The Future of the Internet

Upon my seven year old nephew pulling out his mother’s smartphone this past Thanksgiving, I heard the remark from my brother, “When I was a kid, we had one computer in the whole school and everyone had to take turns on it.”

Some are too young to remember the computer at school with the built-in mouse on the keyboard or manually loading your video games onto the very exciting and stylish Commodore 64, but in actuality this happened not too long ago. Especially when taking into account the internet’s relatively short lifespan of forty years. The advancements that have since been occurring have met and exceeded even the wildest of imaginations from the early days. So what is in store for the future?

The Cloud 

You probably use the cloud in some form or another daily. Take for example uploading pictures to facebook so that they can be accessed from home, when on vacation or from your phone. Here is a video that explains the basics:

What does this mean for the future? Cloud computing is expected to make its biggest impact in the business sector. By bypassing the use of a server and minimizing IT services, cloud computing allows businesses to pay for the amount of information storage or software needed in a “pay-as-you-go” fashion thereby maximizing return on investment. The adoption of the cloud is gaining in popularity at a steady rate.   

Click here for more info: http://gigaom.com/cloud/the-tale-of-two-clouds-what-is-the-future-of-cloud-adoption-in-it/

Interactive Advertisements

According to Dr. Vinton G. Cerf , VP and chief internet evangelist for Google, a more interactive and consumer-friendly mode of advertising is the wave of the future. He gives the example of watching a movie on your big screen television. Imagine a scene where the actor is sitting at a table with an Apple laptop on it. Now imagining pointing and clicking on the Apple laptop using your remote control which then brings up a menu that provides information about the laptop, how much it costs, and where the nearest store is located to your proximity and even if you would like to purchase it right at that moment.

This idea applies a more consumer friendly mode of advertising. It gives consumers the ability to access the information when they need it by way of the web, instead of being bombarded with advertisements that you do not necessarily want to see. This could be applied to other means of advertising as well. Another example would be billboards that have the technology to interact with your smartphone for a more personalized experience.

If you would like to watch the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtSCCjXEqo

The Future of Social Media

Social media has grown from a way to connect with your best friends to a commercial entity which allows regular people and businesses to build relationships, attract customers, and grow their product or service. We all understand the power that social media has today and the kind of prospects it has in the future, but what exactly can we expect in terms of personal and business oriented social media?

Social media and our Personal Brand:

                Social media can help any individual build their own personal brand. They can portray an ideal image of themselves to others so as to grow their connections and value. Much like LinkedIn currently, social media in the future will allow us to connect with the people we know and build connections in our chosen profession. Employers will also be able to check our work experience, our references, and even what kind of person we are based on our social media profiles. On a more personal note, our social media applications will let us see exactly what friends think of a certain restaurant or what they recommend to order and, much like this proposed product from Google, will let us see these things on the fly with a type of augmented reality.

A way augmented reality may work in the future.

The Future of Social Media in Business:

                Today, businesses can attract customers and increase sales with social media, but as it evolves, social media will help in a number of ways. Social media will be a great avenue for businesses to gain access to its customer’s activities and ideas. For example, businesses could further define their most frequent customers and target them over less frequent visitors. This increase in awareness of customer traits will also result in more personalized products and experiences. Also, because users can “check in” when they go somewhere just like in the Google video, the business will be able to see when a person enters their store and can send the customer information about sales or even directions to a specific product through their social media application. Essentially, the future of social media in business will allow companies to personalize the customer experience and gain further knowledge of its target markets.

An interesting video on social media

The future of social media is already happening today, such as the “check in” feature on Facebook, and these services will continue to evolve and change as time goes on. Eventually everything will be integrated and will let businesses and consumers expand their reach and gain access to other people’s opinions and thoughts on specific places or products. How do you think social media will change in the future?

Thanks for reading

Dusan Andic.

By the way, here’s an interesting article which interviews various people about their ideas of what the future of social media is: http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-social-media-2011-11?op=1

Article Sources:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/may/9/charlene-li-future-social-media/

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/may/23/liz-strauss-future-social-media/

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9b331e0-9f7e-11e1-a255-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28jklnLuE

Business Models

Before we start talking about business models, it is important to know what a business model is. According to our text book, “a business model is how a company makes money or a non-profit organization achieves its revenue objectives, how an entity sustains itself”. The most common way for a website to generate revenue is to sell goods or services. Non-profit organizations can raise revenue through donations.

Making money on the internet seems easy, but it is not. Even successful companies have a hard time expanding to the internet, especially when trying to engage with social media. As a business owner who operates solely on the internet, I can assure that it is a competitive, aggressive and hard-to-understand market. But, once tamed, it can also be very profitable and fun – especially when you, just like me, play videogames for a living.

The basic web business models described on our text book have both B2C and B2B applications, a few have non-profit applications, and are the following:

1)Brokerage Model: brings buyers and sellers together.

2)Advertising Model: displays advertisements during navigation.

3)Infomediary Model: resells useful information.

4)Merchant Model: provides good and services.

5)Manufacturer Model: takes place when a manufacturer reaches buyers directly

6)Affiliate Model: offers incentives to partner sites.

7)Community Model: connects individuals and groups.

8)Subscription Model: delivers services and content for a fee.

9)Utility Model: delivers services and content on a paid base.

Machinima Logo

As I mentioned earlier, I play videogames for a living. How do I do that? Well, I work under a modified Brokerage Model. I own two Youtube channels – http://www.youtube.com/BRKsEDU and http://www.youtube.com/PequenoSapeca – and both are partnered with a Youtube Network called Machinima. What Machinima does is place advertisements of companies willing to promote through Youtube on my Youtube channel. Basically, I sell advertisement space, which is bought by the advertiser through Machinima (the broker).

I can also, on my own, sell ad placements on my Youtube channel (on my channel’s background or on videos), which is shown below, and promote products, brands and services on Twitter and Facebook, which I use to better engage with my audience but which also work as a form of promotion for me and / or for other companies businesswise.

BRKsEDU Youtube Channel - 288,240 subscribers - 32,338,072 total views

If you have any question related about Business Models, Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, feel free to ask them in the comments section or to contact me via Twitter or Facebook.

Clickable Ads

Online Ads include all of the methods by which businesses try to get Web surfers attention and sell their products and services. No matter popping up ads, banners, sidebar links, social networks, emails or affiliate networks, they are all strategies used by marketing people to attract new consumers and gain leads for company. However, advertisement on the Internet has been around for near fifteen years and many users are looking at the ads they skim on the Web in a different way. Online web promotion strategy is becoming more and more of a science as everyday surfer of the Internet are turning increasingly irritated by the many ways that web advertisement can often surreptitiously take over a "www" that one is trying to use. The challenge today is considering and finding other ways of getting people's attention.

The methods for Internet promotion hasn't really changed quite in the past ten years. Popping up ads are still a big weapon among tons of advertisers, which already drive net surfers crazy. Related researchers are fast to point out that "pop-ups" are the highest rated form of despised advertisement. Ads that attempt and bait potential consumers into clicking on it rated just as low and ads that suddenly pop up and hide what you are really wanting to find are also widely disdained. When Internet advertisement doesn't have close buttons, and when it floats across your screen, or plays surprisingly without your permission, those ads are really nothing but annoying to people according to research. Therefore before a potential consumer ever relies on those pass kinds of online web advertisement ploys, more energy and money should be spent on highly proven methods of promotion. 

In my eyes, nowadays online web ad is moving forward of being a partner with the idea of helping people find answers, not just making a sale. This is maybe a tough concept for hardcore salesman to accept, but in the process of helping consumers find answers to their questions, more business goals can ultimately be achieved. For example, the blog is a great chance of writing personally, without a bunch of hype and it allows the writer to become a sort of expert or "turn to" person when potential clients or customers have questions ( just like us ). It also can have sidebar invitations to visit company website and an invitation at the end of the blog, and it should be used for informational functions, not related to product presentation. The idea is to get potential consumer to come back again and pass blog on to others for their enlightenment as well.

Branding on the Web

We as marketers know, (if you don’t, you should) that branding is a critical component in achieving success. We’re using the traditional approach of listening and providing the customer with a solution for his needs, but are constantly evolving and focusing a lot more on branding.

Branding is much more than just adding a recognizable logo, having a catchy slogan or standing out from the competition. Nowadays, this phenomenon is about creating a long-lasting relationship with someone who knows little or nothing about you, and transforming them into a loyal customer who trusts and loves your company.
 

The strength of a brand -also known as brand equity - will affect this. And because the internet is such an important part of our everyday lives, branding on the web is much more important. Our mission has become a lot easier due to the fact that the internet allows customers to have an increased level of brand awareness and makes them quicker to act than traditional mass-media. This doesn’t mean that the same marketing principles don’t apply anymore. On the contrary; a customer passes through the same stages – awareness, familiarity, trust, commitment- but a lot faster because of the internets advantage of being highly interactive, engaging and able to personalize communication. 

Creating an online brand

The resources and efforts required for a good branding campaign are quite high. That’s why there are guidelines that should be followed for a better end-result. The most important ones are:

• Emphasize the quality and mission of the company.  You will want to implement an image or reputation that stands out and is respected.

• Research your customer and engage him through the use of signage, advertising and online personality.

• Find the right balance between advertising-marketing and customer relationships.

•  Continuously manage and control available information about your products or company.

It is becoming clear that people are making choices and develop attitudes towards certain brands based on the material they find online. This issue can be handled in several ways. The first would be to create and spread your own relevant content, or by letting the users come up with the information - reviews, discussions or blog posts - and handle that content accordingly with the use of marketing tools such as search engine optimization.

As a conclusion, it is fair to say that branding is a highly complex process if it’s done right, but it is vital for any type of business because the targeted consumers are always changing and develop new needs that need to be addressed.  

Do you Database? Do it Right!

Do you Database?  Do it Right!

 

 

 

 

Database marketing is precision. Plain and simple.

 
 

“The foundations of virtually all the capabilities that differentiate  direct response marketing from mass media marketing reside in the marketing database.”

 – Page 101 Internet Marketing – Integrating Offline and Online strategies

 

 

 

 

Effective use of your customer database allows for more precise market segmentation, and accurate prediction of customer and prospect behavior.

 

“I have a very comprehensive database with more demographic and lifestyle data on my customers than I will ever need!”

Here's the thing, as marketers, we need to take a holistic approach to our decision making process. The information we use to make decisions must follow suit. Thus, the database we need is not JUST demographic and lifestyle data about our customers.

 

We need EVERYTHING.

This database MUST combine several individual databases into one, functional data warehouse that depicts a total landscape of your business. If not, you are missing a large part of the picture:

Take, for example, Mohawk College.

Mohawk College is a large organization with many departments that use separate databases and, in some cases, even utilize different software packages.

 

Just to name a few...

 

College Staff:

Administration, Support Staff and Faculty

Students:
Current Students, Co-op Students, Gradute Students, Mohawk Students Association, Banner, Co-op/Job Centre, Program Specific, Disability Services, Continuing Education, Locker systems.

Alumni:

Alumni Association database, Graduate Employment Rates

Marketing and Recruitment Prospects:

High Schools, Guidance Counselors,   Community Centres, Continuing education Prospects, Full Time,   Post Graduate Prospects

Other Business Areas:
Program enrollment trends, Residence information and Trends, Meal sales (meal plans etc), Book Sales

External Data Sources

Census data per geographic region
Highschool graduate data

....and this is not even close to the whole picture. This is not a complete listing by any means, but all of these data are useful to each other with regard to effective decision making…and the relentless attention to the needs of your target market.

Think about all of the information contained in these databases. Think of how cumbersome the decision making process would be if we couldn’t make them work together.

How would Mohawk make decisions regarding additional residence space without comparing geographical demographics? How would Mohawk make program and course ordering decisions without cross referencing enrollment? 

Obviously, making all these databases talk to one another is a technical challenge. And as marketers, we are not generally responsible for creating the database, but it is our job to decide what information is valuable for the decision making process, and drive its creation, based on that information.

 

How do you think Mohawk is doing? Do you think we can do better?