From politics, to markets, to opinion. The web can and does influence.
The web is a syndication machine as distributed computing allows networks to talk with one another with ease. It is what has given us Google and their huge computing power. It is what RSS is about.
This ability to manipulate the perceptions of the crowds is what I alluded to in my early 2008 http://www.positiveonrealestate.com mission as a way to take back the news and in fact change perceptions thru multiple syndications.
Pat Kitano (listen to our social media interview/podcast with Pat Kitano) is employing similar techniques by getting "armies" of micro bloggers. What I would call at its core content publishers that are building pages of juicy content to drive traffic to their home base.
As a SEO professional, I think I could add some strategies that would help them get social traffic and organic as they can coalesce, but will often have to be received independently.
Another way of thinking about this is to employ the social networks as a propaganda campaign.
Does this stuff work? You bet otherwise how can stupid rumors like the Yahoo Microsoft be passed off as news this past weekend:
The Times of London reported that Microsoft may acquire Yahoo’s search business for $20 billion dollars. While the Times report included detailed information, named parties, including Velocity Investment Group founder Ross Levinsohn, said there is “No truth to it.”
So how does one go about propagandizing the web? Stay tuned and sign into http://www.realestateguerilla.com as we are about to open it back up for more membership spots.
How can this web propaganda work?
Ask Obama. Or any politician of late. The Dems have done it especially well online the last two elections.
Why is it that buyers won't buy, even though all indicators are that the market has hit bottom (notice my own pre supposition here? This is used allot in propaganda)? The web can rapidly deploy ideas or memes that spread across multiple channels and change perceptions and beliefs. Exactly what you want as a marketer.
