Are You Playing the Technology Waiting Game?
Remember the child-like giddiness those of us with an interest in technology experienced as Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad? HP achieved a “similar” rush of excitement when they decided to get out of the tablet market and thus slashed prices. Yesterday’s Amazon announcement has me “fired-up.” (I apologize) but it’s true. I know iPad users would laugh at me but Fire has married my love of books/Amazon and technology and served it up to me at the right price point. Now I’m pacing trying to decide whether to pre-order or not. I can’t go back to the site in the fear that my right index finger will rebel and make a run for that mouse, hit the one-click order button and my decision will be made, an involuntary reflex gone wild. As much as I love the concept and think the price is right, I can’t help but assume it will get better — and if I were a gambler I would guess that will happen some time in January, after the holiday season.
But personal technology purchasing is different than professional. If you’re an association or member-centric organization that has been waiting in the wings to embrace social media technology thinking it will become more advanced or you’ll get burned in a price war, it’s time you step off the sidelines. That kind of hesitation is fine for personal technology purchases. After all, if I practice some restraint and wait a few months to purchase no one is missing out but me (and what am I missing?). When it comes to professional technology decisions, waiting another year to embrace technology could increase your inability to acquire new members or cause you to lose existing ones. Hesitation can cost you. Social has become an expectation. Having a static website makes you look more like a start-up that shares office space with your dad’s company and less like a member-based organization. Visitors to your site should be able to quickly see a member log-ins section. It tells them you value your members and they are privy to content that the rest of the world isn’t. And let’s face it, human nature drives us to want to be a part of something that appears exclusive.
I admitted my hesitation in investing in the latest tablet because of price but you can create an online community integrated with your association management software, e-marketing system, event registration package, dues collection and content management system for the same price (or less than) you pay for those individual features.
Hesitation will not earn you more members, nor will it ensure the ones you have stay. Hesitation only ensures you will do nothing differently than you always have and we all remember what Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
So….should I wait on the Kindle Fire or not?
