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How Web 2.0 And Social Bookmarking Can Work For You

Web 2.0 should be at the center of every business owners plan to survive in the Internet world. It is the latest rage sporting the covers of several magazines as well as the biggest topic on the web. It is speculated to be the resurgence of the dot com boom. For the next five weeks, we will look at Web 2.0, specifically social bookmarking, wikis, blogs, Squidoo and Video, and how they affect business owners.

So What Is Web 2.0?

There is still controversy surrounding what exactly the term Web 2.0 entails. Some view it as a marketing buzzword while others view it as the new wisdom of the Internet. For the purpose of this newsletter we are looking at Web 2.0 as the new conventional wisdom of the Internet. Web 2.0 is defined as websites that build on community or offer a service. Rather than offering simply static information, Web 2.0 allows for interactive viewing of the net. There are several sites that have already mastered the Web 2.0 phenomenon such as Flickr, MySpace, Squidoo, YouTube and the social bookmarking site del.icio.us.

The function of these sites is to use community to maintain content. Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, says, “The central idea is harnessing collective intelligence.” Every one of these sites has no content on its own. They all rely on users to fill them with content. It comes down to the art of creating community. The notion is that if you get enough people in a room together, or in this case on the same site, the content created can be more knowledgeable than even the most seasoned journalists could provide.

With Web 2.0 Comes An Attitude Or Culture

Web 2.0 has completely revolutionized the Internet industry by making it a giant community. Everything is live and instant. It has taken down the barriers of the old thinking that only professionals can run a website. Now anyone can do it, and they can do it cheaply while adding money to their bank accounts.

How Does Social Bookmarking Fit Into Web 2.0?

Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public website and tagging them with keywords. To create a collection of social bookmarks, you register with a social bookmarking site, which lets you store bookmarks, add tags of your choice, and designate individual bookmarks as public or private.

How Can Your Business Benefit From Social Bookmarking?

First social bookmarking sites allow you to get to your bookmarks from anywhere there is a computer. So if you are out of town on business, you still have access to your bookmarks without the added headaches of extra research. Second, it allows you to share your site with others, whether they are potential customers, friends, employees, etc. Other people can view your site for reference, entertainment, collaboration, etc. Third, it allows you to access the links that everyone wants to remember. You can see whether two people have chosen to remember a link, or whether it was useful enough for a thousand people to remember — which may help you find things that are useful for you, too. Finally, it is one more way for you to market your site by registering yourself and adding your site as your bookmark.

Next week we will look into Wikis; what they are, how they work and how they can benefit businesses.

Elixir Systems is a full service search engine marketing company specializing in organic search engine optimization services, online public relations management and paid search or PPC management. For more information visit Elixir Systems