In the presentation Mark highlights the movement from Web1.0, with links and banner ads being the path to revenue, to Web2.0 with currency and monitization coming from SEO, SEM and Google Ad Sense and Ad Words. He goes on to describe new Web3.0 Third business plan of the internet that is generating revenue from the “app economy”.

In this app ecomony, Mark talks about how sellers of the future will increasingly use social media and friends/network sharing for sales of product and become less reliant on Google ad clicks. I believe that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg both in relation to Google type advertising and social media generated sales and that the market for both approaches is still in it’s infancy.

Technorati Tags: Mark Pincus, Social Media, Web2.0

With the growth in Social Networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook many marketers are questioning the value of search and traditional SEO strategies. The following video provides a really useful discussion on the topic and is worth viewing if you are interested in how Social Media can enhance your business promotion.

Here’s my summary:

• Twitter and Facebook are great because the enable real-time-search. When something happens it’s online immediately for the whole world to see.
• So Social Media will enhance traditional search without circumventing search.
• People are using social media more than email according to the video and this will force a rethink on marketing strategy for both email and social media.

Technorati Tags: Marketing Tips, Search, Social Media

When the famous Australian spread Vegemite launched a new spread, made from Vegemite and cheese, they ran a competition to name the spread. From 48,000 suggestions the company then decided on “iSnack 2.0″. Publicity stunt or genuine stupidity?

Technorati Tags: Social Media

96% of online retailers surveyed currently employ or plan to employ Facebook Fan Pages within the next 12 months, and 84% plan to use Twitter for publishing.

The report provides strong evidence that retailers are understanding the importance of Social Media and avoiding Social Media is becoming less of an option. According to an August ’09 study, the top Social Media networks being embraced include:

• Facebook (74 percent)
• YouTube (65 percent)
• Twitter (63 percent)
• LinkedIn (60 percent)

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Web2.0

Depending on your strategic approach, the webinar shows how Twitter can be used to improve customer service,
promote a product or service, manage a crisis, event activation, advocating an issue or cause or following trends in your industry.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Twitter for Business

It’s been a week since we caught up. What have you done to promote through Twitter since we met?

We immediately implemented your suggestion to brand our Twitter page with b.box logo and “feel”. We also started following people who have interests in the baby products area, either as consumers, other designers and manufacturers, retailers, distributors, media, stockists

And what sort of benefits are you seeing through Twitter?

Within 24 hours we had more than 50 people following us and within a week have 234. It’s incredible how it works and what’s more important is the tangible benefits to the business, such as real distributor interest and enquires from international stockists.

Can you describe your target market? Has using Twitter helped you connect with your target market?

Our consumer target market are parents of children aged 0-2.5 years.  Our retailer target market includes specialist baby stores, including online baby retailers and gift stores. Twitter has definitely helped us connect with our target markets. It’s also interesting to see what other businesses in our industry are doing. In just a week we’ve had 50 unique hits to our website from Twitter, which is great. We’ve also had three serious enquiries from potential international stockists and distributors directly from Twitter.

What other social media are you using to get the word out about b.box?

We created a Facebook page for b.box which within a week has over 120 fans – many of whom are unrelated to our personal Facebook networks. We’ve also had over 100 unique hits to our website directly from our Facebook page. We keep our fans updated on b.box happenings through relevant posts. We also keep people posted on upcoming events, such as trade fairs or consumer markets and shows. We also updated our linked-in profile and added a b.box specific page. We searched for and joined groups which were baby and baby product related. We have had direct contact from other members regarding the product, including overseas interest and sales and media/blog review requests.

Any recommendations you have for using social media.

Know what you want to achieve and don’t get caught up in the hype. Spend the time to target your communications. Don’t waste people’s time. Give them something worthwhile to read and keep them excited about what you have to

Having used Twitter and Facebook to promote, b.box now have over 350 followers or fans. What matters more is not the “number” of fans taking an interest in their business but the “who”. Potential customers, distributers and stockists and people who are genuinely interested in their product have opted in to a conversation and relationship with Bbox. To achieve this number of new quality business relationships in just a couple of weeks wouldn’t have been possible a few short years ago.

Monique and Dani have created a product worth talking about and social media provides a conversation platform for the discussion. If you have used Twitter for business I welcome your feedback below and you can follow me on twitter @sladesherman.

Technorati Tags: BBox, Social Media, Twitter for Business

How ‘Add This’ Works

Add This is a tool that most people who regularly read news articles online will have seen. It is the little button that appears below or above articles and allows the reader to share the article.

1. Once the user mousses over the ‘Add This’ button they are instructed to ‘Select a Service’ from a list including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a comprehensive list of lesser known social media sites.
2. The user then selects the service, for example ‘Facebook’.
3. ‘Add This’ contacts the users account in Facebook and opens a window allowing the user to post a link to their Facebook status.
4. Once the link is posted to the users Facebook status the users’ contacts will see that they have recommended the article and can click on a link to that article.

The process is similar for other social media sites listed on ‘Add This’. The power of the “Add This’ button is that it allows users to easily share articles with their networks.

So how could it work for business?

The traditional application for ‘Add This’ is for news articles and blogs but there is no reason it can’t be applied to many other web pages. For Example, The ‘Add This’ Button could be added to Real Estate property listings allowing for the easy sharing of properties for sale. Retailers and wholesalers of products can add the button to product descriptions for the easy sharing of product details resulting in possible sales. Add This is free, easy to install and highly effective for:

• Increased traffic to your pages/site.
• Better search engine ranking.
• Increased site popularity, awareness and possibly sales.

Setup Add This on your Site:

To setup ‘Add This’ on your website visit www.addthis.com and follow the simple steps in the presentation below:

Add This was launched in 2006 and is used on hundreds of thousands of websites including FOX, ABC, CBS, SAP, TIME Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, PGA Tour and Lonely Planet. With over 20 billion views per month, the Add This button could be a welcome addition to your website. To test how it works click on the ‘bookmark’ link below and forward this article using ‘Add This’. I also welcome any of your feedback on this great tool.

Technorati Tags: Add This, Small Business Tools, Social Media