The American Webolution

by Hector Cisneros

With the fourth of July rapidly approaching I thought I'd take some time to talk about how the World Wide Web has changed the face of advertising in this country forever more.  While advertising has evolved over the last 100 years, it wasn't until the advent of the internet that the way in which consumers deal with merchants fundamentally changed. The last 20 years have freed consumers from the trappings of time and space and has allowed them to take charge of what they see, read and consume. The internet has actually empowered consumers to take control of their consuming destiny and it has ushered in the era of consumer control over false advertising and poor customer service.

In the beginning there was media!

The beginning of the 20^th century advertising was dominated by print, then radio, followed by TV, junk mail and telemarketing. The last 20 years has seen the rise of the internet as a daily use utility. Its capabilities have changed how we act, think, talk work and play. It has frustrated, overwhelmed, bombarded and forced us to learn new ways of interacting and finally, it has empowered consumers to take charge of how they are sold to.

What changed in the last 20 years?

The last 20 years follows a time that looks like this. The World Wide Web begins in 1993 soon followed by Internet Email and the first Banner Ads starting in 1994. Early models of pay per view and pay per click 

Image via CrunchBase

emerged after that, eventually evolving into Google's Adword's model in 2000. Mobile SMS also made their debut followed by POP Up ads in 2001 and blogging (with Adsense ads) in 2003. YouTube was purchased and promoted by Google in 2005; Facebook begins it trek to social media dominance that year also. Mobile Websites (with Adsense) take off in 2007 followed by Online Article (In-Text Ads) and LinkedIn (with on-page ads) in 2008. Mobile apps emerge (with ads) in 2009 followed by Twitter celebrity endorsement advertising in 2010 and Facebook Mobile and Native Advertising (ads that look like content) in 2012.

The collision of technologies elevates the value of time and choice!

During the last 20 years, the escalation of new knowledge, new technologies, instant access to news, various media content and the bombardment of internet related advertising has caused content overload. This has made the use of our time very precious. The advent of time shifting of broadcast media, our ability to preview solicitation via caller ID and email previewing along with anti-spam filtering have allowed us to make choices of how we use our time. The advent of social networking has allowed us to connect with friends, family and other like minded users in order to share our thoughts, likes and dislikes. Consumer choice and our new found ability to network and share our experiences have ushered in the story telling and sharing era that is empowering consumers. Now consumers have a powerful weapon against poor customer service, and can spread positive and negative recommendations so fast that it can turn a deceitful marketer's stomach.

What can an advertiser do to make consumers happy and please their vendors

So what is a business to do? How can they reach their target market and get their message out about their wonderful products or services? Well for one, advertisers need to start by telling the truth about their products or services. Gone are the days where an advertiser could use fluffy language, hyperbole or outright lies to sell their products. You can fool a few people today, but the truth now gets out so fast that inferior products and poor customer service are exposed quickly and the consuming public is not quick to forgive these transgressions. Second they can provide added value with their products. The internet allows vendors to provide many types of added value to their customer base. They can provide useful, interesting, and entertaining content via free eBooks, picture galleries, and additional meaningful information. They can provide inducements via discount coupons, exclusive offers, recognition and other creative value ad features that the internet can easily deliver. In other words give consumers what they want, including honesty, integrity and a good value for their money and you will not have any problem doing business online.

There is another piece to this puzzle and that is pleasing the people in charge of the internet. You know who I am talking about; Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the other big internet media players. 

English: www,domain,internet,web,net (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you want to succeed online today you need to give these players what they want. Gone are the days that black hat tricks will put you on top of the search engines in thirty days or less.  The rules for success in social media are also a moving target, so tricks will only work for a short time here also. Today a marketer needs to learn, follow and keep up with an ever changing set of marketing rules just to get found.  So what are the rules of this marketing game? What are the guidelines to success? Is there a magic formula for getting results?

The magic formula for making consumers happy!

Here are a set of rules that when followed closely lead to marketing success.

      1.      You have to provide a useful product or service.  Hype will no longer sustain sales for very long.

      2.      Provide quality products and superior service to your clients. Clients talk about you whether you like it or not! Give them something good to say. Better yet ask them to say good things about you.

      3.      If you are marketing in search (who isn't) you need to give Google what it wants. Google feels that people want quality, truthful and accurate content about your product or service. Google feels that people vote by recommending you, by connecting with your internet properties (liking, following, etc..) and people vote by sharing your message (whether it’s a blog post,  tweet, URL or coupon). Google also assume that negative votes (poor reviews and bad testimonials) should count against you. Google employs its secret and proprietary algorithm to assess your internet property’s popularity which results in your keyword ranking. Google also likes you to provide a wide variety of useful content. A good way to start is to provide lots of multimedia posts. Provide lots of quality videos, podcasts, blog posts, pictures, articles and social posts to begin with. On top of this the posts have to be seen and shared by lots of people. This means you have to develop a strong social network with a substantial number of followers. Otherwise your information will not get viewed, read, played, commented on or shared. Having good quality content is the start, getting play is the goal. Having content that is being used, commented on and shared gets you recognized and improves ranking.

      4.      The last piece to the puzzle is consistency. You have to provide content on a regular (i.e. weekly) basis. Some mediums require daily content. And you have to consistently invite people to follow you so that your social networks grow. Follow these general rules and you will be 50 percent closer to your goal. The last 50 percent requires testing, measuring and adapting to market conditions. Being found is only half the battle. Providing a compelling message that closes the deal is the second part that must be discovered through diligent testing and measuring.

While it is uncertain what the next twenty years will bring one thing is certain.  Never in the history of advertising have consumers help so much sway over the merchants from which they buy.  The very concept of  dominance via online public opinion isn't only unprecedented, it is webolutionary.  Have a happy and safe fourth of July.

Hector Cisneros is COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and YouTube. W Squared Media Group is based in Jacksonville, FL. He is also co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of two books, including 60 Seconds to success and Century which you can get free by clicking on the link.