The ever expanding opportunities offered by the Internet, never ceases to amaze and excite me, and I have worked in internet marketing for 10 years.

Take last weekend, for example.  WSI held an international conference in Birmingham, UK, bringing together over 140 WSI internet consultants from the UK and Europe and a number of consultants from further afield, including South Africa, USA, Canada and even Panama.

The Keynote Speaker from Google identified the changing demographic from a marketing perspective of dealing with the needs of an ever increasing number of people for whom the internet forms a key part of their daily habits, whether searching, surfing or socialising. As we continue to see the decline in the effectiveness of traditional marketing channels for the 30+ age group, we are seeing the emergence of the next generation who have barely been exposed to traditional marketing methods and who would routinely turn to their friends on Facebook for a view on a product or service provider, than being wowed by a glossy advert in a magazine.

The same message was driven home by WSI's own in house presenters and service/technology partners highlighting how we as WSI consultants are accelerating this process for our clients in this rapidly emerging environment. Internet marketing has become digital marketing, utilising online media such as YouTube and Facebook!

As always bringing so many experts together is a key value of the conference allowing the sharing of experiences and reviews of best practices, in different markets, environments and countries, Case studies highlighted the fundamental changes in the performance capabilities of both traditional websites and those that utilised current best practices and digital media marketing, with the latter easily dominating the Search Engines.