Talk about it being difficult to get your Web site found these days? You ain’t seen nothing yet. I just returned from the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco and one thing is abundantly clear to anyone who was paying attention.
User generated video and interactive handheld devices are drastically changing Internet Marketing!
In the process, it may make irrelevant, all the internet marketing we’ve been doing for the past ten years in as little as five years. Indeed the Internet Marketing book I co-wrote almost five years ago is already at it’s half life of decay.
Mary Meeker stated that the Iphone will be the number one handheld device in 5 years (it’s really more of a magical multimedia device than a phone really!). Paul Otellini demonstrated a device that can translate and call up location specific information and video from the Web instantaneously. Al Gore talked about user-centric Current Media. And Qik, bowed at Web 2.0 Launchpad. The video below is shot with the press of a button using Qik for Iphone (not yet available). The video automatically streams to the Internet and is visible by anyone who cares to watch it!
There are 10 Million iPhones in distribution, and free tools like this one are becoming available, providing free on demand storage and transmission of video content at anyone’s finger tips.
Regarding Internet Marketing, it’s time to start asking important questions about video!
- How would your marketing change if you had free, anytime, instant television presence with your ideal client?
- What would you show them?
- What do your ideal guests want to see?
- How would you find interesting things to watch?
- Do you think it’s important to allow your guests to produce and distribute this kind of content?
- What could you do to encourage them to tell their stories with video?
- What happens when the barriers of technical expertise required to edit, transcode and upload are knocked down? Replaced with a simple red button?
This is just a start!
The genie is out of the bottle. We need answers to these questions and more…. NOW. When travelers can instantly publish any video they wish, what will they do with this power? Their answers may affect the way you do business.
