The dangers of treading water

When I learnt to swim one of the techniques I learnt was treading water, Wikipedia defines it as "an aspect of swimming that involves a swimmer staying in a vertical position in the water while keeping his or her head above the surface of the water. Treading water provides the swimmer an opportunity to keep the head from becoming submerged while not providing sufficient directional thrust to overcome inertia and propel the swimmer in any specific direction." Wikipedia goes on to say treading water is a preferred method used by lifeguards when going about their daily business of life saving which is great but inertia is the stand out word here. Without directional thrust, as wiki says, you cannot overcome it.

In any aspect of business treading water is dangerous. We have a business plan and know where our business is going but I hold my hands up we are still one more meeting away from agreeing the direction the newest components in our online presence need to take. And I know in the back of my mind it can only take a day without a tweet or a week without a blog or any news and inertia can set in.

Our big commercial law clients will have a department looking after their online presence, part of the responsibility may even be outsourced. Many large specialists, medium sized regionals and high street practices have committed resources to ensure they have a strong online presence. But there are still some firms who do not see the value or may not have the time to keep the online plates spinning. My advice to the latter is to only bite off as much as you can chew. If you only do one thing get a website, everyone from prospective employees to potential clients expects a website. If you do not know where to start I will point you in the direction of some value for money developers.

If you have a website but do not have the foggiest about LinkedIn and twitter then look out for our next social media sessions, they are really informative and you will walk out with at least an idea as to whether SM is for you at this stage in your business. The sessions are also good for anyone who is only playing with LinkedIn or twitter but would like to get the inside track and start seeing some return on the investment of their time. Building an online presence is great but you need to avoid being seen as treading water. Websites date, blog posts and tweets are time stamped; there is nowhere to hide on the net so by all means take the plunge but before that have a good think about your directional thrust.

Kathryn Riley | Managing Director

kath@douglas-scott.co.uk