The Internet Will Be Huge Someday

Submitted by pbowen on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 22:59.
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Apparently one of our sales guys made a comment a little while back to the effect of "The internet will be huge someday." That was the joke around the office, because we all thought that the internet was "rather huge". Last weekend I watched Clay Shirky's Web 2.0 Expo speech "Where do people find the time" and realized the internet will be huge or maybe even "huger" someday.

I don't want to give away Shirky's statistics, but watching this started my mind spinning and I had to comment. Here are just a few thoughts:

  1. There is a tremendous amount of time spent watching TV that, according to Shirky, will shift to time spent using a more interactive medium, a computer and the TV.
  2. Younger generations understand this whether old media likes it or not.
  3. This is not a passing phase, but a growing trend. We can in fact look to the future and say, "Wow, the internet will be huge one day."
  4. If people control the media rather than just absorbing it, they are in control of the advertising. If you can't present your product/service quickly and in a way that a user sees as a benefit to themselves, they will move past you. (Creating Passionate Users: Users don't care if you are the best).
  5. We (businesses) must be more transparent. Users can research and determine an independent view on us more than ever before. If true human interaction with media is truly meant to be bidirectional (we believe it is, just look at humans interact with other humans) bad news better come from you rather than from someone else. A website or blog is a great way to do this.

Parting thoughts in the words of Tom Peters: "The Web changes everything. (Everything = Everything.) Embrace it. Totally. Or Else. (There's no "sorta" solution.)" (Re-imagine!, 2003, p51)

Parting thoughts in my words: Having a web page that accurately displays who you are is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Putting a significant amount of weight and effort behind online marketing, transparency, and new media will only be a luxury for a short time. Soon it will be a necessity. Do you want to wait until then to play catch-up, or would you rather stay on the front end of the curve? Are you being reactive or proactive?



Part 1 of Shirky video



Part 2 of Shirky video