Will Twitter or Facebook win their battle for dominance and survival? How will the internet influence our life in 2010? Are you prepared for the future? These questions not only need to be asked in connection with the looming year 2010, but are required to be continuously considered, since The Web 2.0 is characterized as especially dynamic. That’s why it’s so hard to make predictions about future developments. That’s the reason why online marketing wants a system that guarantees the observation of their environment just like the management cycle.

In my thesis I developed a system like a circuit which is based on common management practices and traditional strategic marketing procedures. Within this cycle the Online Self-marketer can continually improve his online presence and by that guarantee sustainable development. I included several control methods by which it will be possible to evaluate the efforts made.

In Online Self-Marketing the most important aim is to achieve a positive online self-presentation. Every internet user should think positive of the person presented on the personal website or in the network profile. Since I wrote my thesis in the perspective of the student, the second important aim is the contact to an employee of an HR department, which is crucial for acquiring the “dream job” after graduation. The third important aim is the personal aim, which will differ from person to person. The student usually is interested in a certain industry, for example can it be an aim to become an expert for B2B Marketing in the oil business.

Around these aims flows the self-marketing cycle, all steps needed to continuously improve the online presentation. Naturally you need to start with the actual state analysis. According to traditional marketing you conduct a strategic audit observing the environment (PESTLE) and the internal situation. This includes not only the current period of recession, the personal characteristics but also the legal situation. After all this information has been gathered, they should be used to perform a SWOT analysis.

In the Target State analysis the personal 3. AIM will be identified. The product market growth matrix by Ansoff or other tools can be used. The strategic portfolio analysis is only useful when a person already has more than one source of income, for example a normal job, a consulting business and the publishing of books.

Strategies are developed in the third step, instruments get selected in the fourth and after that all taken measures have to be controlled according to their effectiveness. All this I will describe in detail in future posts. Especially important is the connection between “control” and “actual state analysis”, where the end of the cycle flows into a new beginning. Only the consideration of the past failures and mistakes can help to form a more successful Self-Marketing in the future.