Web 2.0 Effectiveness: How Marketers Often Miss the Mark

Marketers are constantly looking for any way to get their companies ahead of the competition and in front of their target customer demographic. Many are quick to jump on new trends and popular marketing tools to keep up with industry peers. One of the latest movements in online marketing has been establishing a brand identity on social networks. Even companies without consumer oriented solutions are taking advantage of sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to get their business to business (B to B) solutions and brand additional exposure.

Social Networks: the Power and Limitations of Community

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are some of the most frequently used social networking communities on the web today. Millions of visitors utilize each network to connect with each other and communicate their own online identity to throughout their community. Facebook claims to have over 400 million active users currently on their social network. Each of these users is connected to 60 pages, groups, or events on average. This form of community communication makes it easier for potential customers to research, evaluate, compare, and purchase the products they're looking for. However, one aspect many of these social networks lack is a focused demographic for marketers to accurately target on a large scale for their B to B technology solutions. Much of the functionality of these networks relies on users to find your company's page, not the other way around.

Turning a Network into a Target Demographic

This is just one of the reasons it is vital to incorporate a focused Web 2.0 marketing strategy to compliment and work in tandem with a broad, branding-heavy, approach to marketing. Many Web 2.0 features such as commenting, discussion boards, blogs, and the ability to share content are ideal tools for companies to connect with potential customers. However, without a focused audience, a company runs the risk of their message falling on deaf ears.

Consequences of Misguided Messaging

Misguided messages and outreach could potentially do more harm than good due to wasted resources as well as the community perception that the company has a lack of understanding of its market. Utilizing vertically focused networks and publications helps to circumvent these risks by giving assurance of reaching the correct audience 100% of the time with marketing campaigns. This approach also allows for a more relevant and captivating campaigns that discuss issues specific to the audience. Many of these publications are adopting features directly from these social networks enabling your brand to communicate with, and be part of, the community. It's imperative to seek out focused websites with a targeted audience that combine social networking and other web 2.0 community sharing capabilities.

Effective Leveraging of Your Online Brand Identity

By implementing your social marketing strategy in this fashion, companies are taking a proactive approach to getting in front of their target customer demographic and their focused social network. This ability for users to comment, post, and share with their networks is essential when trying to establish a brand identity and connect effectively with a specific user base online. Web 2.0 features combined with a targeted demographic maximize efficiency in marketing collateral messaging, customer identification, and online brand identity while eliminating the passive approach of relying on the right customers finding you.

Find out how ISMG is helping with social media marketing initiatives for your industry peers.

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