Web 3.0, social media and the paradox of choice

Whether you’re looking for a pair of shoes, advice on health or a PR agency, there is now massive choice on the web. The original concept of the internet was as a tool to empower ordinary people to gain access to knowledge and share it with others. Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of his invention, the world wide web, was to connect humanity. And then came Google.

Google is undoubtedly one of, if not the single greatest enabler of our time. It has almost single-handedly facilitated that initial vision of the internet and completely removed problems with finding relevant information on a global platform with billions of pages. Indeed, so good is Google at what it does that it has brought about a shift in how people use the web. No longer do we want help finding information on the internet; we now want help choosing between the mass of information that is delivered to us in around 0.4 seconds.

As a result of this, it’s no longer enough to be on the first page of Google, once considered the holy grail of SEO. Now we have to provide guidance when someone scans that page and clicks on our links; people want evidence that our website provides them with the answers we’re looking for, whether that be that those shoes are indeed fantastic and we can deliver them in two days, that the advice we’re giving them on their rash is accurate, or that we are the very best PR agency for the job.

The impact on marketing strategy of this cultural shift is significant, and this is where social media comes into its own. People are now looking for recommendations to give them confidence and to back up what they read on a website. Being listed is no longer enough and, whether they be e-retailers, corporate websites or even internet directories, those sites that can offer genuine opinion from consumers are the ones that are going to get ahead. Put simply, social media provides access to such opinion.

As I said previous posts, the social web is all about sharing. It is the biggest form of word of mouth the world has ever seen, connecting friends, colleagues and strangers and building trusted relationships across thousands of miles. And marketing communications has strived for word of mouth marketing (now known more commonly as viral marketing) since day one. Social media provides a solution to the paradox of the web now giving us too much choice, from a friend’s recommendation on Facebook to a stranger’s opinions on a forum to a review on a directory site.

This trend will become even more significant for marketers as web 3.0 becomes reality. The concept behind the semantic web is that computers will be able to define the meaning of information on the internet without guidance from humans; the web will be able to define context and sentiment, and computers will be able to analyse content and links rather than merely connect. Given this, the influence of the social web can only grow. There’s no going back, and the sooner marketers fully understand this, the better.

So where do we go from here? I’m very interested in your opinions. Is your own web behaviour different now than it was a couple of years ago? Do you find the plethora of choice delivered to you by Google too much? Do you look for recommendations and guidance from others in order to make choices? And what impact does all this have on us as marketers?

Paul Sutton is Head of Social Communications at Oxford-based agency BOTTLE PR, one of the UK’s fastest growing PR agencies. He’s responsible for devising creative social media strategies and ensuring that account teams make them work across the board to meet commercial client objectives.

With 14 years experience in marketing communications, Paul is very active across the social web under the rather modest handle, @ThePaulSutton, and blogs on social media and the evolving communications environment at The Social Web and Social Media Today. He is fascinated by the psychological and cultural impact of digital media and the web, and his interest lies in completely integrated communications strategies. And wine.