Social Media Tag

Social Media in Plain English

The folks over at Common Craft have put together a new video that explains social media titled “Social Media in Plain English”. This one features a town that has a serious love of ice cream and the how the residents embrace the fundamentals of social media to everyone’s benefit. You might remember Common Craft from their video explanations of Social Bookmarking and Social Networking. They’ve also covered topics like RSS, Blogs, Podcasting and even Zombies.

The videos themselves are great explanations of complex topics. I’ve heard the “I get it now!” exclamation many times after directing a friend or colleague to one of these videos. Admittedly so, Web 2.0 has introduced a new landscape of terminology and applications that will take a little while for complete adoption by the typical user community, so I think these videos provide a great translation medium. Take a look:

What is Web 2.0?

When it comes to internet marketing, Web 2.0 has redefined the rules. Every fundamental aspect of owning an online business now must incorporate this concept to ensure the potential for positive results. The days of building a site and optimizing it for search engine results are over; there’s someone else who already did that and is moving forward with the next step in their campaign. To win the race, we’ve got to outthink our competitor and outperform them online. To accomplish that, we have to understand the newest concepts in marketing and embrace them as our own. Enter Web 2.0, the natural evolvement of the web and the information within it.

That being said, let’s take a step back. What is Web 2.0? What does it mean and how does it affect marketing and e-commerce? Unfortunately, a concise definition of Web 2.0 has yet to be realized, mostly because it’s an idea that’s still being debated. Wikipedia is the most comprehensive source out there, but it leaves something out in terms of what impact it has had and why it’s important to us.  Let’s start by attempting a simple, understandable definition for our purposes.

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New Study: Social Media Important In Buying Decision

Most businesses are just starting to figure out how to get their feet wet with social media. From managing an attractive, trustworthy identity in social networking sites to getting their product and company information posted in social bookmarking sites, this part of a marketing campaign usually takes a back seat to what businesses consider the more immediate concerns, statistics like traffic, sales and conversions. But a new study shows that consumers are using social media more than ever to do research on a company and their reputation before buying, and businesses better start listening, responding and improving if they want to compete in a Web 2.0 marketplace.
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Business Blogs and the Media

When the phenomenon of blogs first started, they were simply a way for people to post their personal thoughts on the web, like an online diary. Blogs were bulky, had little features and were difficult to incorporate into a business. The few pioneers in the industry knew from the beginning however, that blogs would explode into the most effective form of communication on the web. These days, you can’t escape blogs if you spend any time online at all. Along the way, blogs emerged as an effective business tool and the media began to acknowledge the profound effect they’re having on the way we do business.

Countless articles have been written about the astounding effect blogs have had on business. Many chronicle the story of a small business with an innovative product that was picked up by bloggers and spread across the blogosphere in a matter of hours, resulting in an enormous buzz that led to extensive financial benefits. Businesses have been built on blogs, some emerging in a few days just through this aspect of utilizing blogs and viral marketing to get the word out.  This article highlights one of those stories.
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