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Marketing to the Social Web

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Marketing to the Social Web

How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

Wiley,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Online social networking gives marketers new challenges and new tools.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

At first glance, this is yet another cover of a familiar tune: Get online because it is the next big thing! Hurry, hurry! However, within a few pages author Larry Weber introduces the one thing missing from most of these refrains: hard data. He provides statistics that document precisely how the marketing landscape is changing, then goes on to analyze what this information means for business. Almost as refreshing, Weber is careful to point out where information does not exist, often calling for new metrics or a software tool that will give statistical substance to the visceral understanding of Web-savvy marketers. Weber reviews case studies that demonstrate approaches that have worked, as well as some glorious and instructive failures. He builds on these to develop a set of principles and tactics readers can use to develop a realistic strategy for online marketing. getAbstract recommends his book to established businesses that wish to get into online marketing and to all would-be Internet entrepreneurs.

Summary

The New Technologies

The “social Web” is the online space where individuals share their ideas and experiences. It includes social networking sites such as MySpace, Gather and LinkedIn; blogs; company-sponsored Web sites such as those belonging to IBM and Cisco; and shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay.

As far as media and marketing go, the social Web that is coming to dominate the Internet is a new environment. To succeed in it, you need new methods. You can no longer be simply a “broadcaster,” transmitting messages to a passive audience; instead, you must become an “aggregator of customer communities.” This means gathering, organizing and encouraging messages from customers to make them active community members.

Several intersecting social and technological trends are making this change necessary:

  • Technologies such as TiVo and DVDs are enabling customers to skip the advertising in their favorite television shows.
  • The speed of electronic publication means that blogs, e-zines and Web sites publish news long before it hits the daily paper.
  • Tools that allow individuals to become media producers such as broadband access, blogs and YouTube...

About the Author

Larry Weber is the founding chairperson of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange.

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