Publishing on the Internet - Essay Example

?Publishing on the Internet Technology has been changing at an unprecedented rate for thepast few years. A newer technology is introduced in the market sooner than the preceding technology is completely exploited by the users. Internet is one of the examples that define the growth in the technology comprehensively. Internet has been growing at an exceptionally rapid pace. The recent developments in technology have changed the face of internet as it used to be, for example web 2.0 has enabled the updating of information in real-time. In the past, updating data on the internet was not a simple task. In order to change the contents of any website, the basic HTML codes had to be modified and the access to the content of the website was also for a limited number of users. But in the present, due to the developments in the technology, modification of the contents of a website has become much easier. Anyone can update a website by posting blogs, comments or articles. Media sharing has become easier today therefore it has become much easier to publish on the internet. Nowadays, websites like Twitter have brought the whole world online. An event occurs and the next thing we know is that the information is updated on Twitter or any other micro blogging website by some eye witness. Such is the speed at which the information flows due to the presence of internet. Due to the growth in the number of users of internet, organizations have been considering diverting their investment in marketing from traditional marketing techniques to marketing through internet. Internet has become the core platform for the information industry. Therefore the organizations have been investing in publishing on the internet for the purpose of marketing (Harris, 2000). Marketing strategies include familiarizing the target market with the products or services of an organization through publishing on the internet. Organizations have been using such marketing means for the past few years and they have acquired quite significant returns. Publishing the information regarding the product or service of an organization and driving the targeted audience towards that information has been the basic marketing strategy through internet. Publishing on the internet can be done for a number of purposes. People can share their thoughts and ideas by publishing on the internet, or they can conduct internet publishing commercially in order to attract specific users. Organizations can use publishing on the internet as a marketing tool. The main use of publishing on the internet made by the organizations is that of marketing. Internet marketing has grown extensively in the recent past and it has become a billion dollar industry. Organizations have been investing in internet marketing because it provides very high returns on surprisingly low investment and that too in a short period of time (Turban et al 2002). There are a number of ways by which information can be published on the internet. Some of the possible ways that would be evaluated in this paper are; a web site, a blog, a social networking website and Microsoft Office Publisher. These means can be used either individually or a combination of one or more of such means can be used in order to achieve the optimum results. PUBLISHING ON A WEBSITE A website has been the primary mean of communicating with the targeted audience. Nowadays, a business is considered to be non-existent if it does not run a website. A website is the primary source of information regarding an organization and its business objectives. An organization uses its website to provide its targeted market with the information regarding the organization’s products or services. The website represents the organization therefore an organization tries to design its website in a more and more innovative manner. Having web presence has become extremely essential for all the organizations and business (University of Florida). Certain information must be published by all the organization on its website, such as the information regarding its products or services and its contact information. In case of publishing of information, website has been one of the most effective ways. A user accesses the organization’s website for any kind of information regarding the organization. Some organizations depend upon their website to conduct their business such as online stores. Therefore websites have become an essential part of an organization’s overall structure. Websites are also important because of Search Engine Optimization (Pierce). Organizations can publish information regarding their products and services in such a manner that they are easily found when searched through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo (Hunt 2008). Search Engine Optimization is the process for enhancing the visibility of a website in search engines after executing a natural or unpaid search. In order to optimize a website, its contents and HTML codes may be modified in such a way that they match usual keywords that are used to execute a search. Search Engine Optimization is a highly cost-effective tool for organizations to reach out to their audience through their website, by increasing the visibility of their websites on search engines and by having high ranking. Search Engine Optimization costs nothing but a few modifications in the contents of the website (Shurow 2003). When a user searches for a product or service, the search engine would present the website of the organization as one of the results. In this manner, the organizations can divert web traffic to their websites. An organization also needs to prevent any copyright violation (Silver 2002). Websites cannot be regarded as the best way of publishing information for the marketing of an organization. This is because a website needs complimentary advertisement in order to divert users to the organization’s website. A website alone cannot play any significant role in the success of an organization. In order to achieve the purpose of the website, an organization needs to find different ways of publicizing its own website so that the users visit the website and go through the information published. However, techniques like Search Engine Optimization can be used in order to make the website more and more likely to appear in the search results. PUBLISHING ON A BLOG A blog is a website or a subsidiary of a website that is used to publish any information and letting others access that information. Blogs are being used for a very long time now. Individuals can post pictures, videos or text on their blogs. Blogs can be a successful marketing tool because of their interactivity feature. Individuals or organizations can publish information on a blog and the users can provide their feedback about the information in real-time. This is one of the most important features of blog and therefore it is considered to be one of the most appropriate ways to publish information on the internet. In case of marketing, organizations maintain blogs in order to provide their users with the regular updates regarding the products or services of the organization. Blogs can prove to be better marketing tool than websites because blogs allow the organizations to share extensive details with the users. Users can also subscribe to the blogs of the organization. In this way, the user would be regularly notified regarding any new update on the blog maintained by the organization and he would become aware regarding the information published in real-time. Blogs are also a feasible option because they do not require any significant costs. Organizations can easily maintain their own blogs along with their websites. The websites provide the primary information regarding an organization however blogs maintained by the organization provide in-depth information regarding the organization and its products or services. Blogs do not require any team of professionals to be maintained. Only a few writers can be assigned the task to update the blog of an organization regarding the new updates released by the organization. Most of the organizations maintain a blog alongside their website in order to share certain information with the users that would not be feasible to be shared on the website. Information is perceived positively if the source of that information possesses credibility among the users of the information. The blogs are also perceived to contain realistic information because they are mostly maintained by the key management personnel of the organization who are supposed to have credibility in the market. Success of a blog also depends upon the number of followers of the blog. A blog can provide significant results if it becomes popular among the users. The reasons behind the popularity of a blog may be the nature of information shared on the blog. Therefore, publishing on the internet through a blog can be a successful marketing tool but it requires sharing of extensive information on a regular basis in order to keep the users linked with the blog. PUBLISHING ON A SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE Websites that attract enormous web traffic these days are social networking websites. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the shape of internet. All the events happening all around the world are updated on these websites in real-time. These websites have become a primary source of information for a number of users. Twitter is a micro-blogging website a user can update small messages known as ‘tweets’. Users of the website follow each other and share the information they update (Rivera). Twitter has become one of the biggest tools for organizations for conducting marketing. Organizations provide real-time updates regarding their products or services on Twitter. Users receive the updates instantly and if they like the information published, they share it further with their own followers. In this manner, the information initially shared by the organization is spread among the targeted audience. Social networking websites have become the most powerful tool for marketing on the internet. Due to the web traffic attracted by these websites, these have become the most feasible venues for the organizations at which to conduct marketing (Allbusiness.com 2008). In order to reach the targeted market, so many business entities are using such social networking sites as a marketing tool and some of those entities have managed to get a huge fan base. One such social networking site is Facebook, which is used by organizations to reach millions of the users of the website. An organization can create a fan page or a group on the website and it is spread out by making the users join the page of the organization. Nowadays, organizations have been publicizing their Facebook pages by giving out gifts and discounts to the members of the page of the organization. This is one of the finest ways to interact with the targeted market. Through the page, targeted audience of the organization is told about the competitive features of the business, limited time offers and initial promotions. Organizations have been investing huge amounts of capital for publishing on the internet through these social networking websites and they have been getting positive results as well. Therefore it can be inferred that social networking websites are comparatively the best option for publishing on the internet for the purposes of marketing. PUBLISHING THROUGH MS PUBLISHER Microsoft Office Publisher is one of the applications used for publishing on the internet for the purposes of marketing. It is an easy to use application along with being less expensive as compared to other applications. MS Publisher is used to create material for marketing of an organization and publishing it on the internet. This application is mostly used by small organizations which do not possess a professional staff for creating documents related to marketing of the organization. MS Publisher is highly feasible because it does not only help an organization publish on the internet but it also helps an organization create the material to be published. The information is input by the organization and the application modifies the information to make it more attractive. The application is also used to do marketing through e-mail. This option for marketing is considered to be feasible because it is cost-effective, instantaneous, it is interactive, and it spreads the information to a number of customers at once (Schneider 2003). Although MS Publisher is highly cost-effective application for publishing on the internet, it does not achieve acceptable results. This application is feasible for small organizations only, but for bigger organizations and specially those that own businesses internationally, other tools for publishing on the internet prove to be more effective. CONCLUSION Publishing on the internet has become one of the most important tools for organizations to execute their marketing strategies. Due to the rapid pace at which technology has been growing, marketing on the internet has become a highly successful tool. There are a number of ways by which publishing on the internet can be done and some of those ways have been discussed in the paper. After the evaluation of publishing on the internet through a website, a blog, a social networking website and an application; it can be inferred that none of the ways of publishing provide any exceptional results however a combination of one or more of such tools can be give highly positive results. The most feasible combination for marketing purposes would be social networking websites and the blog maintained by the organizations. An organization can create a page or group on a social networking website such as Facebook, or an organization can create an account on Twitter where the organization can share the links to its blogs to its followers. In this manner, the organizations would be able to divert massive number of users to its blog where the users can acquire extensive information regarding the organization’s products or services. Thus, an organization can use publishing on the internet as a successful tool for its marketing. REFERENCES AllBusiness.Com. (2008) How to Use Social Networking Sites for Marketing and PR. [Web]. Available from < http://www.nytimes.com/allbusiness/AB11702023_primary.html> [April 9, 2011] Harris, R. D. (2000) B2B E-Commerce: Business Models and Revenue Generating Activities. Stanislaus: California State University Moran, M; Hunt, B. (2008). Search Engine Marketing, Inc, 2nd Edition. IBM Press Pierce, M. SEO for the Non-Profit Organization. [Web] Available from < http://www.buzzle.com/articles/seo-nonprofit-organization-drive-traffic-site.html> [April 9, 2011] Rivera, E. (N/A) Marketing on Social Networking Sites. [Web]. Available from < http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-on-Social-Networking-Sites&id=4600343> [April 9, 2011] Schneider, G.P. (2003) Electronic Commerce. 4th Ed. Canada: Thomson Course Technology. Shurow, Shari. (September 11, 2006). The Most Important SEO Strategy. [Web] Available from [April 9, 2011] Silver, Judith. (2002, November 18). Legal Issues for eCommerce Business. [Web] Available from [April 9, 2011] Turban, E. King, D. Lee, J. and D. Viehland. (2002) Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. 3rd Ed. USA: Prentice Hall University of West Florida. Web Presence. [Web] Available from [April 9, 2011] Read More