Lonelygirl's Lesson

| September 13, 2006, 12:17 PM

I've watched with fascination as a community of sleuths hunted down and outed Lonelygirl15. Her YouTube videos--and people's fascination with them--prompted today's New York Times story "The Lonelygirl that Really Wasn't." This week, 18-year old Matt Foremski revealed Lonelygirl15's identity. She's not homeschooled, nor is she lonely.

Some of my colleagues will probably look at what the Lonelygirl phenomenon means for viral marketing or user created content on sites like YouTube. I'll take a different tack, noting how much the Web has changed in the last three to four years. The revolution isn't over, it's just beginning.

Blogs, wikis and other Internet tools are harnessing the skills of a large number of people, in a startling collective consciousness that has huge implications for many individuals, communities, governments and businesses. There are lessons, too, about the longevity of Web content and the power of search (cached Google pages helped reveal Lonelygirl's identity).

What happens when the collective consciousness turns to you and your business or products? Ahead of yesterday's Apple "It's Showtime" event, bloggers revealed Apple patent applications and other Internet-gleaned tidbits as a means of guessing what products or services might be revealed. Most of the stuff didn't materialize yesterday, but there's always "one more thing" from Apple. Some of last week's speculation might turn out to be future revelation.

The lesson: Many bloggers or community blogsites specialize in digging out corporate or product secrets, and their genie isn't magically going back into the bottle. Once again, the Web is changing the rules of smart business practice.

Companies that don't understand what has happened over the last few years should electroshock their corporate synapses. JupiterResearch has closely monitored these newer tools and put out blogs, reports and podcasts about them and what they mean to our clients. My colleagues monitoring this stuff are top of field. I pipe in on their behalf because I've been on the Web since 1994, and I have watched lots of changes over the last 12 years. Not since the early days of the Web have I seen such a period of disruptive and, frankly, exciting change.

Some suggested recent reports my colleagues have written:

* Feed Marketing: Use of RSS as Alternate Messaging Medium," June 21, 2006

* Music and Community: Low-Cost, Authentic Promotion," May 19, 2006

* "Blogs and Consumer-Created Content: Publisher Tactics for Meeting the Challenge of Citizen Journalism," April 28, 2006

* "RSS Comes of Age: Budgeting, Deploying, and Measuring RSS," April 26, 2006

* The Future of News: Capturing a New Audience Online," December 20, 2005

* "PR and Blogs: Monitor and Prepare for Inter-Consumer Communication," October 27, 2005

* "User-Created Content: Reaching Younger and More-Involved Readers," October 18, 2005