A brief look "under the hood" of 7 top Web 2.0 Companies who are setting the pace for all the rest. By knowing how these companies are innovating and building their communites we can quite easily tap into an endless supply of free and highly targeted traffic...
With the increased popularity of Web 2.0 among marketers, it is important to understand why it is becoming increasingly difficult to compete with those who know how to use these sites, and know what their specific functions are. In this article I will take a brief look "under the hood" of 7 top Web 2.0 companies that the online marketing community will soon be unable to live without.
Del.icio.us
If you want to learn about social bookmarking and what it can mean for your business, you must use and study the grandaddy of all social bookmarking sites. Del.icio.us is arguably the largest and most well known social bookmarking site, as it is actually considered to have given birth to them all.
FeedBurner
FeedBurner innovated and developed an amazing way for marketers to publicize and optimize the distribution of their web content. This innovation in both content delivery and advertising capability was noticed by Google. Yes, its official: Google has acquired FeedBurner. This tells you something about the immense power that FeedBurner has and will continue to have in the future. FeedBurner provides everyone with high quality statistics on their feed readership, absolutely free. Their statistics are some of the best I have seen. The only drawback about FeedBurner is the use of advertisements on your feed page. This keeps FreedBurner free for all. I have found the advertisements to be of little worry as they are not intrusive in any way, nor do they take away from the content your readers are getting from you.
Flickr
Flickr is yet another great brand in this Web 2.0 jungle. It continues to grow in popularity by leaps and bounds, but it is important to understand why, as the reason for their growth teaches an important lesson. People are joining and using Flickr in droves, because they get to interact with the entire process. Members can upload their own photos and artwork, get positive feedback from others, and leave feedback of their own. This constant activity of user generated content is what puts the search engines in your corner, and what can make your Web 2.0 promotions so powerful.
Skype
With the original release of Skype, thousands upon thousands of users finally found phone bill relief! It certainly falls into the Web 2.0 category, and when you have a product that has become part of the language and culture online, you know it is here to stay. We all have told someone that to find things online they just need to "Google it" right? Well now for communication purposes I have customers and business partners saying, "just Skype me."
Technorati
Is Technorati even more popular than Google? All things considered, the answer to that is a big no, but this brings up a good point. Many people out there ARE starting to use Technorati more than the search engine monster, Google. This is causing marketers to take notice and is enabling Technorati to capitalize on this trend by making sure they remain as technologically advanced as possible. This potent combination is what has made Technorati one of the most valuable Web 2.0 companies today and its search speeds are hitting warp drive.
Wordpress
I am in love with Wordpress. It is a bloggers dream come true and affiliate marketers are starting to realize how powerful this blogging system really is when it comes to search engine placement. Given the fact that so many feel the same way as I do, Wordpress will never have a shortage of addons, scripts, plug-ins or other features to use with it. It truly is a complete, all-in-one CMS, and with a little direction can help marketers dominate the search engines for their chosen keywords.
Netvibes
Even with the large number of other Ajax desktops found online, Netvibes beats them all hands down when it comes to features and functionality. Netvibes pretty much pioneered the idea of the "personal homepage" which is seen on so many Web 2.0 applications these days. It helps its users bring together all of their most favorite tools they use on the web, such as instant messengers, websites, blogs, widgets, videos, podcasts, etc. Netvibes is all about helping individuals personalize their web experience, and that is what Web 2.0 is all about.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of Web 2.0 companies out there, but these 7 companies are powerhouses in their individual markets, and show us who many of the up and coming Web 2.0 companies are following and learning from. By understanding how these 7 companies work, you will be able to use them in a way that serves your business well.
By learning about Del.icio.us alone, I now have a powerhouse marketing system in place with every other social bookmarking service online...and there are tons of them, with more coming on every day.
The real problem is not too little traffic, but too much, and very little time to access it all! There is enough for everyone and there always will be for those who learn all about Web 2.0 and its power today.
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