What the Future Will Bring
So what can I say. This has been an amazing year. The Internet is evolving faster than the speed of light and static webspace has given to the rise of the real time web. Twitter and Facebook have become powerful networking platforms and Myspace is sinking faster than the Titanic. The evolution of the internet as an information sharing platform will mean that people from all over the world will be able to collaborate on projects in real-time using cloud computing solutions like Google Wave. Now is a good time to think about what our web presence means and how we are going to use it to shape our lives and future.
In this article I will illustrate four key points to staying on the cutting edge in 2010.
- Developing Web Presence
- Starting Your Own Website
- Cultivating Relationships
- Providing Content
Developing Web Presence
Social Media is great for developing web presence. Sites like facebook allow you to customize a personal profile and you can even create a fan page for your business or persona. These sites are great for keeping up with old friends and networking within or outside the confines of your inner circle or network. There are many social networking sites out there but only a few of them are necessary to manage an online presence. Pick three or four that you can regularly manage and update. This way you won’t become overwhelmed with information overload.
I use a really cool program called Tweetdeck which actually fuses all 4 major social networking sites into 1 interface (facebook, twitter, linkedin, and myspace). I’ll warn you though, it will slow older computers to a crawl.
Start Your Own Website
These 3 or 4 major social networking sites should serve as the pistons of an engine for you to promote your own website or blog. Starting a website is now easier than ever and everyone should be scrambling to register their own name or company as a URL. Sites like GoDaddy.com can be used to search the web for addresses that are available and you can register any name you want like www.(yourownname).com I used a free web publishing platform called WORDPRESS which can have a website up in a matter of minutes and is infinitely customizable with great themes and plugins.
Even if you don’t ever plan on going into business for yourself it will give you a professional presence beyond a simple networking profile. It’s like telling the world that you take yourself really seriously and that you are either an expert or a developing expert in your field. I’ve already read many forward thinking articles that the most desirable and employable people in the future will exhibit some sort of web development talent. Don’t get left out of the loop in 2010, take the time to develop web publishing skills now.
Cultivating Relationships
Social Media is only a powerful networking and marketing tool if used correctly. I’ve seen a lot of spammers creating fake profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace so they can continuously blast whatever product they are marketing across the internet. This is insanely annoying and is built around “interruption-based” marketing which is not a good way to sell anything let alone a message. Engage in genuine conversation with other people and if your work or product comes up then mention it. As we move towards an era of unprecedented informational transparency the authenticity of a person is more important than ever. People in small towns buy from people they know and trust and the internet is now making a large world behave more like a small town where a person’s visibility makes their character known to everyone.
Providing Content
The printing press is quickly becoming obsolete. In the future the advertising dollars will go to the most elite of content providers on the web. Even if you have no intention of monetizing your content just being seen as someone with invaluable information will be a good ticket to rising in the ranks. Provide interesting links to other blogs and news articles to create conversation or inform. Try to engage anyone that shows interest in what you have to say. No longer are the large media companies the gate keepers to the information we consume daily, every person with an internet connection can become their own engine of content creation.
