The Internet Economy Within Digital Media

The Internet economy within Digital Media

Digital Media has changed over the years, making a substantial impact on society, as technology is linking people from across the world in ways that would seem nearly impossible years ago. The global online population is currently 1.2 billion, projected to grow to 1.8 billion by 2010, According to Central Intelligence Agency statistics collected in 2005 and 2006. Media within society is constantly changing, which makes it critical for advertisers to keep up with improving technology and the transformation that occurs within it. The internet has provided a channel for consumers, which has now the first port-of-call for finding information to select or buy the best deal.

The internet has become a significant element as a source for selecting and purchasing products. It connects people and information via computers, between different countries, permitting them to exchange opinions and information. This diverse means is defined not only as a communication tool, but also as a tool for the commercial exchange of goods and services, a good example being eBay. With Internet auctions gaining popularity, unique items that could previously be found at flea markets are being sold on eBay instead. EBay's price often becomes the standard for customers looking to purchase an item and comparing it to sellers, pushing the drive for businesses to work out of homes. The internet ads are also tailoring to the individual by "shadowing" their pages and immersing them in the pages that they are targeted for, which EBay also does. This segments the audiences according to the right customers.

Electronic Mail is another essential aspect has provided society with a means of communication that has outsourced many others. This has taken over "snail-mail" and replaced it with a much more efficient type of communication that has become the most widely used Internet service. In 1995 the Internet delivered more mail messages than the U.S. Postal Service for the first time. E-mail advertisements have the advantage to provide personalized information according to the user with a customer centric approach. According to the Peppers and Rogers' study they discovered that the one of the success factors enabling the e-mail marketing to work well is "high response rates." The average reply rate of e-mail is 5-15 percent versus 1-2 percent for direct mail and 0.005-1 percent for banner advertising. This changes the way marketers and advertisers deliver the information to consumers and businesses, while creating a positive effect on branding efforts.

This interactive marketing helps engage the customers by generating a two-way dialogue in a non-expensive manner. E-mail marketing has lower costs when it has no printing, mailing or media expenditure, which in turn increases profits. They also have the opportunity to provide sample texts, and audio or video clips for digital goods. This unique advantage has been adopted by online book stores, music and video deals, in an effort to showcase their goods. The senders and recipients of the e-mails could be located anywhere in the world. However, risks of e-mail advertisement are still evident, when traditional advertising is still more recognizable than e-mail marketing. It can target the subscribers that are designed for specific audiences, but it can also extend to non-subscribers, becoming an annoyance to many e-mail recipients. E-mail marketing lacks the censorship and is less monitorable than traditional advertisements have, with more difficulty to regulate unsolicited e-mail. The advantages of e-mail marketing for senders is vast, as a result, recipients could expect to receive more and more in the future.

Also, blogs, which is short for "weblog", have become a major source of news and information about many global affairs. We have to consider however, that bloggers are often the only real journalists, as they (at their own risk) providing independent news in countries where the mainstream media is censored, biased or under control. The internet makes "prosumers" meaning it's a place where anyone could be a producer and a consumer. If you type up a blog or an online journal as a personal publishing tool you could become an author. This tool is something not seen in the mass media, and the individuals participating in them are often the influencers, who are more valuable than the average consumer. Blogs also are an opportunity to mass communicate directly and quickly with customers, in an easy-to-read format, without going through slow corporate processes. It does however run the risk of having negative feedback because it is self-regulated, but through collaboration can spark positive comments. It is essentially an opportunity to create interactive platforms that initiate discussions for collaboration.

A prime example of a company utilizing digital media over the computer is Verizon, whom adopted a "digital workplace" in an attempt to connect the vast amount of employees nationwide. This included all online systems, tools, information channels regardless of geographic location. The business place includes some of Verizon's cutting edge communication tools with an access to an intranet portal, called eWeb. This tool is a voice recognition portal service that allows voice-activated access to intranet functions and information using any telephone. This voice portal allows employees to call and send audio file e-mails to other employees; which is particularly useful among the employees that travel a lot. On top of that, they could receive and initiate calls through their computer. This new trend added value to the organization with other collaboration tools such as webcasting, video on demand, online forums, Wikis, Blogs, instant messaging, emmeting, and web conferencing. Although they run the risk of not being able monitor all the posts on the discussion forums, the self-regulating strategy has yet to experience any problems in all the five years it's been active. Another tool launched by them included a personalized Google toolbar tailored to the individual employee with their favorite links and news.

Customer-centric e-marketing applies digital technologies to marketing activities aimed at attaining profitable acquisition and maintaining customers. E-commerce has taken a new dimension with increasing consumers connecting online. E-marketing is the application of marketing and principles and techniques via the internet, also known as internet marketing and online marketing, which has become a very popular trend for conducting an online business. They market a brand using the internet in order to connect businesses to their customers for e-commerce, making it more than simply Ð''building a website.'

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