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We all reach a point in our lives when we have to sit ourselves down, look into a mirror, and make potentially life-changing decisions. Oprah recently announced a heart-wrenching decision she made. She will no longer be doing her show. It was a dramatic, tear jerking, emotional moment for her as well as her fans. She clearly had the realization that the show must come to an end, the curtain must come down.

As sad as it may be to think of TV without Oprah, the saying that “The show must go on,” is actually more appropriate. Even without Oprah, we will still have afternoon talk shows, caring television personalities, and well delivered, hand crafted content on TV. Right now, regardless if you’ve had the “Come to Jesus” moment like Oprah’s announcement or not, you are making life-altering decisions for yourself and your business.

We all have to face the reality that traditional marketing methods aren’t working like they used to.  We are exposed to thousands of advertisements each day, and the fact is, we now tune them out. We’re in an age of creating relationships with our consumers, engaging them through social media, being a resource through our blogs, and making ourselves accessible through our website. The decisions you are making right now will determine the success, or lack thereof, of your business over the next five years. These decisions are to embrace social media, embrace search engine optimization, embrace this new era, and to succeed; or to stay tied to age old beliefs and be left behind.

I was reading an article that said at one time, the Yellow Pages had over 80% of all small businesses listed inside of it. That’s impressive. At the time, it was an effective way of reaching consumers. What could be more important than being inside the book that people would go to when they wanted to find you? Well guess what… looking at the job openings with Yellow Pages right now should tell you something. Nearly every opening is related to search engine optimization, social media, or technical development of the YellowPages.com website.

To take it one step further, try clicking on “Advertise with Us” on YellowPages.com. Do you see anything about a physical book or just information about online advertising? We both know the answer.

I don’t believe you need more convincing as to why you need to be participating in search engine optimization, social media, or other internet marketing tactics. I’m willing to bet that if you haven’t had that heart-wrenching moment yet, when you thought, “If I don’t do this, my customers are going to go to someone who is,” you soon will have it.

You don’t need more things to convince you to join the conversation; you just need more action steps as to what you need to be doing. Jeff Crilley, Jeff Brady, and myself, understand that. We heard you when you said you needed to be in the news, but didn’t know how to get there or what to say and when to say it. We had the late night conversations about helping you create YouTube videos, and how you don't need a production studio to make it happen. And I know that you need your website to be number one in Google, in addition to having an engaging social media campaign, and that you probably don’t have the time to run it.

We know, so we created an event to solve all of the above problems in one incredibly full day. It’s going to be on December 12th at the Aloft Dallas Downtown Hotel. The only action you need to take is to make sure you don’t miss out; sign up now. Make the decision to stay educated, stay informed, and walk away from our event knowing every decision you need to make; every action you need to take to steer your business in the successful direction.

Mike Newhouse is an internet marketing speaker, trainer, and consultant in Dallas, TX.  As President of the Web 2.0 Group, he serves his clients through web design, social media management, and search engine optimization.