Surfing the Infosphere

Marketing As We Know It is Dying

Facebook recently gave a presentation in Davos showing the ability to poll a specific segment of its users and receive an immediate response. This was talked about by ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Techcrunch, and others as something that could be a part of Facebook’s efforts to build an engagement advertising platform.

There are many possibilities for how this platform might take shape but the bigger picture is that the reality of advertising truly becoming content is on the horizon.

This is often talked about in the case of Google where the majority of their revenue comes from small, targeted text ads served up in response to a user’s search. For the most part these ads are reasonably targeted and Google’s advertising system rewards targeted ads.

Applying this or the traditional model to social networks has been difficult because they are not quite content in the sense of an online version of a newspaper; nor are they search engines where the user is specifically looking for something. 

In many ways Facebook has become an essential component of their users life. A virtual coffee shop for friends to discuss and play games together. A place for flirtation. A place for business networking. A place for intellectuals to strut their stuff. In so many ways activities which would have happened “in real life” are happening now in the digital ether.

As this reality is changing the cultural and social mores it also has implications for how advertisers should engage their audience in this venue. 

Would we think it is kosher for an advertiser to interrupt a nice discussion over coffee with a racy advertisement on how we can get more action this Saturday night? Probably not. Then again, if we were having a kicking drink at the grimiest dive bar around it might be just the thing we are looking for.

The key is relevance to the person and relevance to the context. As Facebook and other social networks begin to understand not only more about their users but also about the contexts in which they live we will begin to see advertisements that are genuinely useful.  

An ad telling me to check out Artist X, who was cited by My Favorite Band as one of their top influences, while I am checking out My Favorite Band is not an ad -- it’s a good tip.

Soon At An Innovative Store Near You

A recent article from Wired highlights the ways in which autonomous robots are making their way into the workforce -- primarily in warehouses for now.

Companies such as Zappos, Gap, and many others are utilizing these little robots to grab your new pair of shoes and get them on a truck within 15 minutes of you clicking go.

While this technology may be currently limited to a few cutting edge companies who value speed it is easy to see a future where this sort of technology propagates throughout companies and organizations.

Imagine going to a bookstore and instead of browsing the aisles of books you browse a virtual catalog and pick out what you are interested in reading that night. Within a few moments, Fid0 your friendly r0b0t delivers your books with a virtual smile, pulled from a warehouse engineered for maximum optimization.

Grocery shopping? Show up at 6:30, your bags are already packed and ready to go. Shopping for clothes? Pick as many items as you like and have your size ready to try within moments.

The future is here -- let's see where it really makes itself known first.

Did you know the web is only 5,000 days old? How much has happened!

Can you even imagine what the next 5,000 days will be?

Kevin Kelly lays out some of the possibilities at a wonderful speech at the exclusive TED conference. Are we building SKYNET or the machine which connect us all and bring peace on earth? I don't know, but it is a heck of a ride.