Discovering business opportunities

Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com). She directs all of the content in various forms produced on the MarketingProfs Web site and is the Primary Caregiver of its blog, the MarketingProfs Daily Fix(www.mpdailyfix.com). She also blogs at The Huffington Post. A lifetime ago, she co-founded of ClickZ.com.

1. How the Internet as a media is changing? What are the major trends?

Well, in terms of content on the Internet, there’s a whole lot more of it – and many more voices creating it and extending its reach.

That’s a huge change, obviously, from when only professional writers and editors were creating the content that most of us read and were therefore influenced by. Now, anyone who is armed with a computer and an internet connection has a voice, anyone can create and share content, and everyone can be one of the “who’s who.”

The ease of creating and sharing content has huge implications not only for those of us who make our living via it. But it also has huge implications for marketers. For years, marketers have talked to their customers. Now, they are hearing those customers talking back. (Read the article)

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Mr. Paul Chaney is Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka.com, a web design and development firm based in Lafayette, LA.

Mr. Chaney has been an Internet media consultant for the past four years and is widely known and respected in that field. He understands at a granular level how conversational media tools can be used for marketing purposes and has worked with a number of clients assisting them in deploying online marketing strategies.

Mr. Chaney has served as Technical Editor on a number of For Dummies series books related to blogs and Internet marketing, and was contributing writer on the book Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, published by Wiley.

Specialties: Business blog consultant, online marketing consulting, conversational media marketing, real estate blogging, blogging

Great thanks, Mr. Chaney for sharing your experience!

1. What is the role of blogs nowadays? How they are changing the Internet?

Blogs were the forerunner that ushered in the social media movement and they still play a vital role. However, that role has changed thanks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social tools. By that I mean you see less “day in the life” blogging and a greater emphasis on what some are calling “value” blogging. Let me explain.

In the early days, bloggers had one place to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions, and that was on their blog. Now, the more spur-of-the-moment, anecdotal posts are finding themselves being placed on micro-blogging tools like Twitter, Pownce and Facebook, leaving the more thoughtful, well-researched posts for the blog. That’s not to suggest bloggers don’t still write impromptu posts. They do. It’s just that other tools are now available allowing for greater choice and flexibility in where to publish. (Read the article)

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