Today, in 2011, we know the Internet as a digital juggernaut that has revolutionised how we approach communications, media, marketing and even shopping. But whilst the Internet phenomenon has its earliest roots in the 19th century and has developed gradually since then, it was only as recently as 1977 when it first truly appeared in the form we know now and only 1989 when it first became commercial. The Internet's expansion and transformation since then has been dramatic.

By 2008 for example, 1.4 billion users had logged on the Internet and the network had spread not only right around the world but also on to an array of platforms, such as mobile phones, for example. Connectivity has reached huge proportions too, as broadband speeds have increased and Wi-Fi has allowed the public expanded access. With so many users on the Internet, marketers have seen the potential to engage with consumers and have used everything from e-mail advertising to campaigns across social media websites to target their desired markets.

The Internet is still changing, however and when the Internet progresses, it does so pretty rapidly. It's not possible to say exactly where the Internet will be in a few years’ time, but looking back on this year alone; a few current trends indicate some of the changes that are likely to be with us soon.

New media formats continue to proliferate across the Internet and some of these will be of use to marketers. For example, podcasts continue to grow in popularity and are easily accessible and not difficult to create. As a result, podcasts are produced by both individuals and companies for a whole bunch of subjects. Marketers can tap into this popularity by creating podcasts as well as targeting podcast listeners in campaigns.

The amount of people using mobile devices for Internet purposes means those mobile phones and other handheld devices are surely another format that the Internet will continue to grow on in the future. Marketers can tap into this and design campaigns that can operate on mobile platforms, or create websites that run well on a mobile device screen.

Another trend that links in to an extent with the rise in net usage on handheld devices is the way in which the Internet is becoming more and more concerned with the concept of real time, that is to say, data and media, from news reports to YouTube videos of incidents that have only recently occurred, that are presented extremely quickly to Internet users. This desire for real time content is likely to increase as people crave ever more up-to-date and thus useful information across every sector, from the latest marketing deals and appointments to train times and delay information. Brands may be able to tap into this through the services they offer.

How people search and how these results are displayed will also change as the Internet gets older. Search tools are becoming available all the time to help net users find what they want quickly and also to aid them in discovering more relevant search results without much hassle. More precise search tools are likely to continue to appear in the future. These may include tools that enable search engine users to view more of results before they click through and programs that enable net users to run complex reports to find what they're looking for. Marketers aiming to appeal to consumers through Internet-based marketing need to find ways to become attuned to what's happening in searches and adjust their websites so that customers find them.

Perhaps the largest progression in the evolution of the Internet in the near future will be the way in which social media continues to be used by many people with integration into marketing campaigns. Social media is already expanded across the net, with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, for example, used by marketers. As more and more people use these sites on a daily basis and these channels replace more traditional media formats, marketers will need to further integrate social media activity into campaigns.

Photo by Keith Ramsey

Social media is unavoidable these days. Whether it is celebrities tweeting on Twitter, your friends posting pictures on Facebook or professionals networking on LinkedIn, social media has made a massive impact on how we use the internet. Crucially though, it's also becoming a major factor in how businesses operate and when it comes to marketing, you're ill advised to forget that social media is now a large part of the marketing mix.

Plenty of companies, both small and large, now reach out to consumers and engage across the likes of Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Many brands maintain Facebook profiles and chat to consumers via this page, whilst others develop their own YouTube channel and fill it with unique, appealing content. Other brands still use lesser-known sites like Foursquare to launch innovative marketing campaigns.

Why are marketers engaging with social media? It is because it creates a real buzz, when done well of course, and offers a bunch of other potential benefits too. For a start, social media is extremely popular. Millions of people have Facebook accounts, for instance. So when marketers set out to reach audiences, they have difficulty ignoring the potential audience spread across social media platforms. These are audiences that in some cases aren't watching TV as much and are perhaps turning against print alongside other forms of traditional advertising platforms.

Beyond simple exposure for the business, social media marketing can help garner more specific advantages. For example, a company on Twitter may make contact with a new business lead, or executives can form new partnerships via LinkedIn. More generally, operating across social media, whether it's through blogs or a YouTube channel, can drive up search engine results and offer further business exposure.

Succeeding across social media is often a case of remembering the little things. Marketers should establish a social media plan to implement. Going in without considering what you want to achieve on social media can create a muddled experience. Instead, choose platforms that are right for your business and goals and become familiar with these before you really begin. Once you establish your plan, remember two things that are especially important for successful social media usage - community and content.

You need to engage with the community in the social media space you pick. Just setting up shop and broadcasting content won't necessarily cut it on many platforms. On Twitter, for example, a brand can post links, but if they ignore replies and don't engage with consumers who want to interact with the company, they risk isolating themselves and failing to get the most from the community. Likewise, not replying to comments on your Facebook page can have similar consequences.

Content is equally important. If your brand is putting out content that's engaging, original and relevant to the audience you're targeting, you stand a much better chance of reaching consumers and producing a buzz around your social media activity. Brands that create unique trailers and videos and place them on YouTube can attract consumers who are interested in what they're producing and will then tell their friends. Just re-tweeting what other people are saying on Twitter, however, isn't offering content that consumers can't get elsewhere and so it's less likely to generate buzz.

Furthermore, the content you offer should reflect what your brand is about. If you're involved in car manufacturing, presenting a demonstration video of a new model or providing maintenance tips to customers are two ways to give consumers something relevant and useful, that also ties in to what you as a brand do. Use your expertise to create content that other companies can't and thus edge ahead of others in the social media stakes.

Blogs are a big part of the social media sphere and your own business blog is one way to reach a new audience and make contact with both consumers and industry insiders in a not-too-formal manner. But you can go beyond this by engaging with other blog writers. Join discussions, follow blogs that are relevant to your company and gradually build up your status in the community. In time, you may be able to take advantage of the work you've done. For example, another blog, which is independent, might give you an opportunity to write as a guest blogger one week, opening up the door to reach a new audience.

The result of all this activity will be that inevitably, people will talk about your company across social media. This isn't usually a bad thing. You can track what people are saying using tools such as TweetDeck and Bing searches to discover when you're being mentioned on Twitter, for example, or check via Facebook's real-time search engine. Take on board what's being said, even the negatives. If you do find complaints about your content or your business operation in general, calmly take time to respond to these politely. It's possible you'll be able to rectify the situation through this contact.

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According to U-Talk Marketing, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a key investor in Facebook, has told the Telegraph that Mark Zuckerberg is likely to choose to float the social networking site next year.

Hoffman has made a name for himself as a major investor in other successful web companies such as Groupon, social gaming company Zynga and location service Gowalla.

For more information visit the U-Talk Marketing website.

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According to NY Times, the public relations industry has decided that it may be a good time for, well, a public relations initiative.

The industry’s largest organization, the Public Relations Society of America, is embarking on an effort to develop a better definition of “public relations,” one more appropriate for the 21st century.

For more information visit the NY Times website.

Photo by Thos Ballantyne

According to Sales and Marketing, over the past three years, much attention has been paid to sales and marketing “alignment.” That is, these two functions have worked toward mutually defining the ideal prospect profile, how leads are scored, when marketing should hand-off to sales, when sales should hand back to marketing, etc.

For more information please visit the Sales and Marketing website.

Photo by Dan Foy

According to U-Talk Marketing, rivalry makes for amazing marketing. Many of the world’s best campaigns come out of bitter rivalry between two companies as they spur each other on to greater creative heights. Here are just a few examples…

For more information please visit the U-Talk Marketing website.

Photo by Hisa Fujimoto

According to Mp Daily Fix, influencer marketing is all about marketing to those people or groups whom your prospects look to for information. It is not a new strategy. In fact, many B2B companies have been targeted influencers for some time.

For more information visit the Mp Daily Fix website.

According to Career Hub Blog, laughter can be one of the best medicines around! My client and I were chatting about the value of laughter and the ability to laugh at yourself in a way that allows you to not take yourself too seriously. In a way that allows you to lighten up a little bit. In a way that says it’s time to take a chill pill. In a way that keeps you from getting too riled up. In a way that makes light of a situation that might otherwise get the best of you.

For more information visit the Career Hub Blog website. Photo by Career Hub Blog

Many recruitment industry insiders are convinced that 2012 could be the year in which mobile platforms become a top priority for companies that want to grow and develop in the coming years.

The rise of mobile recruitment is going to occur irrespective of industry action because the technology is already in place and average people are turning to their mobile phones when hunting for jobs in increasing numbers.

The proliferation of smartphone technology is the key to this whole shift, because people are now able to access the internet from their pocket-sized devices and, more importantly, are actually choosing mobiles as their main way of surfing. 90% of mobile users search the web from their handsets and because they can click links and browse extensively, any business involved in recruitment needs to accommodate the inevitable influx of people visiting their sites on portable devices.

Although smartphones can often view full desktop sites, the experience of interacting with them can be frustrating and off-putting for the user. Optimisation is required to make sure that sites have features sympathetic to those viewing them from a device with a small, touch-sensitive display, which does not have the accuracy of a mouse and keyboard combo found on desktop PCs.

Any recruitment company that wants to win over new users and retain existing clients needs to adapt to a world in which mobile platforms are increasingly prevalent. Search engines are beginning to privilege sites optimised for smartphones in their rankings, so swift action is needed in some cases.

Even if you regularly run email campaigns to alert subscribers to new positions as they become available, an increasing number of people are opening these messages from their mobiles and then following the links you include via their smartphone, which means there are going to be obvious benefits to having a mobile website available as a landing page.

One major reason to invest in mobile recruitment is that people who surf the web from their handset are more actively engaged with the sites they visit, whereas desktop browsers are traditionally more passive. This means you can convert mobile visitors into applicants with greater success because they are already more engaged with the site by default. As such, there is a rich seam waiting to be exploited and as smartphone ownership creeps towards 50 per cent market saturation, it seems unwise to ignore it.

A good way to complement or augment the presence of a mobile website for recruitment is with a dedicated application. There are hundreds of thousands of apps available for major smartphone platforms like Apple's iOS and Google's Android, with most of the world's brands and companies creating their own presence in the bustling market.

Apps can be a great way to engage with your audience because they are not only tailored specifically to their smartphone but are also available direct from their homescreen, making it far easier to interact with than a mobile website that they have to actively access from within a browser.

Apps can harness the technology found in modern handsets, from GPS and mapping to Wi-Fi and the phone's camera, which means you can create innovative and dynamic ways in which users can apply for jobs or update their profiles, all from the convenient portable device they always carry with them.

'Convenience' is an important word that crops up regularly during any discussion of mobile recruitment and whilst it may be difficult to achieve, the hard work you put in to get there will pay dividends in the long term.

Of course, it is important to remember that whilst mobile recruitment is obviously a growing part of the market, neglecting other more traditional areas is unwise given that millions of people still look for work on jobs boards and desktop websites, as well as at their local recruitment service.

A multi-channel approach is required for companies that wish to succeed and find the talent they need. This is similar to the approach taken by companies that are successfully weathering economic turbulence in the high street. Pure play web retailers are doing well, but most consumers want a combination of online convenience and in-store immediacy, which is something traditional bricks and mortar outlets can achieve through a strategy that combines mobile and older, established techniques.

Photo: The Game Way

Many middle-level marketing managers today are still using the skills that they gained in the world of print and offline, or theory that they learned at university ten or twenty years ago. But the world is changing dramatically. Modern marketers need a range of new skills and abilities to push them to the forefront of their professions.

It's a fact that the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn't even exist in 2004! The world is changing at an astonishing pace, as technology takes on an ever-larger role in customers' and marketers' lives.

The marketing industry is becoming more challenging too. Consumers are becoming more sceptical about the role of marketing and advertising professionals and the messages that they receive from marketing, advertising and PR campaigns.

However, marketing activity is still central to value-creation for brands, so businesses and customers are playing a changing, delicate balance in an ever more complex, wider social, regulatory and legal framework. Throw in the current economic crisis and temptation to slash marketing spend (especially for 'unproven' high tech developments) and you have a real mix!

The industry may be challenging, but for those with the right attitude, it can be very exciting too, particularly working at the forefront of digital developments and emerging channels and models. Where it may once have been challenging to adjust from the '4 P's' to the '7 P's' over a course of a decade, new developments and new thinking seem to be occurring at breath-taking pace, particularly with the real time communication allowed by web and social media.

The new environment must be responded to. Old habits, old ways of thinking, rigidity and a fear of embracing change all spell disaster for marketers unwilling to move ahead of the game. Equally, lip service and fashion following will reap few dividends in the long term.

The old strategic imperative still exists and knee jerking tactics are useless without solid, long-term and thorough analysis and marketing planning fundamentals. The customer service journey has evolved to a point where customers truly are at the centre of a business.

Technologies and channels such as mobile, digital and social media, all link to offer a seamless brand-experience to potential and existing customers.

Modern marketers must learn the jargon, the tools and the channels that modern business is using.

They must understand that digital marketing can encompass anything from the company website to online training, Google Adwords and Analytics for SEO, Facebook advertising and integrated social media. Mobile marketing refers to smartphone content and apps, a channel growing exponentially every year.

Community managers build on the notion of customer community and aim for collaborative strategies. Real time marketing refers to the speed of modern marketing and the need to move away from slow bureaucratic systems. Blended marketing will become essential, with all marketers requiring a heady change of mind-set and great application of skills such as listening, content creation, channel management, IT and great communication.

Other marketing strategies and approaches are emerging from different schools of thought. Holistic marketing aims to blend different customer engagement touch points coherently and prioritise the single branded experience. Socially responsible marketing takes its lead from the green agenda and internal marketing recognises the need for the marketing mentality to be present throughout the entire organisation, rather than sitting in a discrete team.

Change is good and exciting. The changing dynamics of marketing are the reason many practitioners chose to enter the field in the first place, possessing a curiosity about psychology, sales, a love of communication and a desire to satisfy customer needs to help drive a brand to profitable greatness. Whatever the marketer's reason for working in the field, they must update skills and re-skill constantly. Sitting in a role is no excuse for complacency.

There is always someone biting at your heels for the job! Keep up to date with industry trends, keep your blog up to date and share quality content - your own and others - with your social networks, read periodicals and business desk news, follow Twitter for breaking news and trends and find relevant groups on LinkedIn.

Network, meet people and talk. The face-to-face basics still hold true. Go back to college or take a course. Even better, attend lectures from other industry professionals and hear their stories.

Swap tips and show an interest. Bear in mind too that many modern marketing jobs nowadays won't be advertised via traditional routes, so build your contacts, keep your eye on LinkedIn and let the word be known if you are looking for a new opportunity. Nowadays more than ever, you need to apply those well-honed marketing skills to your own personal brand, as much as your employer's.

Photo courtesy of Phillie Casablanca