In this video, Daniel DiGriz explains Web 2.0 internet marketing. Touching on social media, blogging, and how business sites remain competitive in a Web 2.0 environment, Daniel presents the information clearly and concisely.
Hi. My name is Daniel DiGriz. I’m president of Market Moose Internet Marketing. I’d like to talk for a minute about the new social marketing or the new Internet marketing versus the old-fashioned marketing that we’re all used to. I think it’s best that we talk a little bit about what has changed.
In the past, marketing and advertising were largely confused. Marketing was something that you did to try to bring people in to try to buy the product or the service that you were offering. Now, of course, we all want that. If we’re running a small business or a medium-sized business, that’s ultimately our bottom line or our goal. But the way that we go about it has really had to change.
Just take Twitter and Facebook, for instance. Twitter and Facebook are now burgeoning sources of business revenue for small and medium businesses, as is social media in general. But it doesn’t work by simply going in and spamming everyone. We’ve all been through the era when small businesses came out on the Web, and we started filling up our inboxes with spam. We have developed pretty sophisticated ways to ignore that stuff. Facebook and Twitter are much the same way. If you want to alienate Facebook and Twitter audiences, just keep posting over and over how much you’d like their business, what your prices are, and “please buy my services today.” That just doesn’t work.
So, what’s effective in social media and in Internet marketing? In social media, what’s effective is giving away value or adding value at no charge. Believe it or not, it’s counter-intuitive. Instead of charging for your information, your insight, your analysis, your understanding, and your expertise, you give it away. The difference between that and advertising is that this new marketing allows you to build a tribe, an audience, a group of people that stay within your orbit. You sort of earn the right to attract that business. You earn the status of resident expert in these venues. You draw clientele off of that.
Let me give you an example from traditional marketing. In the old days, we all probably knew some individual in our lives who was “the friendliest person that you ever met.” No one had a bad thing to say about them. Oftentimes, he or she was an insurance agent. I always knew an insurance agent in every town in which I’ve lived that was just wonderful with people. This person shook your hand, brought you soup when you were sick, called you on holidays and sent you cards. The person usually didn’t have a hard sell. They didn’t go around saying, “I really need you to sign up for a policy. Don’t you want to sign here? Please buy my stuff.” Instead, they achieved the status of the person that everyone likes, the person with expertise. So, when we felt that we needed to protect our families better, who do you think that we turned to? Do you think that those guys really had trouble getting clients and growing their businesses? The answer is no. Well, that hasn’t changed a lot. It’s just changed venues.
So, again, marketing is not advertising. Marketing, in some ways, is what it always has been. It’s just that a lot of professional marketers were engaged in advertising, and so, sometimes we think that’s what it is.
Now, marketing has been returned to the hands of you and me and the ordinary small business person in venues like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. A lot people think, “Gee, I’m a small business – do I really need a blog?” Of course you do. You need a blog because part of adding value to your community is giving back your information, sharing your insight, providing answers to commonly asked questions, clarifying and correcting frequent misconceptions, talking about little-used services that actually benefit the public and why they’re there, but not necessarily constantly badgering people with a price sheet and an invitation to buy.
Make your presence known by contributing something to the community. You’ll build your tribe. You’ll grow your orbit. Your business will grow, and you’ll attract clients. Keep in mind that that is the new marketing. That’s the meaning, really, behind Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and all of the new social media. After that, it’s just about finding your own particular direction for growing your brand.
This is Daniel DiGriz, Market Moose Internet Marketing. Hope to hear from you soon. Have a great day!
