WEB 2.0–EASY AS ABC

The hoopla, confusion, and fears surrounding the use of Web 2.0 tools continue to drag on.  And, again, I am weighing in with my thoughts.  Here is its, plain and simple.

A simple plan with a clear and concise message is where to start.  Get a pen and pad and

start putting your thoughts down.

Be open to using traditional marketing concepts with the new free tools that are user-friendly.  (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Vimeo, Flickr, LinkedIn, Meetup.com, and a host of others)

Carry your plan out and include a straight forward maintenance strategy.

Do it now.  What are you waiting for?  With a devised plan in hand and the tools available—go ahead—roll it out.

Expect those initial results to provide the feedback necessary to revise, where needed, and lead you along a path that will help you perfect your plan.

Fight the urge to give up if you don’t get instant results.  A plan is not a magic wand.  Persistence pays off.  Good plans and the appropriate tools working in concert over a period of time will produce desired outcomes.

Get aggressive and exercise temperance. Commit to abandoning fear, move forward with confidence, and don’t overwhelm you targeted audiences.

Have the discipline to quiet the “voices” of the many gurus.  Too many “voices” give birth to confusion, delays action, and muddles the message.  Trust your instincts about what you are doing.

I speak to you from personal experience.  If I had allowed the confusion of the many “voices” to continue, I would have “stayed on stuck” and this blog would have never come to be.  Put your mind to the task and your hands on the tools.  You will be amazed at what the end brings.

TWITTER WHO? FACE WHAT?

The tug or war between social media marketing advocates and detractors rages on. I personally think that a timely and engaging message creatively presented to the appropriate audience can effectively yield greater exposure for an organization, increase traffic to websites, build new relationships and nurture existing ones.

Taking advantage of social media marketing tools such as Twitter, Blogs, Linkedin, and Facebook proactively opens free avenues of marketing that are virtually maintenance free, and allows for mobile use—making access possible from almost anywhere. When strategically and judiciously used, social network marketing can save an organization marketing dollars that can be directed toward other areas of need while keeping its message positioned with the audience with which it desires to sustain ongoing contact.

Essentially, social media is a 21st century shift in how people discover, read and share information. It’s a unique blend of information dissemination and technology that is transforming communication from one to many into an exchange of ideas between organizations and their targeted audiences. It has become extremely popular, and continues to experience rapid growth because it allows people to engage the online world to form relationships and stay abreast of what interests them.

The social media marketing buzz and gurus can make using these simple tools appear overwhelming. But it’s really quite simple. I suggest taking a few minutes to set up an account with a couple of social media sites—and it truly only takes a few minutes. Play with the pages, and in a matter of a few days not only will you find yourself comfortable with them, but you will gain personal insight about how they work and how you can work them into your marketing strategies. I challenge you to go ahead and try it for yourself. You will find there is no mystery to unfold and no technical dragons to slay. You will just be a bit more web sophisticated than you were the day before. And, that is a good thing!