On the Web, media is virtually limitless. The barriers to entry are very small, and the amount of content available is unfathomable. We have become hyper-consumers: we are constantly bombarded with content to consume, and routinely consume multiple forms of media simultaneously. Some see this great mass of content and are intimidated. “How can we complete with all of this?” they reason. Today I’d like to take a more optimistic view of this situation, and see it for the opportunity it really is.

If you told a salesman fifty years ago that he would have the opportunity to pitch his product to every person in the world, he would be thrilled. Yet so many businesses today pass on this same opportunity. Perhaps they’re afraid they will do something wrong, or afraid that they will lose control of their business’ image. Perhaps they simply don’t know the opportunity exists.

There’s no good reason not to take advantage of the free and powerful opportunities to market yourself online. Get involved on Twitter and Facebook. Share content on YouTube, Flickr, and Digg. Engage your customers, and find new ones. The possibilities are endless.

More than anything, I think this is really the goal of this blog – to help people share their stories better and more freely online. Now’s not the time to get stage-fright.

Seems fairly reasonable, but this post set off a big debate in all the places SEO people hang out. It prompted responses like this one from Jill Whalen, who claimed Rand’s post “could potentially set SEO back at least a decade.” Others claimed that a balance between engines and users needs to be struck, and in fact, Rand added an update to his post that stated this was his point all along.

At the end of the day, Rand’s post and all the responses to it served as good linkbait, and I think everyone was being a bit over-dramatic to make for good reading. But what’s a frazzled small business owner or website maintainer to do? Here’s my two cents: SEO is one way to drive traffic to your site. Social media, branding, and online word of mouth is another. Do both, and you’ll have the best chance at the most traffic. Franky, there’s enough competition out there that you need to excel at both to be successful.