Get Noticed! Marketing and Web 2.0

How do you market to an audience that is fully capable of making their own ‘secret sauce’? An audience with a click of a button can just look it up and do themselves? What purpose does your business serve? In other words, why do I need you?

In the age when everyone has access to the same information, what makes what you’re selling unique? In other words, how do you get a customer to pick your door, when he has hundreds of other entries, literally at his fingertips? When everyone has access to the secret sauce, there is no such thing as a secret sauce anymore.

Before we delve deeper into web 2.0, let’s look back at web 1.0. About two decades ago those first users of the internet could be considered or called the library generation. For them, the primary purpose of the world wide web was to act as an information dump. Web 1.0 was designed to be a place where people directly provided information to be passively absorbed by visitors to the site. User interaction was an after-thought, and a minority of people created content for the majority of people to use.

Web 2.0 changed this and transformed the passive acquisition of knowledge which defined web 1.0, into a full-fledged conversation between people. Gone were the days of passive reading of content provided by experts, this was replaced by the ability for anyone to provide content and in turn claim the mantle of an expert.

If web 1.0 was considered the library generation, then web 2.0 is the social generation, where user-created content, sense of community and wisdom-sharing is what attracts the end user. Moreover, in the age of web 2.0 (including IoT), websites are designed to communicate with other products besides themselves, creating an environment which allows for a more immersive experience.

This leads us back to our original question: what do you offer a person who has access to a multitude of information and solutions available all at the click of a button?

When it comes to attracting new customers in the age of web 2.0, today’s marketer must be able to tell a potential customer, is just because you can do it yourself, doesn’t mean you should. In other words, it’s the same thing businesses have always offered to catch the attention of a client, build a better mousetrap. In this case, the mousetrap is social media.

The mousetrap in social media can take the form of a few techniques:

Social media:

Web 2.0 has evolved to take advantage of social media. In fact, most well-designed websites will have a link to the organization's social media account in an attempt to be part of the conversation. Yet, more often than not the social media account is neglected and offers no real insight into why a customer should take a chance on you.

Talk to them:

Social media isn’t a monologue, yet so many businesses use social media to just post something without spending the time to ’promote’ it. Social media is a tool of engagement, and your post is an opportunity to tell your audience something they may not know, and why you, an expert, has the answer. Effective marketing not only that shows him that his opinion matters, but your business is the solution.

Be the most interesting “you,” you can be:

Finally take advantage of the one thing that only you have, you! Use social media to display your personality. Your ‘brand’ is the thing that makes you different from all the other businesses. In the world of web 2.0, content is king and practical use of web 2.0 requires creating new content, it must become a priority.

Your content must be of value, it needs to be relatable and most importantly touch upon the points of pain of your audience. A point of pain is merely a problem that your audience may be looking for a solution to, and your social media is an opportunity to proactively offer a solution. Don’t be afraid of giving away the milk for free. Any potential clients will have lots of desire to buy the cow if you show it’s value first. You just have to show them that your solutions are paramount. The best way to pinpoint potential opportunities is by using your social media as a means to start a conversation with your audience and learn what issues your clients may have.

The web 2.0 generation of marketer can only control the message by becoming part of the discussion and inviting potential customers to join in.

If you’re interested in learning more about using social media with your business, take a look at our social media as a service and start gaining traction on your social media networks!