Oneupweb : Super Brain Enslaves World, Makes Crazy Decisions, President Hayes Baffled

My dad is a business man. He sells custom software packages, has a technical background, a ton of business experience and he’s smart. Back in the early 90’s when everyone was starting to realize that they should be doing something with the web (although they didn’t know what), I had a conversation with my dad about email. He just couldn’t imagine himself having any need for it whatsoever.

“If I want to talk to a customer, I will pick up the phone,” he said. “I’ll never use email.”

Of course he came around. I did say my dad is a business man. He now has a hard time understanding how we could have ever gotten along without email. One mind didn’t get it, but the masses did. Here are a few more examples of the individual vs. collective mind:

• “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.” – Bank president advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in Ford Motor Company.
• “Airplanes suffer from so many technical faults that it is only a matter of time before any reasonable man realizes that they are useless!” – Scientific American (1910)
• “An amazing invention—but who would ever want to use one?” – President Rutherford B. Hayes after using a telephone for the first time.

The collective intelligence of the planet’s population (super brain) doesn’t ask anyone about what’s important. It just knows. It doesn’t matter the tiniest bit whether or not we get it, and right now “it” is mobile technology. It’s huge and its growth is exploding.

If you want to reach your customers, you need to be where they are. If you want to be relevant, you need to be communicating with them in a way they are comfortable with. It needs to be easy for them.

President Hayes couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever want to use a phone. Today, we are approaching 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide. That’s three times more mobile phone subscriptions than there were people on the planet when Hayes was alive and in office. Resistance is futile Mr. President.

Understanding the “why” of every new thing would be great, but being relevant is essential. Right now, you can bet that someone is trying to access your site with a mobile phone. A mother somewhere is shopping for her kids while she is stuck in traffic. A teenager is trying to get a gift certificate at the last minute for his parent’s anniversary before he walks into the party. A potential client is using their iPhone to look you up online before they make a decision about you.

What are they finding? Is it the image you have struggled to build? Or are they finding a broken site hosted by a company that isn’t even savvy enough to know that flash doesn’t work on an iPhone?

Super Brain is hungry. Feed it, befriend it and it might just send a few hundred thousand minions shambling your way with money falling out of their pockets. And if you need help with the menu, give Oneupweb a call, we offer a special “Super Brain” catering service.