Comments (2)

By waynekessler, May 2, 2009

As someone who has been involved in the marketing field for many years-I am amazed at how the field of social networking has changed so much in the last couple of years. These changes are allowing users to interact more, in more ways, provide real time feedback to companies, and to reach greater numbers of potential customers.

Most of us in the field of internet marketing are struggling to keep up with the development of new social networking sites, online marketing techniques, and online tools to manage and organize social networking site information, and facilitate communication and integration. Even social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have been making changes to facilitate and enhance the user experience. The main reason this is happening so quickly is because of the fact that unlike previous means of soliciting customer service feedback, such as surveys, focus groups and questionnaires, the existing social media sites can glean real time feedback from their users and each social network service can learn from, and adapting the tools and strategies of the others to enhance their user experience. As with sites like Twitter the global community can create and then distribute virally, their own tools which users can quickly adopt, and if found useful, then spread the word to their followers who then try them out.

The power of this communication lies in its real time interactivity, its direct connection to companies, its global connectivity, and its growing audience (you have seen the astronomical numbers of people who are signing up on the sites everyday). You can even replay previously recorded podcasts, and webinars if you miss them, on your computer, media device, and phone. But what I feel has made social media so effective is its power to bring people together who share like interests, and the growing usage of a multimedia approach to interacting and learning which makes it more convenient and more interesting for people with different learning styles and different levels of comfort in interacting in a public forum.

This is an interesting and exciting time to be online. There are incredible opportunities to learn from the experts around the world, and for users to contribute, and help each other in this global community.  As participants in this process -we are truly pioneers helping to shape the future of communication, and how business and customers will interact in the global marketplace.

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Comments (1)

By waynekessler, March 18, 2009

Recently, one of my clients asked what I knew about Web 2.0 and whether he needed to upgrade. After a brief laugh- I explained to him that many people think that Web 2.0 is a new version of the World Wide Web; however, it does not refer to an update of any technical specifications, but rather to different ways software developers and end-users now utilize the Web. According to Wikipedia “Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”
What we are seeing is a change in the way people perceive and use the web from one of retrieving information to one of interactivity, dynamic content, and collective intelligence. I am simplifying my explanation somewhat as the Web 2.0 definition is much more technical and complex and beyond the scope of this blog. The bottom line for users, and especially business owners is that if you want to be competitive-you need to make full use of Web 2.0 technology by regularly utilizing social and business networking sites. There is a growing trend to use Social Networking sites like Linkedin, Twitter, and others to increase communication, better assess and meet customer needs, and ultimately build a more informed, trusting relationship with your existing and prospective customer base.

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