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Costa Rica, what will it take to get us online?
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March 7th, 2010adminCosta Rica Online Marketing News, Online Marketing News, SEO News, Social Media

Ok, I need to disclose a personal part of me so the rest of this blog will make sense. My name is Cynthia and I am an online marketer; I’ve been in this space since 1996. I have lived through the pimentoloaf.com internet bubble, the obvious bubble burst, and the ups and downs that followed. I’m not an expert by any means but my professional career has grown around the internet.

When I moved to Costa Rica six years ago, I entered the internet stone age. I was used to paying all my bills online, doing my Christmas shopping online and even doing my job online. All of a sudden I was surrounded by paper bills, physically going and standing in lines to do my banking and pay my bills. High speed internet was not available outside of San Jose so ISDN was my best bet. Costa Rica has come a long way since then.

In the time I have lived here, doing business on the internet has evolved leaps and bounds. The banking system was the first to take the gigantic step towards gaining the confidence of the Costa Rican community, online marketplaces, blogs and now social media have followed. Businesses large and small realize that an internet presence is crucial so they are thousands of web pages are floating out there without a purpose. (Many haven’t discovered the magic of SEO yet)

My online initiatives have always been US driven buy in the last year I’ve been turning my attention to Costa Rica. I have had the good fortune to meet many large business owners that are on board with the online initiative but not quite sure how to get it started. Their marketing firms are still green when it comes to online marketing so whatever they have done so far hasn’t produced large returns or no measurement has been achieved. Traditional media is adopting the call to action message to be .com related but those are few and far between.

With that being said, you can imagine my surprise to be going thru my google reader this am and coming across this article in Adage: Costa Rica’s Pilgrimage Goes Viral. The article spoke about Jotabequ’s online initiative to get people to do the pilgrimage to Cartago online. The idea was great, the site was interactive but why the heck did I not know about this site until 7 months after? I live in Costa Rica, I read the local papers; I am online everyday and nothing, nada until today. (By the way, congrats to Jotabequ for winning a local award for this initiative)

So this brings me to the conclusion that Costa Rica is missing the online buzz. The ideas are there but online road maps are not being laid out. Costa Rica is still stuck on traditional forms of media and ignoring the importance on advertising online, viral marketing and SEO. As veterans in this space, it is our responsibility to get this great country online and create a strong online Tico community. Educate businesses on the online potential that is slipping away day by day.

What have your experiences been doing business online in Costa Rica? What are you doing to instill confidence in within the Tico online community?

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Tags: costa rica marketing, costa rica online community, costa rica social media, online advertising in costa rica, seo, viral marketing

20 responses to “Costa Rica, what will it take to get us online?”

PaidOnlineSurveys March 7th, 2010 at 20:37

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post
Sandi Stahmer March 8th, 2010 at 01:54

How often do you write your blogs? I enjoy them a lot 1 5 1
PaidOnlineSurveys March 8th, 2010 at 18:21

GR8 Blog, You must have spent a lot of time researching this, TY.
Vimal Gandhi March 9th, 2010 at 13:51

hey!

Nice blog! Good to see you speak your mind here too..

Cheers

Vimal
Ivan March 10th, 2010 at 02:19

Hola,
ЎGracias por el artнculo. Cada vez que quieres leer.

[url=http://www.hope4live.com/]Ivan[/url]
PaidOnlineSurveys March 10th, 2010 at 09:25

I wrote a couple articles about the same subject but you seem to know a bit more about it than I do.
free backlinks March 10th, 2010 at 22:12

I really like your writing style, its not generic and extremly long and tedious like a lot of blog posts I read, you get to the point and I really enjoy reading your articles! Oh, and merry Christmas!
Manfred March 13th, 2010 at 05:32

Cynthia you are 100% right about Costa Rica, but I think even in the US the Tsunami of social networking is going to break paradigms!!!!

The Tsunami of social networking is going to reshape news, advertising, marketing and public relations.

I was impressed by the quote of Joe Klein, the president of CNN US, who said:

“The competition I’m really afraid of are social networking sites”
Lease Purchase March 14th, 2010 at 21:26

found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later ..
konkurrencer March 23rd, 2010 at 01:48

Where abouts are you from? can’t tell from your use of english if its UK English or American English!
konkurrencer March 23rd, 2010 at 07:21

I hate rainy days! urgh I’ve been on your blog hours now I need something better to do! ( not that there anything wrong with your blog )
admin March 23rd, 2010 at 12:13

We are in the United States. So I guess that would be American English.
2012 end of world March 28th, 2010 at 07:43

Good article. thank you

If you want read more about 2012 year and about end of the world predicted at this year, you can do this here

http://2012earth.net/light_beings.html
Charles April 14th, 2010 at 22:22

Thanks for the nice info. I really enjoy reading posts on here.
Audrea Suleiman April 28th, 2010 at 01:58

We (myself, my gf, and two friends of ours) are going to be in the arenal area for 3 or 4 nights in august. I’m trying to figure out where we should stay. The reason we wanted to stay near arenal is because of all of the activities around- the zipline, white water rafting, hot springs, etc…
Paris France Vacation Packages May 3rd, 2010 at 00:16

We are a family of four two children aged 16 and 18 and really fancy Costa Rica. We would be in the country for about two weeks and would look for a mix of jungle wildlife and beach. Maybe for-five days jungle/volcano and the remainder lazing around. Any suggestions for a couple of areas. We would hire a car so dont mind a little driving around but do not want to be spending all day in a car. Any suggestions would be mopst helpful.
admin May 3rd, 2010 at 07:34

I would break up your trip into the two areas. One week at the beach.. most resorts will offer day packages to the rainforest or other national parks. The other week I would break down into two parts. One at the Volcano Arenal and then one maybe in San Jose. It has been our experience that the closer you are at the beach the higher the prices are for souvenirs and even going to eat. So I would wait until you get to San Jose to buy your stuff. Just be careful to not wear too much jewelry and always keep a good handle of our stuff.
Cheap Trips to Paris May 9th, 2010 at 01:40

I am trying to decide where to stay. We are currently debating between Los Pinos Cabanas and Hotel Finca Valverde. Based on the reviews here on tripadvisor, Los Pinos sounds good. But we will not have a car, and i am worried about where we are going to get food. We have an 7:30am tour of the forest and I don’t know where we are going to get breakfast. I am also thinking about Hotel Finca Valverde, because they have a restaurant…but I am conerned about the noise from the bar that people are compaining about. ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!
las vegas May 12th, 2010 at 02:03

We are thinking of holidaying in Tamarindo. We normally go somewhere in the Caribbean and stay in all-inclusive hotels as it works out better value. Is this the case in Tamarindo or is the food and drink (Im talking alcohol) reasonably priced ? Some examples please. Also, I understand the best time to go weather wise is Jan/Feb. Is that correct ? Cheers.
Rolando Gantnier May 13th, 2010 at 13:31

I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.