New methods to help with continual growth
When people compare the modern business situation to that of the past, it might seem like the internet has been around for a very long time. However, one needs to understand that the internet itself is a somewhat vague term. The internet of the modern day is a very different thing to the internet of 1995 or so. It’s true that there’s a lot of common elements. The world wide web has been a continual accepted standard since those early days of development. But how that resource is used and what it’s capable has changed considerably. Acceptance and use by the public has changed it even more. The web as it is now is considered by many to be in a post-google stage. This refers to how the internet was used in earlier days of adoption compared to how it’s used now.
When the internet was first gaining popularity people tended to find information and resources by using a search engine such as google. In many ways it could be considered a primarily user directed experience. Someone would have an idea or question, and they’d proceed to type it into a search engine. They’d get some results and that’d be the end of it for most people. People obviously still use the internet like this on occasion. But for the average person, it’s only a very minor part of their daily computer time. Today the experience is more centered on a fully interactive model. People tend to use various social networking services as their primary way of interacting with the internet. This is a more robust back and forth than search engines provided. It gives actual interaction with other people, and this opens up a lot of possibilities for reputation management.
On the surface, the most obvious implication is general advertising. This is an attempt to get one’s name out there in a similar way to television commercials or older internet advertising. It’s generally a good idea as a basic consideration or first step. This tends to run along the lines of setting up ad space within someone’s site or service. Or one might decide to help sponsor an online resource which will get the name of company and oneself out there. But in general this is a fairly basic idea which should only be seen as a stepping stone to a more interactive approach to online reputation management.