Web 2.0 and the social marketing phenomenon

by Ahmed Rabea

Utilizing social networking in net marketing

Social networking sites as a marketing tool

In the advent of the so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon, come the next innovations of the best programmers, web developers, net marketers, and web readers/users online. This era of the web does not necessarily refer to an actual reformatting or reprogramming of the World Wide Web, but rather, it refers to the overall development of cyber space into a more dynamic, user-centered “place” created for, with, and by the global internet community itself.

There are many arguments that pervade the idea of the new web, especially as to how and when it started. But by its very definition, what can only be assumed is that it rolled into action somewhere around today. An evidence of this is the boom of social networking, such as the website twitter.

Twitter is the most globally prevalent social networking site operational today. Millions of users are tuned into this social phenomenon. This website has been hailed as the site that revolutionized the format of social networking –blame it on its restricting each tweet (a short message or update that can be published by a member on their page) to 140 characters.

A tweet can then be viewed by a member’s followers, or just on the member’s site. Besides online, you can post via SMS or Short Message Service, and also with other related applications. Imagine sending a text message to the site, and having it read by your followers –which can number in millions.

This is where the Twitter System 2.0 comes in, a method of using the site in marketing. Its taking tweeter’s broadcasting power and using it to direct site traffic or sell web products. This is how:

Traffic is best directed organically. Let me explain. You may have heard of the phrase “content is king”. This means that the best way to gain traffic is by creating the best content: information that people will actually find useful, or genuinely interesting.

By consistently posting relevant data that links to sites, downloadable viral e-books (which can either be free or come with a small charge) a site member can garner a loyal following, which will subsequently increase with a member’s popularity.

First developed by Robert G Allen, the method is just at its infancy, similar to how SEO or Search Engine Optimization was less than a decade ago. In the same way that search engines were back then, social networking sites are still in the basic stages of development –very ripe for the taking as far as marketing is concerned.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for the Twitter System 2.0, net marketing, and the development of the web itself. The global web community never sleeps; along with the programmers, developers, designers, and industry pioneers, they are continuously molding cyber space into something better.

This is how the social web works. If something is interesting, it inevitably finds its way in the hands of social channels, passed on and on until that small idea translated into a web-based application is blown up into something larger than life itself.