What is Internet Marketing?

This is a general term and simply means marketing strategies that utilise various media on the Internet in order to promote your business and find new customers.  The Internet is simply a medium upon which the World Wide Web enables public access to published material and applications.  Internet marketing is so appealing simply because the Internet is so appealing to so many people.  Unlike traditional marketing that is deployed across markets such as countries, regions (for example Europe, Asia Pacific and North America) and demographics (commonalities or similarities shared by a group; age, taste in music, hobbies, location or income bracket), the Internet is a the most widely-used, most accessible medium for communications on Planet Earth!

Internet users are diverse; accessibility is not differentiated by anything – not age, not culture, race, profession, marital status, orientation, taste, likes and dislikes or location, it is an enabling force and is easily accessible to the masses.  In turn, the influence of the Internet in our daily lives has changed the way we do things forever; it has changed the way in which we work, learn, communicate, connect and share.  Society has become more open as a result of social media such as Facebook, breaking news is reported as it happens through Twitter and advice is sort and given via information exchange platforms all over the net.

In short, the Internet is the singularly most disruptive technology of our era…

So, What Has This Got To Do With Web 2.0?

The origins of the modern Internet are well documented and, for most their online experience all started with the static web pages of the first generation of the World Wide Web (WWW); but knowledge of just what comprises Web 2.0 is lesser known amongst most groups other than the ‘technology natives’ born during the last 2 decades.  Web 2.0 is the second generation of communication technology development, it is a collective term used to describe a more advanced layer of communication technologies that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, user-generated shareable content and social networking.

Web 2.0 applications first appeared in 2004 and were rapidly adopted by the masses.  Web 2.0 applications include social media and networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, where users generate the content and share it with others.  A whole generation of bloggers were born and now you can follow the lives of celebrities, business leaders, individuals and things of interest in every corner of the globe.  You can even have any new posting relating to any key word or subject of your choice delivered direct to your designated collection point (inbox, blog, website etc) courtesy of RSS feeds or manage your social networking from a single integrated dashboard.

But when you have a profile and you publish things in to the public domain, Web 2.0 instinctively enables high visibility and this can be both a blessing and a curse.  But with a simply and smartly managed approach, Internet Marketers can build a strong brand that offers immense value to their intended target audience in no time.  By the way, I slipped the term ‘intended’ target audience in there because what can happen is that new markets can reveal themselves when you go online and this is just one of the trends that careful tracking of your multiple sales and promotional channels through web analytics can reveal.  More on that later…

Professional internet marketers can profit massively by giving the millions of people who search for information every single second of every day, exactly what they want, packaged and delivered directly to them, when they want it (and this is usually immediately)…without the expense of traditional distribution hierarchy.  The reduction in cost and elimination of additional layers delivers multiple benefits to the customer and enables a much richer relationship with the customer.

Where To Next…

Web 3.0 of course!

The third generation of WWW development and new Web 3.0 applications are layering in right now.  Web 3.0 promises greater depth and richness of personalised interactive experience, greater interoperability which enhances pervasive, contextual services and rich cloud offerings and greater integration between different technology interfaces such as mobile, smart phones and the personal computer.  The latest smart phone platforms such as Android and Apple’s iPhone integrate users seemlessly with the mobile web; graphic user interfaces sacrifice nothing in the way of full colour, streaming, live Web 2.0 applications.  You can use your smart phone to access your social networking sites online, hold a VoIP call through a free P2P application such as Skype, or an integrated communications platform such as Google’s Gmail/GoogleTalk.  You can use it for ecommerce, email, managing bills and personal finance, remote control of your home security or business premises,  be reminded of when to buy more milk when you’re driving by the supermarket, be notified when your white goods need servicing and insurance renewed…plus a whole  host of everything in-between – things you could only do in person from your computer, telephone or fax at one time.

Web 3.0 is also known as the semantic web and is best described as a collection of artificial intelligence technologies that will serve the user in the way the user wishes to be served – they can have it all and they can have it all their way. And with several major new technologies maturing during this era, true convergence might just become a reality.

It is an exciting time to be involved in the Internet, it is an exciting time to own a business that utilises the web for marketing. And, with the rate of discovery, release and convergence of yet more sophisticated technologies; one message has the potential to be seen by the whole world in an instant.  For the consumer, that is powerful stuff when put in the hands of skilled, experienced marketing technology professionals.

You now have access a singular world market of billions with your fingertips,  there has never been a better time to get involved, the potential is truly mind blowing!

Best wishes

sabeen shah