The closest thing to the next iteration of the Internet, in my mind, is Twitter – and Facebook status messages, to some degree. With Twitter, I can build a community of people with common interest who are committed to sharing information with each other. I no longer have to search out content I want on the Web. The most interesting articles come to me from my fellow Tweeters – them sharing with me and vice versa.

All of this sharing of content has me wondering why large content companies like Conde Nast, Hearst and Time Warner sit on the sidelines instead of following that old “carpe diem” adage. I know there are people at those companies who are focused on these things – people much smarter than me, for sure (I know this because I’ve tried to work at them all in the past and have been unceremoniously declined).

The opportunity for media companies is not with Twitter or Facebook themselves (at least, not at reasonable prices). Instead, the opportunity is in the delivery systems, namely applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop. These types of apps, I believe they are well positioned to become the Internet version of TV. They will give us access to all of our “channels” of information and, in turn, be a (maybe ‘the’) major interface to the Web (sounds outlandish but ask Twitter users who use an app how often they visit Twitter on the Web).

Media companies should be snapping up these applications because in the short-term they represent a way to provide targeted content to users. People are reading tweets by people they’ve self-selected as being interesting and sending tweets about their own interests. Media companies can use the content of those tweets to present relevant content from their publications (or even their competitors’ for a fee) in a separate pane. This content would be timely and easily shared.

In the long-term, as social networking becomes more popular globally and the demographics better represent the general population, media companies will have a real-time feed into a social barometer – allowing them to create content that anticipates where things are headed rather than reacting to where things were. Additionally, the media companies who figures this out first will own an interface to the web. That, in and of itself, is a big deal.

The evolution I seek is all about integration. I want my emails, IMs, texts, social networking streams and all of my other web communications to be connected by a single strand. I want the content I like to come to me rather than having to search it out. Most of all, I want it to be easy. Social media apps are at the nascent stages of making this real. When it happens, the Internet will begin making sense to me again.

1. Make Your Brand Unique and Compelling

It’s not necessary to over-design the face of your brand, but having a signature move or two could be helpful. Michael had signature dance moves, including the moonwalk, which will forever be associated with him. The Thriller video changed the way the world looked at music videos. Add to all of that the sequence jackets and the Neverland theme park and it’s a compelling story we all wanted to see. What does your brand have that sets it apart?

2. Don’t Be Selfish … Be a Giver

It’s estimated that Michael Jackson gave over $300 million in philanthropic donations over the course of his lifetime. He used his talents and abilities to make the world better for those most in need. In his professional life, there are many stories of how his influence, attention to detail and professionalism helped others become stronger artists. Michael’s giving helped him acquire goodwill that sustained him through trying times. What’s your company doing to build goodwill from which you can draw when necessary?

3. Don’t Rush It

Michael Jackson was a notorious perfectionist. For a given CD with 12-15 tracks, it is reported he recorded 30-40 tracks from which to choose the songs that ended up on a record. It wasn’t about just getting any album out the door. It was about demanding the very best from himself and those around him. Doing that required time but proved worth it. Is your company making the effort and taking the time to produce the best possible products for your customers?

4. Seize Opportunities and Make Sound Investments with Positive ROI

The King of Pop’s success made him a wealthy man. However, it was his investments that protected that wealth as he became more of a spendthrift. Perhaps his most prescient investment was the $47.5 million purchase of the Beatles’ catalog of songs in 1985 – prior to the modern day importance of catalogs. Today, the catalog, half-owned by Sony, is estimated to be worth between $600 million and $1 billion. What type of investments is your company making?

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Refresh

Michael’s career was undoubtedly aided by his ability to change – to refresh, if you will. The songs he sang as a child, though full of adult emotion, were different from those he sang during his solo career. Songs from his Off the Wall album were very different from those on Thriller and each successive album had a different feel. Through it all the public paid attention. Have you thought about how to refresh to keep your customers and clients interested in what you do?

Yahoo is one of my favorite companies. I don’t know why. I’ve never been employed there or otherwise worked for them. I just admire what they stand for to me –innovation, excellence and, so I think, fun. (In fact, I admire them so much I forced my fiancée to drive with me to Sunnyvale during a recent visit to the Bay area so I could get a picture with the logo – must be logged into Facebook.) As we all know, Yahoo has struggled a bit recently. Jerry Yang, the co-founder who retook the helm last year, stepped down a few days ago under external and probably some internal pressure, in no small part due to his reluctance to accept a buyout offer from Microsoft.

Search and advertising… We know it’s hot. Almost everyone searches for something on the Internet and what better way to make money than to present relevant ads to people searching for a particular topic? Yahoo has spun its wheels chasing after Google’s leadership position there and is finally realizing there’s nothing there but also-ran status. The question becomes what else is there? The answer … plenty.

Someone reminded me recently that the iPhone didn’t exist a year and a half ago. At the time, “experts” thought it would be years before people took real advantage of Internet access on their phones. My how things change in a year and half. The opportunities that will exist in a year, or better yet five years, are very different from the ones we see today. It is likely that our use of personal computers will change drastically, as will the way we find and consume information. Ubiquitous Internet, location driven content and advertising and the emergence of the web as our go to platform (over Windows, OS X and most other operating systems) for productivity applications will radically change the Internet landscape. Search will be important, but it is my guess that the delivery of relevant content and the platform(s) on which that content is delivered will be pivotal – not to mention the opportunities that I couldn’t begin to fathom. Yahoo, if they can hang on and with the right leadership, will find the opportunities and seize them.

Yahoo has to stop competing with Google. I said it before when I initially wrote about the whole Microhoo idea. I’m saying it again. It’s impossible to see the road ahead of you when you’re only looking at your competitors’ rear ends. It’s the whole Red Ocean Strategy idea mentioned in Blue Ocean Strategy. Instead, it’s time for Yahoo to put on the brakes, re-assess where things are going, create their own value curve and shoot for the moon. They’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain…

It is impossible not to notice the numerous high-priced media reviews that have wrapped up or that are under way. Sprint just selected Goodby for its media duties ($1.2 bil). Over at Sprint, they went and chose Carat to manage its $600 million media portfolio. As if it wasn’t enough to have almost $2 billion of media in play, J&J just went and upped the ante by putting their entire global media business ($3 billion) up for grabs. It really begs the question “Why now?”

The answer is, of course, Marketnology. Marketing is changing and few media buyers and planners can really answer the million/billion question — how do marketers effectively reach their target audiences in a marketing landscape that is fragmented across media and in which consumers are tuning out more and more. Consumers are integrating digital and interactive technologies into their lives at hyper-speed, yet media agencies still have a hard time determining how to reach them — especially since many of the highest value consumers are the most difficult to engage (the story of life, if you ask me).

The media agencies who are winning these pitches understand the fundamentals of Marketnology:

• Understand your audience
• Know what/when/how/why they use their favorite media
• Develop real KPIs for measuring,
• Create engaging messages
• Measure, measure, measure

…and you have to do it all with a focus on cross-media optimization and truly understanding how your customers integrate traditional and digital media in their own lives so that you know how do build your mix. Perhaps even more importantly, you must keep an eye towards global opportunities.