Web 2.0 Marketing Terms Explained

If you want to master Web 2.0 marketing, you'll have to get comfortable with lingo. And I can assure you, there's a lot of lingo. This article explains some of the terms you will most commonly come across as you explore the possibilities of marketing your product or website via Web 2.0 methods.

Blog – A blog is a website that provides news on a specific topic subject. Blogs are publishing systems that allow ordinary people to post, or publish, content without typical web publishing knowledge. Entries are posted in reverse chronological order and readers are allowed to leave comments for each post.

The Long Tail – A marketing phrase coined in 2004 by Chris Anderson in Wired magazine which refers to the emerging "less is more" scenario in business. The web is opening up niches that might not otherwise be served by bigger companies.

Participation – A defining feature of any Web 2.0 website is its openness to user participation. For example, a user can participate in a blog by leaving a comment, or participate in a wiki by editing a page. From a marketing point of view, this participation can create exposure for a product or website.

Social media optimization – This is perhaps the most exciting part of Web 2.0 marketing. Nobody "owns" the field so there's still plenty of opportunity if you're willing to experiement--and make mistakes. Social media sites are, for the most part, social networking sites (FaceBook, MySpace) and social bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Delicious). Social media optimization simply refers to the tools and techniques you can use to boost the popularity of your website using social networking sites, bookmarking sites and online communities.

Viral marketing – Viral marketing is the promotion of a product through word of mouth. It is also known as buzz marketing and has taken on a new form with the advent of Web 2.0. The participative nature of the internet today allows for excitement and "buzz" about a product to spread fast. Hence, viral marketing a very popular technique among companies.

Wiki – A wiki is software that allows a number of users to create, edit and link web pages. The most famous example of a wiki is Wikipedia, which is completed user generated.

As mentioned, perhaps the hardest term of all to define is Web 2.0 itself. However, most agree that Web 2.0 defines the internet as a platform where developers build applications uniquely tailored for the internet, rather than the internet having to adapt to suit the features of applications.