The Splinternet and Social Marketing

An excellent post from Josh Bernoff at Forrester Research talks about how the Internet is fragmenting into separate technologies. For marketers, this is also important because the Internet is less interconnected than it used to be for marketing messages. Already, Facebook walls off its network from search engines, so all the data that's flying around there is mostly not accessible from a search. Which is why you have to build a Facebook page for your product or company in order to build a brand among your friends and acquaintances.

It's going to mean that marketers have to stay abreast of the latest social networking and other technologies to make sure their marketing message gets out there as widely as possible. Social marketing is becoming a lot more work. Somebody has to spend their time on Facebook, in forums on enthusiast websites, on Twitter and MySpace and LinkedIn and Plaxo and... well, you get the picture. It's also true that you can't just hire someone at minimum wage to post standardized messages for you. That sort of marketing spam quickly gets filtered out; if not by software, then by the customer's attention filters. You have to have an authentic voice speaking knowledgeably about your product, and glib fact-free speech just won't cut it.

Marketing gets easier and tougher moving into the future. Thanks, technology! I think...