This is my first blog post...ever. Which is crazy because I have been reading blogs and commenting on blogs forever. I get news about new products from blogs, I get customer service "ratings" on restaurants and stores from blogs, and I look to blogs for tips and tricks on various subjects. I guess it is ironic then that this first post is about how Web 2.0 (or Live Web as coined in "The Age to Engage - Chapter 1) has changed how people interact with products and brands, and how it has stolen value from TV and newspapers.
Successful marketers must constantly be reinventing their product & brands. This also includes managers of newspapers and TV stations. Historically, advertisers and marketers alike have been relying on newspapers and TV to distribute mass messages to the public. This was a push mentality - marketers pushing content to readers, viewers, or subscribers. Newspapers and TV stations made money, and consumers were happy for the information and entertainment.
However, as Gil and Frank outlined in the newspaper podcasts, the internet began to gain relevancy because it gave users the ability to customize content for free, and newspapers were painstakingly slow to respond. Soon, newspapers lost all revenue sources to the internet - automobile classifieds to cars.com, other classifieds to craigslist.com, personal ads to match.com and eharmony.com, and advertisements to email marketing, banner ads, and other more targeted avenues. Suddenly, newspapers lost relevancy as consumers received information and entertainment for free from the internet. Why would anyone pay subscription fees? As Frank said, people can begin to tailor their news feeds to match personal interests, and "pull" content to their preferences. This customization is something no medium previously allowed consumers.
The secret behind Web 2.0 is easy, free customization.
Before Web 2.0, publishing content was difficult - you had to be an expert in code to blog, or you had to work with a publisher to get anything in print, or you had to work with a newspaper to put in a personal ad. Now, it is easy. Facebook is easy & trustworthy ("Do you trust this face?" GQ Article on M. Zuckerburg). Blogspot makes distributing content easy and free, and setting up a profile is easy on match.com and it offers more customized choices than the newspaper.
Newspaper and TV as mediums do not have the value trifecta today: easy, free, customized.....the new Web 2.0 does. It is not hard to see why this has marketers and managers reeling.
