The Internet Sure Is Changing Things

Last month Facebook's 23-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, boasted to hundreds of advertisers and agencies that raised more than a couple of eyebrows - "Once every 100 years, the way that media works fundamentally changes."I think Zuckerberg's pearl of wisdom rings true in many ways.

Today, more than ever before, media and advertising are changing. Just look at the rush of 40 year-olds flocking to social networks like Facebook. The net is for sure living up to its promise – that of changing media and advertising from a one-to-many stage to a many-to-many experience.

For us in PR, this could make Zuckerberg's seemingly irrational exuberance seem not so irrational after all. Matter of fact, the profound changes to which he was referring are already under way. What's changed most today is how information is accessed. Up until now, the Internet has been a complex, and sometimes even messy search tool, used to sort through huge globs of information. But what comes next?

Search, (and it does have huge benefits), doesn't do a great job of helping people collaborate.

I see the social connections of sites like Facebook as a credible alternative to search in how we find information, consume media and make product decisions—all as a result of peer recommendation – after all, peers by definition, have common interests. Obviously referrals are very powerful and we tend to trust people we know rather than advertisement containing blithe marketing messages