03 August 2009

How to Capitalize on Web 2.0

By Freddie Burch

Web 2.0 has often been described as the Web as platform, and if we think about the Web as a platform for interacting with content, we begin to see how it impacts design. Imagine a bunch of stores of content provided by different parties"companies, individuals, governments"upon which we could build interfaces that combine the information in ways no single domain ever could. Web 2.0 lets you share and incorporate multiple voices" your customers, your service reps, your employees"who quickly take the product, service, or idea in a direction that you could not alone. Often the technology will let you behave no other way. Web 2.0 represents the return of investment in internet startups. After the dotcom bust (the real end of Web 1.0) those wooing investment dollars needed a new rationale for investing in online ventures.

RSS feeds are one really valuable side of web 2.0. The idea that you can pull out content from a site without any formatting, that's a real bandwidth advantage. RSS hasn't yet reached the point where users of the technology bother to unsubscribe from feeds that don't generate quality content, so this is still an untapped channel to reinforce the facade. Plus, you're in beta!

One example of web 2.0 includes the massive social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Another example are the sharing sites, where articles and links are submitted and rated, such as Digg, Reddit and Propeller. Other web 2.0 services include multimedia content sites such as YouTube and Flickr. Of course, the latest to generate a huge amount of buzz has been Twitter, a service which lets you send out short blurbs to your followers.

With all of these available sites, services and tools how can your website take advantage of them? A great place to start is by making it easy for your website visitors to share your content with others. You can quickly add buttons and links that will allow users to post your content to social networking sites, or to vote for it once it has already been posted. This puts some power in the hands of your users and allows them to do some of the leg work for you.

Out of many ways of expressing love on myspace, one can choose flash scrollers, comment generators, graphics, flash comments, photo frames and so on. The simplest method is of course to write a comment yourself in your beloved's profile. Out of all these methods, love graphics score the best.

Additionally, you have to remember that social networking sites and all web 2.0 communities have different written and unwritten rules. The written rules apply to what you can actually promote and advertise, and how you can or cannot do so.

Blogging is probably one of the most powerful forms of self-expression and information dissemination today. The truth is that most people will just want to read what others say in blogs to get a more down-to-earth and real perspective on the things that are happening around the world today. If you want your content to be noticed, this would be a good way to do it.

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to marketing with web 2.0 services is that you need to have content that is memorable, unique, interesting and useful. You need to find a way to draw people into your website, and you need to give them a reason to not just stay on your site when they get there, but also to spread the word about your site in the various communities they participate in.

Remember these tips and guidelines when you are interested in getting started with a web 2.0 marketing plan.

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