Mathias Bergendahl's Marketing Blog

The other day I heard from a friend of mine who expressed how overwhelmed he was with trying to figure out how to build his business with the help of social media.

“Once I got ready to get into the fray of online marketing I decided to update my website but learned that these days, websites are out and blogging is in.” He told me that before he uploaded his very first blog post, though, he had already heard of yet another way to find consumers.

“It seems that each time I decide on which particular online marketing vehicle such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or any of the other social networking platforms to focus on, I hear about yet another internet tool from friends or business associates.” He continued to tell me how he by now has a MySpace account, Facebook account, LinkedIn account – without any particular web marketing strategy.

“By the time I started feeling comfortable enough to get started with FaceBook, people around me started buzzing about Twitter.”

He continued to tell me that once he had put the final touch on his carefully branded FaceBook page, though, he started hearing office neighbors talk about how they had found new clients through their LinkedIn or ActiveRain accounts. Next, he found himself adding a profile and his business information on those networks as well.

“I feel like I keep chasing from one tool to another without sticking around long enough to actually build traffic. On top of it all, people around you start talking about the evolution from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.”

I’m sure many can relate.

It’s not easy to follow all that moves on the internet these days.

Wait, there’s more.

•        Digg
•        Technorati
•        StumbleUpon
•        Ask
•        Yahoo Buzz
•        Twitter
•        Reddit

It can be quite intimidating to follow all the new developments, not to mention how to take advantage of them all.

I receive a lot of questions regarding social media marketing and I thought I’d attempt to break down the concepts just a little bit by using a few resources.

From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 in a Hurry

First, let’s take a look at the definition Web 2.0. No, it’s not a software upgrade you need to run to the nearest store to get in order to be part of the virtual world of interactive marketing. Instead, it’s more of a concept of how the internet has evolved into a network of information sharing. Web 1.0 refers to the static concept of web pages, with “flat” information without any way for you to actively contribute to the content of the page. The introduction of websites and social forums that now invite reviews, comments, information-sharing and general collaboration marked the beginning of what’s commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Before we even seem to have fully grasped the concept of a new online environment, those leading the charge of internet development have started talking about Web 3.0.
Here to better explain the concept of Web 2.0 is the video presentation Web 2.0. If you prefer reading about it, here’s Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the Basics of Web 2.0.

Next, let’s take a look at how you can choose which social networking sites to use, and how you can use them for marketing.

On January 1, 2009, Wall Street Journal published The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, which I consider an excellent resource when it comes to gathering some ideas of how to actually use the social networks that you may now be on.

Getting a grasp of social media marketing may feel a bit overwhelming at times but if you want to learn more about what you can do to take advantage of a changing internet, I suggest you go to google.com to search for information by using the following key words:

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 marketing strategies
Social media marketing

If you prefer videos, search for the same words at http://www.youtube.com/.