Web 2.0 Defined
The term “Web 2.0” first defined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004. Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.
According to Tim O'Reilly:
“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”
Basic Web 2.0 terms
Social media: An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings. (MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.)
Blog: Stands for Web + Log. A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links (WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, etc.)
Social bookmarking: A method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata. (del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit, StumbleUpon)
RSS: Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text.
Blog Ping: A notification to a Web site that a blog has been created or updated. The ping is typically an XML message that contains the URL of the blog. Blog tracking sites publish separate Internet addresses for accepting pings, and news sites may also set up ping addresses. (Ping.in, Autopinger.com, Pingomatic.com)
Social Sites
My favorite B2B social media sites
Advantages
- Explore niche areas of the internet
- Nurture prospects; gain their trust before approaching with business
- Win new business opportunities
Disadvantages
- Takes time to set up personal space
- Maintain it or it dies on the vine
- May not be a great return on investment in time
Blogging
Blogs I like to follow
- A hugely popular mini blog
- Emerging as a mainline B2B & B2C networking blog
- Dubbed the “What are you doing now?” blog
- Max blog post is 140 characters
- Used by some for purely personal reasons
- Used by internet marketers for link building and getting new pages indexed
- Good for following respected IMers
Promoting your blog
- Always include an XML RSS feed on your site to gain subscribers
- Submit new entries to MyBlogLog.com
- Blog commenting: find other blogs with similar content and leave a meaningful comment. Most will allow you to leave a link back to your blog
- Use Blog Pinging services and Social Bookmarking to further promote the site
RSS & Pinging Services
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
- Use services like FeedBurner to publish blogs to blog feed services
- GoogleBot lives there
- Blog Ping services
- Used to publish RSS feeds to multiple blog feed services at once
- Very quick; use service for blogs only
- Publishes blog link to multiple places at once—great link juice!
- GoogleBot lives there, too
- Great way for new pages to be discovered rather than using Google Submit
Social bookmarking
- Social bookmarking sites help search engines find and rank content through links
- Provides a channel to promote content
- Great for link building & brand exposure
- Community building/participation makes it even stronger
- Exportable content
My Favorite Social Bookmarking Sites
- www.OnlyWire.com: terrific service that feeds multiple bookmarking sites at once. Takes a little time to set up but worth the effort.
- www.StumbleUpon.com: One of the best. Submit a site—any site or page—and give it a brief review. Great for new site or page launches
- www.Digg.com: Much like StubmleUpon. Submit site to relevant categories. Be careful not to over promote or SPAM. My WSI site got banned for simple blog submissions
- www.Tumblr.com: Site submission and mini blogs
- www.Propeller.com: Story submissions, ratings, and mini blogs
- www.Reddit.com: requires 1 vote from another to display for all; get 2 accounts and vote for yourself
- Google, Yahoo, & MSN all have bookmarking services
Practical Application 1
Get new site or page indexed
- Login to Twitter and say: “Just launched a new site: http://xyz.com”
- Go out to StumbleUpon and “stumble” xyz.com
- Go out to Digg and “Digg” your new site
- Go out to Propeller and announce it
- Go out to Tumblr and “tumble” it
- Ping each one of your blogs above with 1 pinging service (ping.in, autopinger.com, or pingomatic.com; never ping the same blog twice with any service)
- Bookmark it on your bookmarking services
- Upload Google Sitemap via Google webmaster tools
Practical Application 2
Index a new blog entry
- Place bookmarking gadgets at the bottom of your blog entry (http://addthis.com/bookmark.php) and OnlyWire.com script
- Publish the blog entry and use the gadget box to bookmark and announce the blog post
- Login to Twitter and say: “Just updated my blog at http://xyz.com/blog. It’s a great read about Pinging your Twitter”
- Stumble It, Digg it, Propeller it, Reddit, & Tumble it
- Ping your Twitter and the rest of your blogs
- Post your blog entry, slightly edited, as articles in the aforementioned article directories (if warranted)
Web 2.0 has opened up a million possibilities. I would take some time to explore at least the ones I mentioned above to see how they may fulfill your needs. You'll find some that don't do squat for you but there may be one or 2 that really hit home.
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