Social Media Sites to Watch in 2009
There continue to be thousands of social media sites out there…so many, in fact, that it is impossible to keep up. If you don’t have boundless hours to check on each and every site, here’s a few that I think merit further examination.
- Scribd and Slideshare: both make it very easy to upload presentations, pdf’s, video, etc…a great boon for any business. Easy to share and easy to search, making social slide sharing a huge trend for 2009.
Plurk: I think this is the year for Plurk. I don’t think Twitter is going anywhere, but Plurk offers that IRC, almost blog, almost microblog format that allows for threaded conversation. And given the droves of push marketers that have infiltrated Twitter, people will be looking for a new conversation site.
Stumble Upon: One of the easiest social bookmarking sites to build community and drive traffic. Whereas Digg has an air of unfriendliness and subversiveness, Stumble is much more welcoming to newcomers.
Tailored platforms: More businesses will be building their own communities, rather than relying on out of the box solutions. Familiar tools like chat, blogs, etc, will reside on home websites.
There are great things coming in 2009, including cross-platform communities like Google Connect. It promises to be a year full of increased inter-connectivity and ever increasing user numbers.
Tags: Blog Marketing, Social Media Marketing, social media platforms
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January 2nd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
The old method of advertising is interactive marketing. The term is misleading. Most people think it means that there is some type of interaction on the part of the person advertised to, and there is. But, it is not conversational. Instead, the advertiser wants you to interact with their campaign in a specific set of steps. Following the call to action and visiting a website for instance. It’s the push to make you do something. Live this image. Buy this now.
Social Media Marketing is just the opposite. It’s the pull of the tribe. The tribe already has your trust so the actions they take are ones you align with. On a larger scale, it’s the allure of belonging in the group as you take action together. “I am doing this so why don’t you do it with me?” On an individual level, the attraction is to behave the same way to get the same results that benefits your fellow tribeswoman or tribesman. “She looks hot! I want to look hot too. I want to go to her hairstylist” and you do. Social Media Marketing uses the power of attraction.
While advertising tries to use the same tactic, with a billboard for instance, of a gorgeous woman telling you the benefits of the salon, it doesn’t have the same impact because it’s pushing you to go. It is not pulling you in as a trusted friend. Your friends have your best interests at heart and advertisers do not. Social Media Marketing is based on building trust and that foundation will make Social Media a dominant player in Marketing.