Introduction
The World Wide Web has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. Each day – with every hour and every minute – it is growing even bigger and increasingly complex. Anything and everything that you imagined is just a click away. Many of us can no longer imagine a life without it. Indeed, already thousands of people already make their living from the World Wide Web. With the growth and spread of the internet, specialized techniques aimed at developing businesses on the web have also developed.
Despite all of the technological development, however, the basis of the global economy is still the same – buying and selling. For the producers to advertise and to make their wares available they need to market it.
Consumers also need a place where they can exchange their money for the goods and services they need. In the modern world, the primary marketplace is increasingly becoming the internet. ‘Internet marketing’ is the crux of all Internetbased businesses and is increasingly important for other businesses as well. There are few businesses of decent size that do not have a presence on the internet.
However, the dynamics of marketing on the internet is very different from ‘regular’ marketing. Offline, we use things like billboards, the sides of buses, adverts on television and radio, salespeople etc. to market our products. If you are on the other side of the buying ‘equation’, that is, a consumer, you learn of new products through these marketing tools. More often that not, we do not have a choice about what and when marketing information is available to us. In most cases we cannot choose to ignore the huge billboard on the road or the side of the bus unless you decide to drive with your eyes closed – but that is not something that is generally encouraged. You could change the channel when adverts show up on your favorite TV or radio show – but it is more than likely you will hear or see it again.
With marketing on the internet, the dynamics are a somewhat different. The internet is vast and intricate. It is an intense web of information that needs some skill to navigate, but if you do so, you can rest assured that your needs will be met. The internet gives you more choice. You can choose which website to click on or ignore. This means that the average internet user or anyone looking to do business on the net tends to be a little smarter than someone who does not use the internet for
business. To market to a more intelligent set of buyers, the seller also has to elevate his/her game and be a smart marketer. You need to have an extra edge to make your business or website stand out amongst the millions out there.
It is said that word-of-mouth is the strongest marketing tool. For example, friends starting a new shop, café or blog will most probably tell you to ‘spread the good word.’ We are more likely to believe our friends and peers than a stranger on the television or radio. This is because we know our friends/peers well and we often share the same concerns, needs and tastes as the people around us. If something is good enough for them, it is good enough for you.
Word of mouth could be defined as the passing of information verbally, sometimes recommendations, but most commonly it is just general information. It is usually informal. Word of mouth was traditionally considered to be a person to person, face to face conversational characteristic. However, as modes of communication changed, phone conversations, text messages, blogs, chats, message boards and emails are also a part of ‘word of mouth’. Notwithstanding how it works or what channel it goes through, word of mouth is probably the most personalized form of marketing and the strongest.
A related marketing concept is that of the opinion leader. In any social organization there is a ‘leader’, one who is respected and held in esteem by the rest of the group. This could be for a variety of reasons – age, intellect, intelligence, or access to information. It could also happen in any setting – work, school, home, bar etc. There may be different opinion leaders according to subject. For example, when talking about the efficiency of washing detergents, the family is more likely to follow the opinion of the mother. At work, we generally tend to follow the opinion of the boss, simply because he/she knows more, is better qualified or more experienced. At least in theory, there should be some reason why we respect what the opinion leader has to say and then follow it.
What we need to remember when marketing on the internet is that internet users are a community. Internet users will therefore often have faith and confidence in their fellow net users. If, for example, a fellow blogger recommends an interesting blog to you, then you are more likely to visit the blog. Social networks are, therefore, becoming more and more important in the internet marketing world. Networks of like minded people create an easy target market for the marketer. Communications
within this target market grouping about a certain product or website are even more crucial to internet marketing. It is the ‘word of mouth’ of the World Wide Web.
Networks come in various forms on the World Wide Web. They have proved to be popular across all imaginable barriers of age, gender, social class, ethnicity, nationality etc. A social networking group is defined by the focus on building communities of people who have something in common such as interests, activities, business, educational background, region etc. Some of the popular social networking websites in the English speaking world are Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, whilst in Asia, Friendster remains the most popular social networking website. Social networking websites allow the users to chat, message, video chat, voice chat, share files and links, write blogs and join discussion boards. These are just the major basic applications that social networking websites allow.
Social networks are therefore likely to become a key resource for all kinds of businesses. For example, they can work for small entrepreneurs and businesses by providing them with a specific contact base. This enables the business in question to easily locate their desired target market and build their contact base. Social networking websites have also become key customer relationship management tools for sellers, and, increasingly, companies are using these social networking websites to advertise. More and more businesses are now global entities – and online business and advertising is a great way of reaching millions of people who populate the desired target market.
Besides social networks, social bookmarking is another key element of internet marketing and directing traffic to a particular website. Social bookmarking is also important to individual users on the internet, such as the blogs written by you and me. It helps you guide more traffic towards your website. It allows your website to be indexed and more likely to be accessed by fellow internet users, because it works in a way similar to the way that word of mouth works. It involves the recommendations of other internet users about a particular website. There are many kinds by social bookmarking services available - and each one works just a little bit differently or deals with a different type of content. For example, some social bookmarking websites follow blogs, others follow news stories. Let’s take a look at what social bookmarking is and how it works.
