Is it a dumb question?

It may sound like a dumb question but it can be both and even more things.

The WEB is more and more part of our lives so that it deserves a place by itself among the things that everyone should know how to use. I do not consider myself an expert here but rather a skilled user. Can we live without it today and still remain part of our modern society? Nope.

It is a place… one click away

There are more than 3 billion people online today and the number is rising daily. Social networks, e-commerce, learning, etc. People go online to meet others, to interact, to learn, to play etc. More importantly it is the new face for many company’s that want to reach out to their customers 24 by 7, 365 days a year. It is many people’s face if they are involved socially in networks or your store’s front when selling goods online, etc.

For example, if you want to get information on the last tax changes, you go to your local IRS online office site. You want to order some food, you can go to your favorite place online place, the order and have it delivered. You want to visit a location before traveling their, you can. You go to Google Earth and see how it looks like. In a way you are always just one click away.

It is a tool

If you want to sell or be known you need to be online in some form or an another. The fact that so many people spend more and more time in front of those screens means that they are spending less going to actual places. Take me for example, I often am online for:

• Information for my work
• Things to buy online
• Plan a trip
• Communicate with my friends and family
• Check email
• Learn and study
• Read news articles
• Watch movies

It serves all these purposes just to name a few. If you are a business it is a mandatory to be present online to sell your brand, attract followers, new customers, etc.

Why learn more than just to use it?

More and more careers are connected or directly involved in the WEB. Programming, marketing, sales, etc. are becoming increasingly web dependent. You possibly use a computer for work, or at least to do some shopping online from time to time, in addition to your email you also may access the bank from there.

You can benefit from the Web whether you are an individual or a company, for example:

• Getting new leads or job-offers
• Connecting with other people
• Promoting your own brand
• Saving money, time, and effort on all your activities online

Is it expensive or difficult?

Nope, not at all. As for money, you can start out free and move to paid options with time. I know companies who decided to be present just in social networks and not have a website with their own blog. These companies set up their business online entirely for free, and just invested the time to learn how to use it and run it.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin have all free start packages. You can have your own blog for free or just register for low cost hosting services at wordpress.com. I for instance use 1and1 and it costs me about 1 Euro a month, which comes with an additional registered domain name.

As for difficulty, The social networks are fairly intuitive and setting up a blog of your own in some companies can be as easy as dragging and dropping elements  to create your blog.

So why don’t you try and see for yourself?