Lab+6

In retrospect to the Internet’s early days where dial-up and basic HTML was the norm, it is quite astounding as to where the Internet is today. The static Web 1.0 transformed into a highspeed, interactive Semantic Web 3.0 – offering the next level of customization and information control. As the Internet continues to transform, businesses are relying more and more on using its promising features for marketing. This has effectively created a new commercial model. With social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, ideas and opinions are constantly being circulated through hundreds of thousands of people within seconds – essentially building a powerful web influence. Rob Dickens discusses the “Uber-Profile”, a consumer’s online account on such social networks. He believes that "the social web empowers the consumer beyond measure” (Dickens, 2010). There is undoubtedly much truth in this considering the amount of people in these communities. People are just one click away from either hailing products and businesses or completely exposing a company’s true intentions. Businesses can learn what consumers "like" and "dislike" and thus contrive ad campaigns to better suit their consumers.These social networks define people as a “brand” instead of a person, empowering us with the ability to actually teach companies a few vital things about “ price points, discounts, standards, safety, environmental issues, group buying, quality and service levels” (Dickens, 2010). //We// ultimately have the power to gather multitudes of people together and combine //our// ideas and opinions to tweak business strategies. As Dickens’ so eloquently puts, “Your online influence will become an actual currency” (Dickens, 2010).

Works Cited:

Dickens, Rob. “Influence: The new currency of Web 3.0”. <[]>