Franchise Money Maker

Internet Marketing with Web 2.0
This artocle is written and owned by James Schramko

In the rapidly evolving world of internet marketing, players need to have Web 2.0 strategies and techniques included in their marketing plans, and to understand the nature of this powerful platform.

Whereas regular marketing was a process of message generation and delivered by a one-way process (marketer to customer), Web 2.0 marketing is controlled by peer-to-peer communication.

The rise of social media powered by Web 2.0 is as dramatic a change for marketing as the telephone was for voice communications, and is described by Wikipedia as “the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.”

In an era where customers can openly and freely discuss your products and services, and post compliments and complaints that can be discovered by thousands of Internet users - marketers need to not only be aware of, but be involved in, social marketing, as well.

Peers trust these reviews - social proof is extremely powerful, and though you cannot control others’ messages, you can influence the direction of the conversation by being involved.

Here are some ways for internet marketers to start embracing the social marketing phenomenon.

Learn about it

Know the different platforms that are available, and see how each is being used to great effect. Find the ones that are right for your business model and your niche.

Include it in your plan

While Web 2.0 marketing opportunities can pop up without any involvement from you, it is useful to think strategically about committing your online marketing resources. Keep an eye out for natural opportunities for social marketing.

Communicate

Social media sites rely on two (or many) way communication and there are many ways of joining in. Add tools like blogs, wikis, tags, surveys and quizzes, videos and audios to your websites - and enable comments on blogs.

You can’t wait for your audience to come to your site, join the conversations on other people’s blogs, online forums, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter etc.

Good content travels

Make valuable and interesting posts that readers will just have to bookmark, and share - it’s a type of viral marketing. Interesting and original content gets forwarded rapidly - just like a virus. Fresh content is gobbled up quickly. Encourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content - do this by posting bookmark buttons on your site.

Sight and Sound

Video sharing sites like YouTube are too big a marketing opportunity to overlook, so go out of your way to create short videos and post them to YouTube and other video-sharing sites. The search engines will reward you with good rankings, and your message will be seen by a potential audience of millions. As well, how-to’s, interviews, and inspirational stories can be recorded as podcasts. Set up newsfeeds for releases of audio and video content so your audience can opt in and be notified of new releases

By engaging your audience, social media marketing gives you the opportunity to turn strangers into followers and followers into customers. Your followers are your online salespeople who promote your products and services and if you deliver value, they’ll spread the word.

The best way to get top social media exposure is providing original and interesting content that readers will just have to share with their peers.

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Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
-Benjamin Franklin

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