Online Media, Internet Marketing Campaign

Online media refers to www sites and servers and all the available content for www browsers. Generally, Internet sites get written in html format and can only be viewed on Internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc. As such, online media provides a huge medium for advertising.

Possible online media advertising forums include: Google Ad Words, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN, AOL Media Networks, 7Search.com, Miva.com, ebay.com, myspace.com, facebook.com, and even more search engines, comparison shopping engines, social networks, and content specific and niche websites.

Two of the biggest advantages in using online media for advertising are that it is relatively cost effective. There are no production costs for paper, ink, or anything else that would go into a direct marketing campaign. Also, once an ad goes online, it is instantly seen by a large number of Internet users. Each and every Internet user who sees that ad is a potential consumer. Whether they purchase the product or service generally depends on the quality of that ad and what the user’s needs are. Either way, using online media for an advertising plan gets almost instant customer response. Additionally, online media makes communication between buyers and sellers and advertisers and customers not only simpler, but also quicker. Any needs and difficulties on the consumers’ end can be easily emailed to the advertisers and they will receive it within seconds.

“Online media” can also refer to the conventional media (newspapers, television, radio, etc) extending out into the world of the Internet. With the Internet being a public and global phenomenon, everyone who logs on has the chance to join the online media community. The number of bloggers, photo and video sharers, and online newsletters grows each and every day. With the advent of message boards, forums, email, chat rooms, and instant messenger programs, word of mouth has become a much more powerful way of not only communicating, but advertising as well.

As with using online media for advertising, using the Internet for media purposes means that a news item posted on the world wide web can reach more people more quickly than a magazine or newspaper article that has been printed and published in a periodical can. Once a news item gets posted on the Internet, one can expect an almost immediate reaction to the information it conveys. In the developing field of online journalism, an Internet journalist has the entire world as a potential audience rather than just the readers of a city or local newspaper.

There are several drawbacks to using the online media for news. One of the major ones, again, has to do with advertising. While print newspapers and other news sources lose classified advertisements to online news sources due to their audience being targeted by interest and not region, many news sites still do not generate enough revenue to support themselves.

A second drawback is that those who participate in the online media and Internet advertising are more likely to be sued for libel than a journalist working for a newspaper or the broadcast media since they do not share all the same first amendment rights nor does an Internet journalist have the backing of an already established news institution to help protect them.