The thing about the Internet is that it, she or whatever you call this organism constantly and rapidly morphs into something more evolved and enhanced than its previous, lesser self. She’s alive and she’s hungry. Hungry for change, and as our ever green friend, the Hulk  here suggests, nothing is going to stop her.

This change is truly exponential in nature, but it’s a good change. The challenge is to keep up with it. Maybe even more so is the challenge to make sure what worked yesterday will still work today or even next year. I believe that what you do today will still work for years to come if you remember to consider what it is all about. What it’s all about is of course the driving force behind this constant and rapid evolving, namely us, people. We have to understand that people are why the Internet is there in the first place. People are why the Internet is constantly changing. People are the reason why Web 2.0 is so much more dynamic than its primitive predecessor. And people are the reason we get paid everyday.

“So Elmer, what is Web 2.0 exactly and why should I care?” Well seeing that you asked I am going to try and explain to you by comparison. Even though Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are only one version number apart, I can assure you that the difference and potential difference still to come is absolutely gargantuan. It’s like trying to compare a baby elephant still trying to figure out his trunk to a young bull ready to understand what he is all about. What about an old Nokia 2100 series, the “brick”, to a brand new Apple iPhone? Both are cellular phones, but somehow the iPhone just seems more evolved, not just technically, but also from a point of taking the ‘i’ in iPhone more seriously. The Nokia was a tool which worked well. The iPhone takes into consideration that its owner has a personality and is a social being. 

What about comparing watching the greatest rugby match ever played at home to actually being right there in the middle of it all? Both will give you the exact information you need. One will just be much more exciting, much more interactive, much more energetic. Being there will get you in conversations with other people and they will share their take on it all. Within a 20 meter perimeter around you, you will know exactly who shouts for which team. At home it’s the commentator and your opinion that count. Being there everybody’s opinion count.

So, let me sum it all up. The Internet of the latter nineties and early millennium years were much more about one person interacting with one web page. Typically what would happen is that the average person, that is, a non-Internet marketer will do a search on a search engine, on a specific subject. The search engine will interpret the search query and produce a set of records containing hopefully that which the person was looking for. That person would then hopefully go to one of those web sites, obtain the necessary information, possibly leave the site via another link or go back to the search engine for new searches. And that was mostly how things were done. But not anymore. Not necessarily.

Welcome to being at the rugby game. Web 2.0 works a bit differently. Sure you can do your faithful searches. Still very important on the Internet planet. But there is some other cool stuff happening as well. For example you can watch a tutorial video on Youtube on any subject you are interested in. Should you have an opinion to share you can upload your own video, link it to the first one you saw and wait for a response, either in video or comment format. This can potentially go on and on forever.

You can go to Wikipedia.org and experience how everyone who is everyone is contributing to one of the greatest interactive online encyclopedias online. It’s free and it’s completely acceptable for you to add to or change a specific subject. And the best thing is, somehow it just works. The information is sound and if it’s not you can report it as potentially incorrect. It’s very interactive and organic.

You can go to various “how to” sites and get information from various different people on how to tackle a certain subject. The best thing is your are totally welcome to share your own two cents. How about getting the best answer to a difficult question you might have? Yahoo! Answers let you ask the public a question, and you decide on which answer is the best! You have web sites like Tehnorati, which through public interaction consolidates all the best information of all the web sites on a specific topic. You can save your web site bookmarks online and make it public so that everybody knows what your interested in. This way, once again there is opportunity to socialise around a topic. With micro blogging you can mini post and the entire planet can respond. All you need is a cell phone (even the “brick”:)) and to register on a site like Twitter.

With web 2.0 your opinion counts. And depending on how sociable your opinion is, you could monetise it. Web 2.0, in one sentence, is about socialising around information. Social media and social marketing are terms that you will soon get aquatinted with on this blog. The reason it’s so important to grasp the concept of Web 2.0 is that from a marketer’s perspective you are going to lose out if you ignore it. The days where we run our Internet businesses like Big Brother watching over his potential customers are over. We have to get involved. We have to get social and we have to be good at it.

Cheers