As a marketer we are constantly looking at new ways to give our clients a competitive edge. New platforms can offer early adopters real cost effectiveness. Once they become crowded with competition their impact diminishes and thus the search for the next big thing begins anew.
This article takes a quick look at the historical trends of the internet, considers where we are today and makes a prediction about where we are headed.
Considering human behaviour online in the context of internet trends can help us identify where the internet, and more specifically, online marketing is headed. The next generation of online marketers will be looking to platforms that support this new way of thinking as and when it becomes fully available.
A brief history of Internet Marketing
Products that alter our thinking or behaviour are destined for success, often becoming technological or cultural icons at the same time. Whilst human interaction with the internet is relatively short in historical terms we have seen significant shifts and technological emergence that has truly shaped how we use this powerful communications platform.
The internet has contributed towards faster, cheaper and more efficient communications. All you needed was a connection and access via a device. Browsers supported our interactions and email clients soon became common place for many users. Whilst banners had their place early on, they haven’t extended much beyond what was offered off-line (newspaper/magazine advertising) and are still plagued with low response rates.
Websites such as Ask Jeeves and Lycos suddenly opened up a new way of engaging with the internet. Important questions we had always needed the answer to could suddenly be answered online. Questions such as “Where does belly button fluff come from”? We were still heavily reliant on printed business directories to find a local plumber or electrician, often being drawn to the biggest and most colourful advert in a sea of information.
Searching became the Google
Google appeared and established itself as one of those cultural and technical icons. It’s impact is so great that we don’t search for anything, we Google it. It’s results were easy to digest, placed in an order it deems relevant, with the perception of trust given to the highest results. Humans are taught from an early age to trust authority, so it’s naturally ingrained in us to feel at ease when Google gives us results and acts as the authority on rank. Those top 3 results have since become the holy grail of search engine marketers the world over.
Google took simple searching to the next level, making it so much easier to find information. It’s ease of use has replaced the printed business directory for many users. We trust it to deliver accurate results, so we no longer need to know the answers to mundane questions such as “where does belly button fluff come from”? Google has the answer for us, if or whenever we need it.
Searching Alone to Sharing with Friends
Forums appeared and really paved the way for that early social exchange on the internet. It’s easy to think that Facebook introduced the internet to the world of online social interaction whilst forums get forgotten. They offered like minded individuals a place to connect and engage. They provided numerous ranking systems that gave users a level of trust and authority within the forums subject matter.
The Smart Era has already been here for some time.
Forums are open to abuse and ego, but they did open a new paradigm of engagement through the internet. Where search allowed us to communicate with a machine, forums allowed us to communicate with each other. Email, instant messengers and tools such as Skype have all assisted the social interaction provided by the Internet. With smartphone technology growing alongside the social use of the internet it’s no surprise this movement has grown with pace. Facebook has since cemented itself as the market leader in social. The ability to check-in to a physical place with your smartphone creates yet another paradigm shift.
One big shift is the way in which users access content
- Search, content was actively sought out
- Social, content is shared between friends and groups
This shift in content access is still dependent upon trust, reputation and authority. The difference is that in social we rate content based on how we rate the person. Real life connections will have their real life profiles supporting their online persona. How do they make us feel? Do we value their knowledge and expertise?
Establishing a positive reputation and social trust has become increasingly important, especially with connections made without a real life background. Suddenly building reputation and authority online became important.
Simply read through anyone’s Facebook postings and over time you could start to build an accurate picture of who they are, their political leanings, what emotional signals they respond to and a whole bunch of other information just by their postings alone. When we consider other reputation tools such as Blogging or Image sharing websites, it’s very easy to start building a solid profile of a specific user, especially when considering trust, reputation and authority.
The next stage of Internet Evolution
The next level of data pooling will bring everything together, buying patterns, social media profiles, location time spent and a whole host of other tools to analyse us in microscopic detail.
As the internet has grown and evolved so to has the user. Changes in human behaviour will influence changes on the internet which influences human behaviour. It’s an organic process that is very much at work in nature, the environment and those within it shape each other.
Human beings can be classified and sub-classified many times over, through sex, age, location, income, hobbies, education… the list is almost endless. Each group or association has shared traits. The more traits we can associate with a specific user, the more specific or complete a profile of them can be built.
We have moved from the internet user actively looking for information (search era), to users sharing and responding to information provided by other users (social era) to a point where the internet will start deciding what information will be presented to the user and perhaps even created specifically for the user (smart era).
Forget Web 2.0, the Smart Era is already upon us
The Smart Era has already been here for some time. Amazon’s content profiling of users, based on purchase decisions, has enabled them to recommend products that fit within the profiles already established with the user based on previous purchasing data.
Youtube suggests content based upon the videos you have accessed previously. Facebook makes recommendations based off of the criteria of pages you like and access. In those three examples the concept of trust and authority is shared between the website providing the service (Amazon, Youtube and Facebook) and the actual content being delivered. This content based trust is often as a result of user ranking, with Youtube and Amazon providing strong ranking methods.
The more traits we can associate with a specific user, the more specific or complete a profile of them can be built.
Putting aside issues of privacy and data collection in order to make predictions, smartphones with their geo-location tracking present a real game changer with its abilities to pinpoint where we are and how long we are at a location. Our routines can be traced and overlaid with other profile building data available via our blogs, image sharing websites and social media, not to mention our actual web browsing and search data.
Super algorithms probably already exist in the defence/security realms that bring this information together, however how long will it be before marketers start tapping into this wealth of personal information to bring about the next level of digital marketing targeting?
Smart era machine targeting
Where businesses have made calculated guesses about their target market, or relied on gathered data to form profiles of user groups, the smart era we will be able to request accurate depictions of our target market. Being able to explicitly outline what they respond to and what emotional/creative angle catch is required. The creative brief suddenly becomes extremely accurate and with such a detailed level of user data available, A/B split testing may even become obsolete.
The next level of data pooling will bring everything together, buying patterns, social media profiles, location time spent and a whole host of other tools to analyse us in microscopic detail. These technologies will track every part of our lives and will respond to everything we do in order to capitalise on any new opportunities that present themselves. Off-line will become as powerful as on-line in building those profiles, with smartphones adding unique insights previously not available.
Platforms offering such targeted marketing with rich data available will be the trend setters of tomorrow. They will allow marketers to spend accurately and minimise waste, resulting in better returns and profit margins for businesses.
Their offering will target users with the right creative, the right message and all at the right time to get the ultimate response. Trust and Authority suddenly changes, it moves away from search and social trust, into the realms of perceived content trust. This trust is based on our desires, hopes and dreams, everything we respond to emotionally and creatively. Tapping into areas of the conscious and sub-conscious to draw the user in and engage.
- Search allowed humans to interact with a machine
- Social allowed humans to interact with each other
- Smart allows the machine to interact with humans
It’s important to note that whilst we are on the cusp of the Smart Era, both the Social and Search Era never ended, they simply built on top of each other. No matter how integrated Facebook may be in our lives it hasn’t replaced email, and regardless of how good the content being delivered to us is, sometimes you just have to go and ask google, where does belly button fluff come from?
