analytics expert and finding that one of our sample client sites that he analyzed didn't have analytics code embedded on every page. The business owner didn't know he needed it, and the web developer was his high-school-age son and he didn't know either.
This month's webinar should shed some light for all of us on the world of Twitter and social media, when my friend and colleague Denise Buchman of Core Consulting shows us exactly how using Twitter has raised her profile and gotten her business. Sign up now to join us May 15th. And I am delighted to release the 2014 edition of Shine Online, my guide to Internet marketing---written in PLAIN ENGLISH. 100 pages. All new and updated with the latest information---including video, mobile, SEO, everything you need to know.
 I promise it will be the best $24.95 you will invest in understanding how to use all sorts of web technology to get more customers. Buy it as an ebook and start reading it right away, or if you like paper ( I know I do) I have reprinted the book and you can order it and I will ship it to you. BUY THE PRINT BOOKHere's what my colleague Maggie Dennison said about the book: "Deborah was an early Internet pioneer and this book proves that she's still on top of the latest tools, technology and best practices online. It's a down-to-earth, pragmatic explanation of the elements that make your web presence work for you. And it's written in everyday language that anyone can understand. Every business owner could use this."Learn more about the Shine Online book here: www.shineonlinebook.com
Whether you buy the book or not....don't stop learning and staying on top of the technology or you risk getting left behind!
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