We all know what Web 1.0 was about. Essentially that's when the web was born and we were able to retrieve information from various sites. Web 2.0 changed the whole dynamic of how we use the internet as end users allowing us to store data, software applications within the browser, and user interface manipulation to go along with it. However, Web 3.0 is a new concept. Not many of us really know what it's about considering it's not a mainstream idea. I'm going to share what my vision for Web 3.0 in it's application towards Marketing and Advertising. For those of you who did your homework on me, you would know I'm the new Director of Advertising and Marketing. The ideas reflected in this thread does not reflect DaniWeb in anyway. Contributions to this thread are more than welcome.
As we can see today, on most web pages, there is an advertisement (i.e. look at DaniWeb). Advertising is generally the life blood for most websites that are not point-of-sales units for parent companies. With social media becoming more and more popular, we're immersed in this rich web environment where social collaboration is on the fore-front of advertising. Online advertising is becoming less of a world of blatant advertising, but more of a world of word of mouth. Technologies that are coming out today are allowing us to access our social media networks to see what they have to say about certain products and services.
With the social media application, the web is changing faster than most of us can get our fingers on. Web 3.0 will become a social nexus for advertisers. Advertisers will find it easier to isolate the cliental that they want to market to using these networks. It's surprising how much information we provide on the web about ourselves. Advertisers can compile our data and market products and services that would seem to interest us. Every day there is new software that comes out that is able to isolate our likes and dislikes and provide content appropriate to our preferences.
Web 3.0 will make the web completely community driven. The stronger the community, the more attractive that community becomes. Imagine watching commercials of your favorite band before the YouTube video starts, or have a banner of a product that you have used before. Yes, this seems scary, but this is what the web is coming to. I see Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc... attached to just about everything. If advertisers can consistently market to your likes, it will improve revenues for their company and clients. This is the essential goal of business, the infinite growth paradox.
Imagine that advertisers can consistently advertise to your likes all the time. They just always find something you find attractive to present to you. Imagine walking through the mall and your mobile device is communicating with an ad. The advertiser communicates with your mobile device to retrieve social data and presents the best possible outcome to you as you're walking by. There is no effort on your part because you've already established your profile and network. This is really where the world of advertising is shifting to.
Imagine finding yourself in your car playing your favorite radio station. Then all of a sudden, it consistently has commercials geared to you specifically. I'm not sure exactly how they would be able to transmit this, perhaps by satellite radio or something, but that's definitely in the future. Anyway, it's just an example as the ones stated before.
Anyway, how does this benefit you, the website?
Well, if you want to drive traffic to your site, then you're reading the wrong thread. However, if you want higher click-through ratios and if you want to see more returns on the advertisements you have on your sites, you definitely want to try to engage social media. Since it's not widespread and normal for websites to do this just yet, this is a great time to jump on board if you plan on being around in a while. Using as an example DaniWeb, we have a million users who told us a little bit about themselves. They also contributed content which is a reference to what their interests are. Imagine creating an algorithm that can access advertisements specifically geared towards them. You'd be able to run more ad campaigns because your click through ratios would be so much higher and you'd attract a higher degree of interest from media buyers.
If you're going to be lazy and hang out on Google AdSense for the rest of your websites time, your competitors will pass you by because of the amount money they'll be able to put into the website in comparison to yourself.
Web 3.0 is putting the strategy pieces together for you. So please, access them. The web is a rich environment with infinite possibilities. As any business person knows, you have to stick with the trends. The trend today is Social Media. Social Media will govern everything you're exposed to on the web for a long time coming. Infinite democracy!
Anyway, with that said, please contribute. If I could develop this thought into a real publication with more in depth details, then I'll certainly post a link to it. However, if you have anything to contribute, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
