Mar 11 2008
Is Internet Marketing a “Real” Profession?
There are several ways to approach the question of “Is Internet Marketing a “Real” Profession?”…First , you must be able to define what the concept of a “real profession” is. We can probably all agree that good examples of “real professions” would be doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. These are considered “real professions” because they involve a high level of expertise, training, and experience. What if I told you that a good web marketer needs to possess those same traits? Would you then consider it a real profession? However you define this term, I think it is fair to say that a crossroads is right around the corner for this industry, that will either further increase our credibility or further reduce it. From what I am hearing at seminars, and reading on blogs the future is taking shape very quickly for web marketers. It seems like everyday something happens to somehow change the dymanics of the Internet, and how we are able to use it.
I don’t think we are very far from knowing how the field of Internet marketing will transform for the long term. Major search engines such as Google can easily make or break this entire industry by deciding how they want their services to work for small/medium size clients. For instance, Google can easily create different portals and services available to business owners, so that Google can do everything themselves. If this is how Google sees the future of Internet marketing, this will dictate web marketing careers, and if they expand of or shrink. If Google feels that they can make more advertising money by having your adwords campaigns run by their employees, you better believe that decision will be made soon. The same thing goes with website creation and SEO. Google might say they can do this all themselves, with the help of more account representatives, therefore sticking a huge thorn in the side of the web marketing industry all together.
Another way to judge if Internet Marketing is a “real” Profession, and to see where the field is going in the future, is by waiting to see how many colleges create a web based marketing program. At this point there are very few programs that cater to the online marketplace, but we might see this start to change over the next few years. The statistics show that graduates who enter this field can make a very nice entry level living. An entry level salary in the web marketing area can be substantially higher than an entry level Public Relations or Sales job. Yet, colleges cater to those types of career training, and not web related marketing. Well respected studies have been compiled showing entry level income for web marketers. This might help to pop up new programs across the country. If this happens, expect for the general public to better respect the industry, and parents to push their kids into this field. When major universities recognize the efforts of web marketers, you can expect more credibility across the board, and lots of new people applying for SEO/SEM jobs in the next 4-5 years.
Where the industry is going, and how much respect the industry is given down the road, we will have to wait and see. Thoughts?
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