Like Bees to Honey

The number of “wired” Americans has risen sharply. Three out of four have easy access to the Internet, two out of three via high-speed connections. As cheaper smartphones and netbooks proliferate, the community enjoying constant access only grows.

Last year, a Harris Interactive poll found that 95% of the American public characterized access to the web as “very important” or “important.” A number of those polled even said they’d rather give up sex than lose their Internet access!

Whether the Internet is truly an acceptable substitute for sex is questionable. But there’s no question the web’s a sociable place.

The number of Americans who maintain a profile on a social networking site more than quadrupled in the past three years according to Internet Retailer. Nielsen Online estimates the amount of time users spend updating their status on social networks nearly doubled in the past year.

There’s been even more velocity in the growth of blogs, tumbleblogs and microblogging. Thanks to camera phones and mobile apps allowing bloggers to post from pretty much anywhere, citizen journalists are everywhere. News of a major world event, celebrity misfortune or political scandal may reach you by tweet before it hits the wire services.

You may be more likely to see television commercials when they’re shown on sites like Hulu than when they were first broadcast on network television and you Tivo’d past them.

The digerati can speculate on the resale value of MySpace and debate whether Twitter has indeed led us to Web 3.0 with semantic predictive filtering, but what’s undeniable is that tools like these have permeated our lives.

The fact that Rupert Murdoch’s plans for MySpace or Biz Stone’s pronouncements about Twitter are breathlessly reported, not only in industry blogs, but also in traditional media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times tells you something—that social networks, blogging and microblogging are all squarely in the mainstream. Of course, we knew that the first time someone re-tweeted Oprah. But if you need more proof, just look at how many column-inches of print media are now devoted to promoting their own blogs, websites and social media profiles. Traditional media isn’t trying to compete with new media; it’s trying to incorporate it in an attempt to stay relevant. Clearly some major cultural shifts are under way.

Businesses that want to stay competitive know they have to dive into this roiling stew of new media, old media, social media and social messaging because their customers are always on and more connected than ever.