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Online advertising has hit a 'huge milestone' with the news that it has overtaken television advertising for the first time. Many questions will be asked and many answers will be analysed as to just why campaigns are moving online but to me the answer is simple. The access to market intelligence and media monitoring is, without doubt, emphatically stronger.Companies can track specifically just how successful a campaign has been, can track the progress in key, targeted areas and can monitor just where their consumer is coming from. Whilst television can offer big exposure to a stereotyped audience, the Internet can offer precise answers and enlightening results, allowing future marketing strategies to be even more focused.And it's not only access to information that's important, it's the access a consumer gets to the product that also makes online advertising so appealing. A television advert might leave a phone number, maybe even a website but that is still another stage for a consumer, another action they must actively seek out. Online you're always a click away from a product, a very powerful tool for those looking to sell.So this gap will continue to increase, and as developments improve the online advertising model, the power will well and truly shift to websites who can prove notable traffic, and willing consumers.
A very interesting article by Soren Gordhamer on Mashable yesterday looked at the ways Social Media is changing the business model. The main conclusions stated that businesses have gone: 1. From "Trying to Sell" to "Making Connections" 2. From "Large Campaigns" to "Small Acts" 3. From "Controlling Our Image" to "Being Ourselves" 4. From "Hard to Reach" to "Available Everywhere"Whilst I agree with points 2,3 and 4, the constant harassment of companies telling me I can 'vastly increase my traffic' and 'save hundreds on back linking techniques' suggests to me that selling is well and truly alive even if the salesman is selling connections. That said, it has certainly given businesses another strategy and another view point. One point I feel is missed from the list however is that of internal communications. Social media has provided a platform for departments to share and liaise without the hassle of email. Here at Artesian the software we use, allowing consumers to create forums relating to online articles, makes for better sales intelligence and vastly improved corporate research results. Personally, I've found this process to not only be a real time saver, but also a way of keeping everyone on the same page when keeping up to date with relevant news and insight.
Today's announcement that Mobile phone giant Orange has reached an agreement to sell I Phones to their customers means a near national sweep for Apple in the UK market. Providing Orange get the go ahead to merge with T mobile, I Phones will be readily available to three quarters of all potential UK consumers. This obviously has a knock on affect to online use. With mobile Internet now the norm as opposed to the novelty, I Phone apps will increase personalisation and user expectations. The access of data will be readily available no matter where you are, which, for a traveling sales executive or a hastily arranged meeting could be exceptionally useful. But as anyone who's tried to search the Internet properly on the I Phone will know, the user friendliness is still sloppy and sometimes time consuming. This is where semantic 'no search' technology could really come into it's own. Data arriving at your fingertips, no matter where you are, suddenly becomes a very interesting proposition.
If you went onto the NHS website would you expect to see articles from medical students posting confidential details about patients? If the answer was no (which it should have been) then tell me why people feel like they can write absolutely anything on sites like Facebook and Twitter? They're still in the public domain, they're still globally available documents and yet users appear to get this sense of personal privacy from them, like it's an untouchable area.Recently criticised medical students tweeting away private medical records aren't the only ones who have fallen into this trap. High profile politicians and sports stars have also found themselves in trouble over their inability to curve what is said on their Twitter feed. Where does this sense of security come from? It's like gossiping down the pub but having someone taking minutes of what was said.Still, it's incredibly useful for those wishing to track business activity, it's like being able to peer through a blacked out window, so long may it continue I say. Keep on gossiping, you crazy, crazy people!
Latest figures showing Bing's increase in market share from 8.9% to 9.3% may seem rather small and quite frankly they are. Having spent 100 million on advertising (why does that figure not seem too much anymore? All those government debt stories I suppose) they are likely to be disapointed with such little progress. But it's not the short term that should be of concern to Bing. Of course, it's going to take more than an advertising campaign to topple Google, you can't displace the King without building a pretty strong army first. Bing should take heart that their dedication to innovation should stand them in pretty good stead.Because let's be honest here, whilst Google continue to dominate, they must be a little bit concerned with the number of fluffy projects which have led to very little. Bing can at least show some progress for their hard graft, and continuing to exploit semantic angles can only stand them in good stead. Google may well be winning the battle, but the war is far from over.
Yahoo's new web portal has cottoned onto the fact that users are now more and more looking for a personal experience on the web. The integration of third party web services like Facebook and Ebay on the homepage is basically saying 'start your day here and work from there.' It's a fairly interesting concept, trying to create an online map for daily users but at the same time why use the middle man? People want personal, not unnecessary. Why check your Facebook on Yahoo when you can check your Facebook on Facebook?It's the equivalent of placing a door in front of another door. Personalisation is certainly something that will become increasingly important with semantic web, but I can't help but feel Yahoo have merely scratched the service, and probably won't even leave a mark.
In a time where businesses purchasing Facebook friends is not seen as even the slightest bit unusual, you can't really argue against the fact that social networking is playing a more substantial role in modern markets. But one site has decided that social media deserves even more power. The Whuffie bank have turned online networking reputation into currency, with the ultimate ambition being deals based upon the new virtual dollar. Reputation is built upon connections on Twitter and Facebook amongst others, and the users salary goes up based upon interactions with these sites. A 'Whuffie' is "issued based on a reputation algorithm that blends information from different social networks. As we develop and refine the algorithm that tracks public user activity over the net, the Whuffie will become an accurate reflection of your web reputation." If the idea takes off, it will add yet another string to the bow of the web's already increasing business importance. I intend to sign up and be a Whuffie millionaire in time for Christmas.
