Strike While The Iron Is Hot: Do It NOW

Internet time seems to move faster than real physical time. This may sound extreme to most people who do not manage a fast moving project. Even if you are a contributor (writer, illustrator, videographer) or editor, you feel this time squeeze once in a while. Many people in other professions will tell you the same. Physicians have less time to actually examine and treat patients, insurance brokers have less time to evaluate risk and offer solutions, even teachers have to contend with massive amount of new material... so what makes internet time so much faster? It's the global scale connectivity which brings: competition, innovation (change), partnering, opportunity and other time pressure activities. For the first time, humans communicate (argue, agree, render opinion, expand) with zero time delay anywhere in the world. This gives people anywhere the ability to quickly use and abuse your creative material. If you are going to drive a point and influence people, you will support or rebut bloggers and commentators, you will keep a watch on what people say about your writing and keep discussions going. This is a new game, it is just digitized and communicated globally.

There are opportunities using internet applications useful to hundreds of fields and with more variety imaginable. This is the era of internet expansion. Just like galaxies in the sky, seems like this expansion is still accelerating. Not limited to the PC user, the internet is going faster and faster beyond web browsers. Now mobile devices, tablets and even electronic bulletin boards on street corners are spewing "internet content" like yesterday's newspapers. Designs made popular on the internet are even invading print media. Newspapers are using the same simple graphic design that drove blogs a few years back. From the successes of past internet trends, bloggers like Ariana Huffington and Darren Rose, social networkers like Ashton Kutcher. Early adopters can set the standard. They can also get attention if the application becomes popular. See top influences on Twitter, You Tube, Facebook and even Linked-In. If you are wondering about your specific market segment. Take a look at top recruitment groups on Linked-In. Probably a field as isolated and specialized as inventory accounting, executive recruiters are not exactly the most visible and sexy in their small constellation. Yet, there are plenty of cutting edge recruiters running all kind of professional groups with the intention of connecting with possible customers (both in corporation and individuals).

You can't jump on every new internet trend and focus all your energy there. Yet, some innovative applications make sense. I just met a young event promoter who has shifted his physical "boots on the ground" promotion to Facebook. He is interested in promoting as many events as possible and found about a dozen companies interested in his work. Besides the events he promotes (trade shows, conferences, product parties, market introductions) he also keeps Facebook pages for the EVENTS - NOT THE PRODUCTS! Here is certainly a marginal role in marketing taking in a whole new life. If you are a product manager or a marketing director, go test the applications that make sense for you. You will learn a whole lot about the internet and you will get a good sense of what people want and how to get them to listen and act. Good luck, it's an adventure out there...