Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

I was tempted to add a Friday the 13th image at the top, since this is our second of three superstitious Fridays of 2009. But, there was a more important date to recognize. On March 13th, 2009 the World Wide Web will turn 20 years old. Which begs the question, what will become of the web next year when it's old enough to buy alcohol and gamble in Vegas? Watch out!

On a more serious note, the birthday of the web is a good chance to take a step back and look at how far it's come and where it's going. About a year ago this time, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, said that we are finally ready to "realize the potential of a world of structured, machine readable data". I hope that he is right because the next generation web is going to change the way we connect, discover, and share with the social online world. Something I am going to speak more about at this year's Web 3.0 conference.

What's Been Happening This Week

Facebook World Dominance
It's now being offered in Arabic and Hebrew, Facebook is taking over the world. Social networking is now more popular than e-mail. Facebook has continued to beat MySpace in just about every type of traffic, and in just about every demographic. The wealth of people and data has lead to laser precise ad targeting. And on top of all that, there are significant indications that the social grooming we are doing online is increasing the amount of relationships we are able to maintain. Social technology breeds social evolution.

Twitter + Money = Monitwized?
Apparently Twitter is now loved by everyone form congressmen to Chicagoans, from Washington to the Windy City. But at the same time, Twitter is driving traffic to blogs (including this one!) and social networks, but not to retail sites. So, if begs the question about how valuable that twitter traffic really is? Well, at least one person, Jason Calacanis, thinks a suggested slot on Twitter is worth $250K!!

Traditional Media Takes One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
While Stephen Fry might dislike traditional media and for some good reasons, there has been a lot more love between social and traditional media over the past year. We can all admit the darling that Hulu has become, and the interesting implications of their announcement that they are going to turn their platform social. Not in a backwards way, but in a "fish where the fish are" Facebook integration way. Then there is everything newspapers have been doing to try and save their industry... from sensors and smart content to printing customized papers (circa 1939?).

Marta Strickland