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

Are You Paying Attention? 

Ironic isn’t it? While offline businesses in cities, towns and villages around the world are desperately trying to cut back expenses, pool resources and find a reliable crystal ball during this jaw dropping downturn, demand for website internet marketing services is exploding. Online marketing activities are stronger than ever. The offline and online worlds act as if they exist in two different universes.

Why? Because consumer online spending is still increasing. This is a red flag in this current market.  

An economic downturn is a great time for everyone from individual traders, small companies and even corporations to rethink and refocus their branding identity, costs, positioning, market share and competitors. No one likes to talk about the positive side of any economic downturn because while everything is morphing into something better, people’s lives are affected; often adversely.

Blood will be spilt and not everyone will make it through this ‘character building’ time but when the high voltage spin slows everyone, everywhere will take a collective sigh to work out their place in the world. And do it all over again.

Sure, everyone will get out there and sing about their next generation of products or services as if that’s what they had been planning all along. But this time the landscape will look different. Web 2.0 different.

Internet marketing has a number of powerful advantages over print and other media;

1.      It’s extremely affordable especially when every dollar counts.

2.      It provides a range of tools such as video, audio, twitter, facebook etc to connect with customers and prospective customers.

3.      It gives higher conversion rates.

4.      It gives good return on investment for dollars spent.

5.      It’s relatively quick to build, implement and distribute.

6.      Platforms are scalable and sustainable.

7.      Customers provide an additional resource for information, product development, growth and strategy.

8.      Results are measurable.

No-one has all the answers. But smart individual and companies are improvising. They can’t afford not to, especially in this market, because while others are nursing their wounds and picking up the pieces, they’re running with Web 2.0 tools to build relationships with potential customers and grab market share. This is not the time to rest.

When everything settles in a few months, a year or two years, they will have achieved more growth with cheaper tools and more focus than previously possible. Web 2.0 social media marketing provides it all and more.

Thousands all over the world are hearing the call. They’re using low cost, fast building website, blogging, article writing, marketing by video and email services, 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.

Traditional marketing services are still in demand, and of course they work, but until delivery costs can be significantly reduced they can’t compete and must wait patiently until budgets expand.   

Web 2.0 social media marketing has several unfair advantages:

1.      It costs only a fraction of other marketing and advertising channels to create.

2.      It has greater audience reach with lower costs.

3.      It has high value, long term engineering elements that build interest and trust in companies, products, people and culture by stimulating virtual conversations unlike the usual one-way company shake and rattle delivered with other mediums.

4.      It’s highly measurable. Trial runs, tests and experiments are all easy to measure allowing you to see what works, what doesn’t, who makes up your demographics and where they live. Most of these results are free allowing you to improve your campaigns with laser–like focus until you get it right.  

What this means to anyone paying attention is that no matter how big or small your venture, enterprise, product range or idea Web 2.0 marketing tools can help you grow exponentially. You just have to make the leap, put objectives in place, followed by a set of realistic strategies and focus.    

Stay in touch for tools, strategies and web2.0 patterns.

Christine 

Technorati Tags: branding corporate identity, business marketing strategy, internet marketing, internet marketing for small business, small business marketing solutions, social media, social networking, web 20, web20