ThinkAccelerator MarketingWeb 2.0 (some say 3.0)….its the buzzword these days on internet. It’s the social phenomenon that’s sweeping the Internet and big companies are taking note. Recent acquisitions by media firms for website communities indicates the power of such social websites and their potential.
With video sharing website like Youtube that’s barely 18 month old going for $1.65 B to Google and Facebook which is a social site for students mainly, recently rejected offers up to $1B reportedly from Yahoo. Heard of Second Life? Large MNCs are building virtual worlds in there to test market their branding and projects to target online demographics.
What does this have to do with regular businesses and individual marketers ? Plenty. The smarter marketers are now building out channels of community to reach their target audience and create a relationship. Whilst most people are accustomed to using the Internet to serve up information from the search engines unilaterally, social sites now allow people to participate in rating content and discuss. If you content sucks or you are not deem serving that community’s interest (e. g if you just keep spammng or send offers to that group), you’d be voted down.
The effect is that people are starting to use sites like Stumbe Upon to search for stuff and reading ratings and reviews. People have reported that using sites like Stumble Upon actually becomes more fun, informative and efficient for their own search.
Let me know below how you or some small businesses you know are taking advantage of this and getting incredible results.