The Web 2.0 playing field is changing, it’s changing from a toy or play medium that Gen Y ran with to a serious Web 2 tool that businesses of all sizes are using in their business marketing strategies. Web 2.0 as a business model is growing, it’s deepening and the social, business and cutural applications are being added as fast as new names can be created.

Generation Y was the first to see the benefits of Web 2.0 social media. Suddenly friends, aquaintances and relatives were boxed away safely in one place online. Guys rummaged through networks to find the cute girls and photos of football games. Girls did the same.

Although not the first application, Facebook stormed crowds with similar tastes, interests or hobbies to a new level. Then Second Life created a virtual world for people to stroll around with their alter egos, LinkedIn claimed shortcuts for older white-collar professionals and lately Twitter has blasted on to the scene.

Gen Y is still active but the hungry audience of the new web are older, often in business or the corporate world. And statistics tell us there are a lot of them. They can see the implications of reaching prospective clients and customers regualarly especially with the cost, implementation and delivery methods being so  accessible.

But it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There’s so much out there to choose from. Finding the best social networks for branding your corporte identity can be difficult. You can start with the best known for your business web marketing but in the end who you choose should be part of an overall business marketing strategy and not some loose end. This is a great way to get eyeballs and very cheap web traffic  but without an objective you are wasting your resources.

Twitter

The majority of Twitter users worldwide are 35 or older. Just over ten percent of Twitter population in the US is between 18-24 and tweet less often.

LinkedIn

Gen Y is not on LinkedIn. LinkedIn profiles do two things. They sneeze out to the world all the great things you’ve accomplished and connect people in your industry.

Not surprisingly most LinkedIn users are 40 years and over. Gen Y hasn’t stockpiled a heap of things to shout about; they’re still discovering what industry they want to be in and their connections aren’t very connected. 

LinkedIn did a major marketing push offering grads their premium service for a three month free trial; even pitching the site as a way to get jobs. It’s not working.

So has LinkedIn failed to get Gen Y or is Gen Y too busy? 

Facebook

Facebook is growing with chilling speed. New adopters are between 35 to 54 years old which grew at a rate of 276% over the last six months and the 55 and over demographic grew by almost 200% for the same period. Meanwhile, 18-24 year olds only grew 20%.

 Over 35’s are also joining Twitter where it’s all about real-time updates. 

In fact, when Facebook made design changes comparable to Twitter astonishingly the angry mob wasn’t older demographic groups shaking in fear of change but from the long time Facebook users; Gen Y.
 
Those aged over 45 years are actively taking up Web 2.0 social media consumer technology including blogs and podcasts almost 20 times faster than younger generations. Gen Y consumers are reversing their bull charge away from social networking, blogging, podcasting and internet videos. 

What happened and where are they going?

It’s possible that Gen Y has decided that too much is too much. Gen Y may have liked flirting with Web 2.0 but are no longer interested now that the wrappers are off. Maybe when the lights came on it just wasn’t what they expected. After all, chatting over a glass of wine wins hands down over a hot screen and mouse.

Unexpectedly older users have scratched the social media surface and found new strategies beyond the cool PR fog that early Gen Y adopters ran looking for.

Even Chris Cox, Facebook’s Director of Products says, "The people who started the company weren’t cool. I’m not cool, if you look at the people who work here, it’s much more nerdy and curious than cool… Cool only lasts for so long, but being useful is something that applies to everyone."

He’s right. Gen Y are chasing cool not useful. But thousands of others have found useful applications for unexpected things like enhancing branding corporte identity, supporting web marketing, implementing business marketing strategy and are devouring it. 

These are some of the Web 2.0 tools you should consider in your Web 2.0 business model to get cheap web traffic, develop social media networking and develop transparency between you and prospective clients. They will help you with positioning marketing faster and provide many marketing solutions other mediums struggle to deliver.

See you back here soon,

Christine 

Technorati Tags: best social networks, branding corporate identity, business marketing strategy, cheap web traffic, facebook, linkedin, small business web marketing, social media, twitter, web 2 tools

Online video marketing is one of the hottest forms of internet viral marketing. Anyone serious about internet marketing should pay attention. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to provide great content and get ranked on the first page of Google with incredible speed.

The best part is you don’t need -

• a website,

• blog site,

• memberships at Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.

And the cost is so low television, newspaper and other print media execs are hoping it will go away. And if it doesn’t should they embrace it or condemn it? In the virtual world of virtually anything this web 2.0 business tool is virtually F.R.E.E!

You could compare video marketing to a television commercial but that would be a fatal mistake.

Firstly, online video marketing is far more effective because of the low costs to produce, transmit  and potentially greater audience reach.

Delivery costs are negligible since you’re not paying television stations for air time or print media for space. You can take as long as you like as often as you like to show the world your products, services and ideas and give out all your contact details or just the bare essentials which is great for offline businesses and better for ideas with nowhere to live.

Suddenly, everyone can reach a social network audience but can get them to listen?

Many argue that television commercials capture audiences even if it’s only as they stroll past into the kitchen to make coffee, put on the dryer or change channels. The same people staunchly believe in the subliminal ’something must stick’ syndrome. But even this theory is losing ground as next generation technologies skip or take out television ads making the impossible possible; no boring ads and strangling advertising revenues.

Truthfully, video marketing has an equally challenging hit and miss risk factor. Because people are constantly hunting for good quality content, delivered in interesting ways. They will happily leave your video without hesistantion unless you can convince them to stay.

Master and deliver to your audience and before you know it you’ll have an uncontrollable marketing virus on your hands and an audience that will look, listen and salivate for more.

Marketing by video  has been around for a while. In terms of positioning marketing it is one of the most effective web 2.0 marketing tools available for return on investment, audience reach and an efficient way to establish a public online body of work; whether you are a small business, an artist, a corporate, television producer, musuem or interrior designer. Internet video is a highly effective business internet marketing solution.

Once you learn how to apply internet marketing by video you can create videos to support any marketing strategies already in play, make announcements, educate or entertain your audience. You can convert audiences from prospects to customers or keep in touch with your existing customers on a regular basis.

Some internet marketers scoff at video marketing effectiveness believing search engine optimization or article writing as a better use of resources. Wrong! No one’s suggesting that marketers throw out all their tools and only use internet video for all their branding or marketing. Everything contributes to a total marketing solution. But as far as marketing tools go, videos connect to peope like television or film; movement and emotion. And it’s hard to compete with that.

And compared to creating thirty second television commercials, videos are just simpler and less expensive to construct. You can make a video in just a few minutes or a few hours. Look at the video below to see the kind of audience numbers you can expect from using directories apart from Youtube to send your video to. It not only lists companies providing these services but also other services they provide such as converting your video into a pod cast for listeners. Of course, these numbers can be leveraged according to the size of your audience, customer base and resouces. But its the concept that’s important. Get that and leverage away.

But the greatest opporunty for anyone interested in positioning their opinion, product or business is that there’s a warmed up global audience on the ready to speed through content and sink their teeth into the next big thing; the quirkier the better and it’s all so convenient because it comes out of the same box as a lot of other content.

Online video marketing gives you a world wide opportunity to bore your prospects or excite them into laughter, shock or action. The choice is yours; social media video marketing is here to stay.

High level visibility of video marketing should not be ignored. It can change your bottom line in an instant and it’s legal.  You can show your videos in one place like your blog or website or upload them to as many video sharing sites or get them bookmarked on social sites for backlinks to your site with more free traffic. Either way, don’t miss it.

Come back for more traffic tips by submitting your name and email details and get on the emailing list. For a total overview of Web 2.0 marketing strategies, including video, go to Web 2.o Traffic Demolisher to dominate your market.

See you soon

Christine McVeigh 

Technorati Tags: business mark, internet marketing, internet marketing for small business, marketing by video, small business internet marketing, small business web marketing, web 2.0 business tool, web 2.0 strategies

How to Dominate Your Market Using Web 2.0!

Creating A Better Web 2.0 Business Model

Demand for online Web 2.0 marketing services is exploding while offline businesses all around the globe can’t escape the jaw dropping economic downturn. While most businesses are shrinking expenses during this economic downturn the reverse is happening in the online world. In fact, online marketing activities are stronger than ever. This is not only about companies wanting to flex their competitive muscles but consumer online spending is still increasing which is a red flag in this current market. 

An economic downturn is a great time for companies to rethink their brands, costs, positioning, market share and competitors. Yes, there’s blood on the floor but when the axis stops its high voltage spin some companies will have transitioned safely to the Web 2.0 world, connecting with prospective clients and talking about their new generation of products or services as if they were Lazarus reborn.

Smart companies are improvising. No one, not even in this market can afford to not market their products and grow their market position. Everyone is looking to business marketing strategies that are:

• affordable,

• cost effective,

• give good returns on investment and

• allow sustainable platforms they can build on.

Web 2.0 social media marketing provides it all and more from :

• internet marketing by video,

• social media networking,

• crowd sourcing solutions,

• Facebooking and

• online auto responders 

hundreds of companies all over the world of every shape and size offer website, blogging, article writing, video and marketing services as well as pay per click and search engine optimization (SEO) services to stimulate and secure links back to their sites for solid search engine rankings.

Costs are low, turnaround fast and outsourcing reliable. This isn’t about cutting out traditinal marketing services but about branding corporate identity through a new set of tools and strategies with multiple chanels, low associated costs and high value, long term engineering elements.

Social media is about building trust in brands, companies, people and products and stimulating virtual conversations unlike the usual one-way company shake and rattle delivered by other mediums. And its measurable.  

Whether you are an individual new to the internet, a large corporation, a membership site, a school or the government, if you are interested in:

1. business marketing strategy,

2. web 2.0 business models,

3. positioning marketing,

4. branding corporate identity,

5. marketing by video,

6. social networks and social media

Invest your time in understanding the enormous potential of Web 2.0 and follow the link to Web 2.0 Traffic Demolisher: How to Dominate Your Market Using Web 2.0 Tools!  

Regards

Christine.

Technorati Tags: branding, business marketing strategy, corporate, identity, positioning marketing, small business marketing tools, small business web marketing, web 2.0 business models, web 20, web2