There are probably two questions as a local Dallas small business owner you should be asking yourself:
What is Web 2.0?
What does Web 2.0 have to do with my Dallas advertising efforts for my shop?
Aside from Facebook what other types of Web 2.0 sites should I utilize?
What is Web 2.0?
While there is still a bit of debate about exactly what the term Web 2.0 means. For the purpose of this piece, and the information within, I am going with the following definition which for me stays more in line with the small business marketing benefits and exposure from this type of platform.
“Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the Web, which enables people with no specialized technical knowledge to create their own websites, to self-publish, create and upload audio and video files, share photos and information and complete a variety of other tasks.”
The great thing about this definition to me is the “no specialized technical knowledge” part. Thats a pretty important benefit to me since in the midst of advertising in Dallas, I still have to keep things running on my site with content which is more or less the inventory of my store. If there was a a huge learning curve, and/or long expensive classes to take, I can’t say that I would have time for potential and loyal customers, which of course is the bread and butter objective.
The ability to share your shops inventory, promotions, and locations with a built in audience is our goal here. While having a website is definitely important. If done correctly, using Web 2.0 communities will allow you to more or less place your Dallas area shop/site in the middle of actual targeted traffic. To me its the equivalent of setting up a booth at several sellers conventions at one time. Best part, you get to do it from the comfort of your desk or laptop.
Web 2.0 Community Examples
To simplify things for you and myself. I have broken these sites down into 7 what I will call “examples of Web 2.0 communities” that at this point are easiest for me to keep track of as one individual. (we will go into more detail in following posts). Listed below the classifications of each of them are the web addresses that I maintain accounts with.
Keep in mind this is in no way an exhaustive list of Web 2.0 properties. There are literally thousands of sites. I have chosen the ones that I use to advertise, collaborate, and learn from experts in various fields. Make sure you bookmark each of these sites as they will become part of the way we will work with one another in the very near future.
Article Communities
HubPages
Squidoo
Ezine Articles
Bookmarking Communities
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Diigo
Reddit
Tipd
Image Communities
Flickr
Picasa
Video Communities
YouTube
Vimeo
Metacafe
Social Communities
Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Blogging Communities
Blogger
WordPress
How Will Using the Web 2.0 Community Help My Dallas Advertising Efforts?
Most small business owners understand the power of social media as it pertains to the Facebook phenomenon, but see it as the only place they should really be focusing their efforts. With upwards of 500 million user accounts, Facebook is definitely by far the largest audience for an online social community.
Keep the idea though of “social community” in mind. There is a certain theme that each of these Web 2.0 sites kind of sticks to. While Facebook has obviously ventured out into several of the above mentioned variations, the competition and price tag for ad space and successful advertising campaigns are steadily increasing. For smaller businesses it has become a bit more difficult in seeing results. Facebook is most certainly a huge audience, but without a little extra “web legwork” by itself, will not necessarily bring you the store front and site traffic you may be seeking.
Through the next few posts we will:
- Look for opportunities to target effective content to and from potential customers
- Target them with minimal cost through as many channels as possible
- Create genuine relationships
- Collaborate with those potential and existing customers
- Gain better insight from doing the above as to what will make an effective ad campaign
My greatest hope is that as a small Dallas business owner you begin to see a greater benefit from the free advertising options available to you. It takes a little work but as we go I can help give you some ideas with much of it.
Your goal for now is to create some free accounts with each of the listed communities and find out a bit about how they work. In my next post we will get into the personalities of some of these communities and how we make the most out of targeting, sharing, and creating relationships with your potential customers. By the way I’m not a fan of spamming communities. More on that as well to come. Stay tuned!!!
