There are always lots of buzz words – and technologies with buzz – around the Internet. And they are constantly changing and new things are coming out.
How is one to keep up? Or even to know what to pay attention to?
Web 2.0 and Social Network Marketing, generally speaking, both refer to highly interactive Internet applications.
Facebook and Twitter are just two of many.
I’m currently reading a book “Groundswell” that gives a great framework for evaluating these technologies so you don’t get completely overwhelmed, ignore them all or spend too much time trying to sort it out.
In short, they divide web audiences into a few categories – creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and “inactives”. Then they divide ways a business can operate towards these publics into
1. listening – using interactivity as a research tool.
2. talking – any method such as blogs of getting your message out.
3. energizing – getting your audience to help spread the word.
4. supporting – customer support forums and the like.
5. embracing – visitor participation even in product development.
Determine where your public fits into the behavior categories. Then you need clarity on your company’s overall objectives and strategy, to identify what type of ineractive online objectives make sense for you.
Only then can you start to evaluate what of these new technologies to use.
A useful tool for analysis.
Web 2.0, Social Network Marketing
