Internet Marketing Course -
Web 2.0 Internet Marketing - Part II

Executive Summary:

Now that we have defined the major Web 2.0 applications, let's look at some examples of how to include them in your organization's Internet Marketing program. And remember, what we're looking for are examples of how these applications "facilitate collaboration and sharing between users". In other words, how do we participate in the "communities".

In general, Internet marketers can utilize Web 2.0 applications in one of three ways:

1. The application can be added to your organization's existing online presence to increase its (searchable) content and its "site stickiness",
2. The application can be part of another organization's Web presence that you can potentially advertise on, and/or
3. The application can be part of another organization's Web presence to which you contribute content, and that content can potentially contain marketing information about your goods or services.

• Blogs
  
• User Reviews
  
• Wikis
  
• Forums
  
• Podcasts
  
• Social Networks
  
• Social Bookmarking
  
• Comparison Shopping
  
• Mobile Web
  
• Web Portals
  

Blogs - The way I got familiar with blogs and blogging was (and continues to be) to use a blog as the defacto "What's New " page for this Internet Marketing Course.

When I see an Internet Marketing-related story on another Web site or Blog, I grab the first 2-3 paragraphs and add it to my Internet Marketing Guide blog, including my comments about the story as well as full attribution and links back to the article's source. (When you visit my blog, be sure to follow several of the Technorati tag links at the bottom of each blog entry to learn more about "blog tagging".)

I think this use of a blog as a win-win-win-win situation. My readers get the latest info on an Internet Marketing-related subject, the original author/Web site gets free publicity plus backlinks to their posting, and Blogger, the free service I use to publish my blog, and my Internet Marketing Guide blog get some great, timely content with very little effort on our parts!

From an Internet Marketing perspective, when it comes to blogs and blogging, it's not just about starting your own blog, it's also about contributing to other, related blogs. One of the very best ways to market yourself and your products/services is to be a regular contributor ("commentor") to individual blog entries. Make sure you include a footer with each comment that gives your name or screen name and a link back to a page on your Web site.

How do you know when there's a new posting on your favorite blog - if possible, sign up to receive each new blog posting as an email and/or sign up to receive that blog's RSS feed.

Click on the following link to learn much more about blogs, blogging and additional uses of this Web 2.0 application: Internet Marketing Blogging

User Reviews - Whether you sell products or services, make sure that your Customers can comment on those products/services on your Web site. Why? Because the opinions your potential Customers value most are the opinions of your existing Customers!

How do you do this if you're a small company, for example, a re-seller of CD's and DVD's? One way is to become an eBay member and open a store front (or Amazon) and allow your eBay members/Customers to vote on your performance. It will cost you money in the short run (fees to eBay or Amazon), but the continuous voting by your Customers on your performance will provide invaluable positive comments and even favorable ratings in a formal rating system, for your company.

Click on the following link to see how eBay does it: eBay Feedback Forum

Wikis - I think this is one Web 2.0 application that does not lend itself to working as a Customer-facing application in the "real" business world.

Why? Remember the first sentence in Wikipedia's definition of a wiki - "A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration." Although I love the concept of a wiki, and I obviously think Wikipedia, itself a wiki, is a great resource, a "Customer wiki" in which anyone can "add, remove, edit and change content, without the need for registration" could never work.

The way I do see wikis working as a useful business application is as an intranet (private business network) application. In that mode, contributors from around the world can collaborate on projects in a wiki because, again, as the Wikipedia definition states, "this ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring".

Where wikis also work for Internet marketers is as a potential advertising medium. Many wikis are supported by advertising that appears on their Web pages, so the effort from an Internet Marketing perspective, is to find those wikis whose content most closely aligns with the interests of YOUR potential Customers, and then advertise your goods or services on those wikis.

Also, you can contribute to a wiki's content, and that addition can in some way also highlight your goods and services, but be careful! Make sure you read the rules for adding content before you do so! You don't want your first contribution to be universally panned by the existing wiki community because it's too commercial!

(Internet) Forums - As noted earlier, forums (also known as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, electronic discussion groups, discussion forums, or bulletin boards) are probably the oldest Web 2.0 application, having first come to life in the 1980's.

A great example of a forum is Webmaster World (WMW). Once on the Webmaster World Home page, click on any link in the LEFT column. Each of these links starts with a question posed by a WMW subscriber and is followed by the answers to that question by other WMW members. Each of these "conversations" is called "thread" and each forum on WMW has multiple threads.

How can an Internet Marketer make use of forums? As discussed at the top of this page, there are 3 basic ways:

1. You could add a forums section to your existing Web site that centers on discussions about the products/services your company offers.
2. You could advertise on a forums Web site if your products/services are related to the "conversations" in that forum. For example, look in the top right corner of each Webmaster World Web page - ads rotate thru this location.
3. You could find forums whose discussions center on products/services like those offered by your company and post answers or comments to questions being discussed, while in a non-marketing way adding a bit of information about how your products or services could help.

Podcasts - An Internet Marketer can make use of podcasts (digital audio files) in 1 or more of 3 ways:

1. Produce podcasts that discuss certain aspects of the products/services your company offers, and distribute them via your organization's Web site. These podcasts could be self-produced and feature employees speaking to your "audience", or production could be farmed out to a company that specializes in creating this type of media, including providing professionals to record the podcasts.
2. Advertise on podcasts produced by other organizations if your products/services are related to the content of those podcasts. For example, the publisher of a trade journal in your industry might be producing and distributing podcasts by "industry experts" that your organization could "sponsor".
3. Members of your organization could be the "industry experts" mentioned in #2 above.

Social Networks - An Internet Marketer can make use of Social Networks in a number of ways - three are listed below. However, before beginning any type of marketing activity in a specific community, it's a good idea to join that community in order to understand how community members like to interact with one another.

1. Assuming you've joined one of the major online social networks like Facebook or MySpace, you could turn your passion for a specific interest or activity into your method of marketing to members of those social networks who share the same passion. comScore Media Metrix ranked Facebook as the 16th most visited site on the Web for October 2007 with 32 million unique visitors, so there's bound to be a fair number of Facebook members who share your interest, regardless of what that interest may be!
   
   For example, I recently joined Facebook to see if could generate some viral marketing "buzz" for my company's (MatTek Corp.) products that help eliminate the need to use animals to test the safety of new cosmetics, personal care products, household cleaning agents, chemicals and pharmaceutical products. It's a worthy cause, and my company is very small, so I thought I'd see if I could get some free publicity for it while informing Facebook members interested in animal rights that another alternative to animal testing exists and get them excited enough to pass this information on to their friends. If you're a Facebook member, please login to Facebook, search for "MatTek Corporation" and give me a "poke"!
   
   

Please Note: This page is a work in progress.

Social Bookmarking -

Comparison Shopping -

Mobile Web -

Web Portals -

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