During one of my recent trips my eye got caught by this Internet hotspot in London. It made me think about what the Internet has become.

Few years ago people were using Internet and cyber cafes to check their emails and surf. Today the web is much more. Chats, social networking, online gaming, calls, live/on-demand video streaming, etc.

The same shift happened in business too. Are you familiar with those barbecue parties in which people ask you “What do you do?” I usually answer online PR and marketing (or more in general online communications). If I think about their reaction

• Few years back was: “Oh yeah… so you are into ‘email marketing’…”
• Today is: “Oh yeah I know what you do… I’m on facebook, youtube and twitter too!”

Hehehhh if you are a serious practitioner, and not a carpetbagger, I probably know what you are thinking right now so my answer to you is: “No you are not the only one noticing this… Today lots of people believe they know what’s PR or marketing on the web just because they are on twitter, youtube or facebook… but this is a topic for another blog post “.

What was running in my mind when I was looking at the huge sign of this Internet hotspot wasn’t the central-hub role that the web is playing in the everyday life and business of many. My thoughts went out to all the practitioners that took distances for years from social media and that now are jumping on the bandwagon just because twitter and facebook went mainstream.

Shouldn’t surprise the fact that although now they are embracing these new communication channels, they are still not getting it right forgetting about strategy and ending up focusing on tactics first (I’m sure I’m not the only one seeing this either). But again, I should dedicate another blog post to this topic.

What do you think when you look at this photo I took? Take this as a conversation starter and share your thoughts, I’ll keep them in mind and use them (giving you credit of course) as inspiration when I’ll blog about some of the ‘related’ topics I mentioned in this post.

Via.Andrea