So much pressure has been put onto the shoulders of the Internet lately. One has to keep in mind that this is a fairly new "industry". It was never created for the sole purpose of making money - let alone, masses of money. It is far from being the "get rich quick" vehicle that some would make it out to be.
Nobody ever put this type of pressure on commercial television in the last 50 years. The format has barely changed since its inception. The shows are basically the same in content and that includes everything from children, cooking, news, and the ever popular sit-com format. Television hasn't really been interactive either when you look at its long history. There are some interactive attempts made in the last 15 years with Phillips, WebTV and features on Dish Network.
Web 2.0 is the greatest thing ever invented on the web. It propelled people to view the Internet in a whole new way. It enabled people to partake in the experience. It also opened the doors to a lot of great innovation for entrepreneurs. Now you can rope in your very own herd of like minded individuals and market to them directly. This is a very powerful communication tool. It is no wonder that the ticket price for Facebook continues to skyrocket. Everybody wants that list that's been building for the past two years. There is a lot of monetary value in it.
Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, is only 23 years old.
How many spinoffs have there been in the recent months? There have been tons of knockoffs, spinoffs and literally ripoffs of this type of technology. They exist for just about every category you can think of. One critical review can state that there may be too many of them to keep track of. And really there are only so many that the public can truly remember. There is a Web 2.0 service right now that is strictly for doctors, dentists and other areas of medical practice. Currently they only have 2% of the New York medical community listed.
But thinking that the Web 2.0 Bubble is going to burst this year is just too premature. If anything the web is going to evolve into something more than what it already is.
MARKETING AND THE BRAIN
Part of Web 2.0's overall marketing appeal is that it is user driven content that leads the way. There is a lot of garbage on a lot of these sites. I do not fault the contributors as much as I fault the people who control the Web 2.0 sites themselves. There are a lot of categories on the video search engines that proudly promote flatulence, belching, gross out competitions etc. There are some sites that promote rudimentary film making and others that do not accept any types of commercials whatsoever. I feel this is a huge mistake.
Consider for a moment that 1/3 of the brain is dedicated to audio and video stimuli. That means that this portion of the brain is dedicated to receiving memorable amounts of visual learning material. This can be both audio, (on the web we call this podcasting) and video, (web video). You would have to be nuts to turn your back on this scientific fact and hit them with nothing but print but sadly, so many of us do just that. You are missing out on huge amounts of rapport building through using web video and web audio tools.
THE ADVERTISING PERSPECTIVE
It is no big secret that advertisers seek to get in front of the customer no less than 13 times. It doesn't matter that the first few times are ineffective because eventually the brand will stick. This can be said for any number of the big brands that are out there. Once the brand is successful more money must be dumped into it to keep that profit funnel going. This is a very important factor that a lot of small marketers seem to miss.
Detroit Michigan has two baseball stadiums. One is for the new Tigers Stadium, (Comerica Park) and the former Tiger Stadium still stands today near Corktown. The interesting thing about the old stadium is the billboards that surround the front entrance. They are still being used by Budweiser, the King of Beers, and there are only two bars on this street that proudly serve it. This is no longer a high traffic area as it was in its heyday. Still Anhauser Busch thinks it is still important to occupy that real estate for passing traffic and they are right because it still sends a very strong message.
On one hand its overkill but on the other hand it firmly establishes a presence over the entire city of Detroit. For anyone who has seen it this cements the two experiences together in a historical perspective. Great beer - great sports - great town - hence, an long held tradition.
To think that you can do this type of branding without paying $4000 a month on billboards is quite exhilarating. You can also get in front of more people doing it this way than ever before. The effect you can put on your niche market is pretty much limitless. But this type of communication only works if you know how to talk to the web. You can pump out thousands of pages but if they are not formatted properly you are wasting your time on all accounts.
THE REASON FOR WEB 2.0 SUCCESS
You must start to think of yourself as a marketing person first and foremost. What you do for a profession should always come second. You're main goal is to get in front of the right people and sell your services. You're job as a professional should be to put this type of thinking into systems online that funnel in the right type of prospects.
Web 2.0 lets users submit content to their sites. These can come in the form of articles, web video commercials and audio messages. This is done for a fraction of the cost of advertising and broadcasting. And the best thing of all is that you control the material. You no longer have to get involved with any lengthy contracts or legal stipulations. This is content that you can control from the beginning to the end. In short, you control the end users experience.
If this bubble does burst it is going to give way to something more brilliant. This includes more marketing on hand held devices, (Iphones, Blackjacks, Cell Phones etc.) and this will give you more chance to get in front of more people than ever before.
Web 2.0 sites are free to get involved with. All you need is a camcorder, a tripod and shotgun mic and a firewire cable and some editing software. These sites are also free to upload your content to and there are no monthly fees.
Come on, what are you waiting for?
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