It’s been a few days since I’ve written, which unfortunately means I have a thousand thoughts that I want/need to write. However, I will only burden you with the most pressing thought on my mind. This deep and burdensome idea came to me while running the Moab half marathon in Utah.

Throughout the entire 13.2 miles of running I pondered the great universe of web marketing. There are so many facets that we can focus on in our never ending quest of Internet visibility. With this in mind, as I came up on mile 10 and my body began to break down I had an epiphany. The breakthrough—there is such a thing as an individual’s Internet Grooming!

This may sound rudimentary but I noticed that up until recently someone’s IG was very static and one dimensional. Usually the makeup existed of only a simple website which probably changed once a year (if lucky). Then social networking exploded on the scene and the face of IG changed. Now you could change your appearance every day or hour if you so desired without having to know a single stroke of code. You could connect to your friends, make new ones, or find your true love. Second Life even took this concept a step further and made it so you could actually create a character who literally lived on the web.

However, as pain surged through all my muscles and joints as I very slowly moved past the picturesque beauty of Moab, I recognized that IG doesn’t need to just end at social networks (though for most web users it generally does). We have blogs, podcasts, videos, pictures and probably so much more, but often all these appendages of our IG are littered across the web. With all these tools at our finger tips I think there needs to be a central hub which ties everything together.

It is my proposal that this is where blogging comes in. I think many people try to create a website and tie everything together but a website isn’t flexible enough. Plus, it is the content which creates our identity, not a domain name with a nice design. Blogging is centered around content which allows us to not lose that important key of our identity.

When I talk about content I am talking about text, pictures, video, pod. Sadly, we can only incorporate two out of the five senses into our IG (sound and sight), but these two senses can create something that is rather tangible. So tangible that trends are showing that people are incorporating the Internet into their real existence more and more. I was even told yesterday of the movement in Japan where people lock themselves in their homes and don’t leave their Internet unless it’s to sleep, eat, or do your personal business!

It was upon crossing the finish line of the race that I recognized that the Cartensian philosophy, “I think, therefore I exist,” is inaccurate for the Internet. Instead our web philosophy is “I exist, therefore I have content.” This may sound a bit abstract, but it is by our blogs, videos, pictures, and podcasting which allows for our IG to exist in full force. Interestingly enough, we are not so much concerned if this existence is even true in the real world. We only care that your IG provides content for the rest of us to engage with and enjoy.