Marketing with Web 2.0

Consumer-created content - a key concept in Web 2.0. It provides opportunities for businesses to develop business models that enable people from all walks of life to share interests and form communities. Web 2.0 also offers possibilities for different content such as text, music, photo, and video to be uploaded and provides the user a richer multimedia experience.

According to Tim O' Reilly, Web 2.0 represented the web as a platform. The user is positioned as a controller of data. He and John Batelle stressed core competencies that focus on

• Services, not packaged software
• Architecture of participation
• Cost-effective scalability
• Remixable data source and data transformations
• Software above the level of a single device
• Harnessing collective intelligence

Five years after the first Web 2.0 Conference was held, according to the Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On by Tim O'Reilly and John Batelle, the web has become an avenue for collaboration. A lot of people have an idea of such through the concept of "crowdsourcing", of which a group of people collaborate and do collective work that far exceeds those provided by individuals. The onset of consumer-created content websites continue to flourish, with the advent of social networking sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Multiply, Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, and lots more. Such sites encourage users to post multimedia content such as photos, videos, music, etc. Nowadays, other "applications" such as games are included in social networking sites, enabling the user to further interact with peers.

In addition to social networking sites, other user-created content sites flourished. Video streaming sites pop up, the most famous of which is Youtube. The opportunity to voice out one's knowledge and opinions widened through the introduction of blog sites such as Wordpress and Blogger. Photo sharing sites such as Panoramio, Flickr, and Webshots enabled members to post different photo and create online collections.


The rise of Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia enabled anyone to post content provided that such passes the site's standards on content reliability. Online shopping sites such as eBay and Amazon enabled buyers to browse at items and be able to purchase it through different means such as credit card, money order, or Paypal.

The web, in turn, has ventured out of the computer and into mobile communications. Nowadays, a number of mobile phones are equipped with digital video cameras, stereo speakers, internet capabilities, among others. The rise of such gadgets and getting into the hands of many individuals gave way to the rise of new applications for mobile phones. An example of such is the introduction of the Apple iPhone made it a lot easier for consumers to access the internet. With this, key players such as Google developed mobile applications for the iPhone. A lot of mobile phones are now equipped with Global Positioning System. This can be proved useful for applications such as Google Maps such that users can pinpoint their location anywhere on the planet, and be able to plan trips towards their destination.


Marketing using Web 2.0 utilize such concepts of creating opportunities for more user participation and consumer-created content. Here in the Philippines, mobile companies offer more content for subscribers than ever before. In the case of Globe Telecom, the site offers pay-for-download content such as games, instant messaging, and other types of applications. In the case of Smart Communications, the telecom company introduced to its subscribers Smart Sandbox, the country's first web-to-wap portal. The marketing of the portal used digital media channels such as Youtube and mobile phones in order to advertise and deliver content to Smart subscribers. Upon viewing the ads posted on Youtube, subscribers are made aware of the portal and such, registered to the portal. Smart Sandbox utilized Youtube for it is a mainstream in terms of video streaming. The site can be viewed worldwide and incorporates fast video streaming for fast and easy access to video content. The site enables users to freely upload video content without being charged for uploading and viewing of such videos. Smart Sandbox was able to save on costs on upkeep of the videos yet was able to deliver its message to advertise and entice Smart subscribers to participate and join Smart Sandbox.



Web 2.0 is continuously evolving into the real world, making use of the platform for different purposes. Here in our country, the web was used to relay information concerning updates on Typhoon Ondoy through sites such as Pag-asa and TyphoonOndoy.org. The web is now being utilized as well for campaigns of candidates in the 2010 national elections. 


The concept of Web 2.0, in my opinion, is still at its young stage. It is expected that a lot more content will be created in order for users of the World Wide Web can be more involved and participate in its growth. It is important that users be made aware of the power of the Internet and be trained in the proper manner of using such power, in order for the information to be relevant, accurate, and helpful in building a better society.

Source:

O'Reilly Media, Inc. (2009). Retrieved November 11, 2009, from O'Reilly: Spreading the Knowledge of Technology Innovators: http://oreilly.com/