Learning Internet Marketing 101

[ad_1]

Web 1.0 and 2.0 - an overview

Introduction

Internet Marketing (IM) is defined in Wikipedia as the marketing or products and services over the Internet. More importantly it is the placement of virtually any product or service for sale or for transfer using the Internet as the marketing media.

To fully understand IM we must first consider the Internet and its development over the past 10 to 15 years. We must consider where we were, where were are now and how we got there. Next we will very briefly consider the five critical steps to optimising our position in the worldwide market place and finally consider where we will be in the future.

Web 1.0 - Where we were

Web 1.0 or the first generation web is where the Internet was first developed and was very much an uneven playing field when it came to business relationships. The first generation of the web was, and in many cases still is, the only platform that large numbers of businesses felt they had to either use or continue in their brick-and-mortar structure and ride out the wave of Internet development.

Web 1.0 is very much a static platform that passively displays information and was basically read-only.

Web 1.0 did not in any way support any form of mass media like video or audio but relied heavily on printed material in the form of written sales letters to convince customers to buy products or services.

The largest majority of websites for millions of businesses around the world today are still using web 1.0 technologies.

Web 2.0 - Where we are now

Over that past few years we have seen a rapid development of the second generation of Internet platforms. Web 2.0 is more dynamic and very much interactive in its nature. The term web 2.0 was first used around 2004 when O'Reilly media held a Web 2.0 conference.

Web 2.0 has not reached anywhere its full potential yet. It supports video and audio and heavily relies on these media to facilitate communication, information sharing and collaboration on a worldwide basis. Some of the more recent developments of web 2.0 utilise the latest social media as its information-sharing platform.

How we got here

Many commentators warn conventional businesses to adopt the new web 2.0 strategies or they risk having their businesses decline or disappear altogether if the choose to ignore it.

Web 2.0 is very much a level playing field for all areas of business from the small to medium enterprises right up to the billion dollar multinational corporations. Every player in this sector now has equal opportunities to share and develop their company with these latest optimizing and monetizing strategies.

Five critical Steps

There are five critical steps to optimizing a dynamic position in relation to other businesses in the global market place.

1. Blogs - web pages used to provide commentary on events and information on a particular subject

2. Online video - video commentary on a particular subject - eg, YouTube

3. Social Networks - used for the exchange of information generally of a social nature between friends and associates. More recently has been used as a business medium for the quick and easy dissemination of information - eg, Facebook and Twitter.

4. Social Bookmarking - websites set up specifically to bulk enhance the dissemination of social media information - eg, Digg and Del-icio-us

5. Content sharing sites - these are usually content rich article and ezine websites used to share information between writers and readers.

The five critical steps above will be the topic for future discussions and articles in this series by Shane Kendrick on Learning Internet Marketing.

The future

Without wishing to appear as thought web 2.0 is about to disappear the same way web 1.0 has died a natural death, the future of the Internet is very good and in fact the next phase; Web 3.0 the Semantic web, is being developed and should be the next logical step in how we see and do business in the future.

In conclusion

As web 1.0 has outlived its usefulness as a static web platform, web 2.0, as a dynamic platform must be actively embraced by businesses that want to sustain their growth and development long term. The framework for web 2.0 is essentially in the 5 critical steps, which must be use collectively to optimise delivery of long term sustainable businesses in the global market place. Web 2.0 and the five critical steps are an integral part of IM.

[ad_2]

Source by Shane E Kendrick