If you have a blog, then you can count yourself among the thousands of other people on earth who have a blog, who can sell their products and services online, and who find ways to network through friends, former classmates, relatives, even acquaintances, in order to make more money. There are thousands upon thousands of blogs on the Internet right now, and you will need to shine through the muddle.
The dawn of Web 2.0 and the flourishing social networks and online communities it has spawned has, for many, upped the stakes in the marketing and advertising world. More than anything, online social networks make it possible for people to communicate - whether this is on a social or a business level. In particular, the technique of viral marketing benefits from using social networks as a platform, as is made clear from the success of the world’s most popular social sites.
From the early days of Friends Reunited to the modern success of the likes of MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, social networks have always presented advertisers and marketers with a burgeoning audience. However, using the internet to market a product isn’t something that began with Web 2.0, strictly speaking: the late 1990s show clear evidence of people using the internet as an effective tool of social marketing.
In 1999, for instance, the independent horror film “The Blair Witch Project” used the unprecedented tactic of using its official website to suggest that the film was an actual event. The movie, presented as a piece of amateur documentary footage about three teenagers who disappear while making a film about a local legend, had only a budget of $25,000 but went on to gross over $248 million worldwide - primarily as a result of its successful and unique online viral marketing campaign.
Today, new and upcoming bands need no longer seek a record deal in order to gain fame and popularity: MySpace’s rapid word-of-mouth circuit ensures that any band across the world that’s gaining attention does so by appealing to a core group of MySpace users and waiting for them to tell their friends.
The recent launch of the Facebook Marketplace platform also suggests that marketers are becoming increasingly tuned to the benefits of viral marketing via social networks. Facebook Marketplace allows users and businesses to post free classified ads on the site, while Facebook Platform is an API that allows for the development of applications to be placed on the website.
The most recent Facebook success story comes in the form of iLike - an online music community that was struggling to get its name noticed only a month ago. But today, directly as a result of its utilisation of Facebook Platform, iLike is the fastest growing digital music application on the web, with over one million new users per week and information requests from record labels coming in every half an hour.
However, social networks aren’t just a great viral marketing tool - they’re also a fantastic way for marketers and advertisers to share information and tips with one another. For example, if you’re in the marketing industry, seek out an online marketing communications community that befits your particular line of interest. You’ll find blogs from magazines and leading marketing experts, as well as active discussion forums and specialist news posts on which you’ll be able to comment.
Moreover, online marketing communities can be a great place to make new contacts within your industry and, if you’re looking for a new job, can provide you with invaluable sources of information about the best companies to work for and who’s recruiting right now. After all, viral marketing can work on marketers too!
Following on from yesterdays post - Part 1…
There were 2 blogs that I found that helped me more than the rest (and still do), and first introduced me to structuring blogs from a business point of view, planning them and promoting them using business and marketing techniques. They are Problogger.net by Darren Rowse and Entrepreneurs-journey.com by Yaro Starak. They are both packed with help and information about blogging, from their wealth of experience and knowledge. I also subscribed to the Blog Traffic King newsletter through Entrepreneurs-journey.com giving tips on traffic generation for your blog.
Blog Marketing- what you should know
Blog marketing is just what it says. It is a method of marketing or selling by means of blogs. Blogs are a simple and easy way to establish a presence on the Internet. They can be used to bring your business or product to the many millions of searchers on the Internet. But what exactly are blogs?
Blog is a derivative of the term Weblog. They started out as personal entries or diaries on the web, and soon were adopted and adapted by business to reach more market, hence the term blog marketing.
With a widget you can place the current information from your blogs and or/websites on other webpages, and your personal pages on social networks like myspace, ning.com and your private clubs. This is not only fun and informative, but an excellent promotional tool.
What is a widget? According to Wikipedia a “web widget is anything that can be embedded within a page of HTML, i.e. a web page. A widget adds some content to that page that is not static. Generally widgets are third party originated… Widgets are also known as modules, snippets, and plug-ins. Widgets can be written in HTML, but also in JavaScript, flash and other scripting languages…
Videos online are being used for facilitating conversations between people and is one of the biggest growth areas on the web. Videos online are growing faster than any other aspect of online marketing—more than 71% this year, according to eMarketer projections.
A favorite topic that I write about is advice for small business website owners to add fresh content often for the benefit of their visitors. Those visitors include search engine crawlers, and the search engine optimization value is enhanced by adding new content frequently. A small business blog is the perfect way to create new site content, and making a post once a week may give you an edge over your competition.
Consider how many of your small business competitors have a blog. The majority do not. If you are a blogger, a weekly post could be the key advantage beating out the competition and attracting new prospects to your website.
