Direct from TED.com’s RSS feed:
In a funny, rapid-fire 4 minutes, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale’s rise to Web stardom. The lesson of Mister Splashy Pants is a shoo-in classic for meme-makers and marketers in the Facebook age.

Internet sales continue to soar, particularly in certain market segments and more and more, the first place people go to in order to learn about your business is the internet.  If they find a well designed web site that is full of features, that works fast and draws them in, that can be a tremendous tool for promoting your business.

When you set up a marketing tool outside of the internet, your first concern is how well that new marketing effort will get noticed. So, you are most likely drawn to places where there is already an active traffic of people who would qualify as your customers. For example, that may mean putting up a billboard where it will be seen by people going to work. That target audience may be the best population to respond to your message. Or, if your business appeals to youth, advertising on Video Hits or on popular radio stations is a natural place to spend your marketing budget because the traffic is already there.

Approaching the internet is a little different. Yes, traffic is already there but we have to enter the marketing space with a different kind of strategy so we can reach the customers who are travelling certain “internet roads” and make sure those roads lead to your web site.

There is whole industry that exists to help businesses get their web sites noticed in the search engines.  It’s a good idea to use talents from others to make sure the search engines put your web site in front of the right kind of client or customer (keyword-driven). These businesses can put your web site into the flow of web surfers so you get your fair share of traffic from search engines.

That said, you don’t have to wait for an internet marketing expert to make your web site more successful.  If you have made the effort to put your web site up, you want to see it starting to pay off as soon as possible. Consider some creative ways to drive people to your web site from your traditional markets, thus educating your current customers, clients and partners about the site. Ways to do that include…

Promote the web site at your physical location. Some creative signage at your business locations can create some momentum and interest in customers to go see your exciting new web site.

Put the link on all correspondence. If you have flyers, a magazine or other current means of communications, your URL should always be listed there. Add your URL to your email signature and on business cards and all other forms of communication so your community of clients, customers and partners get used to associating that web site with you as much as they do your business name.

Create excitement. It is easy to operate a business contest from your business, especially if you have a retail outlet, that drives people to the web site for clues or to claim their prize. This kind of momentum can create huge surges of traffic through your web site with the corresponding surge of sales and leads.

The modern customer or client is used to seeing the promotion of a web site included with other forms of promotion and advertising. When your audience sees that the business has a new or fresh presence on the Internet, they will be thrilled and as likely to respond with, “It’s about time”.

You know how much you depend on the internet to keep you informed about areas of interest and about businesses you like to use. So you can see that not only putting up a good web site but letting people know that it is there and that there are big things there for them to enjoy is doing them a favour as much as it is creating new marketing opportunities for your business.

Enjoy!