Spinfield: Web marketing trends today, tomorrow, and beyond…

The Web is always a buzz with something new and for a long time it’s been buzzing about social networks. By now many of us have join one social network or another (in some cases, you may not know you joined one, especially if you use YouTube or Flickr).

These sites are all about the conversations that are created when members post a thought, idea, article, news clip, picture, video or something similar. Pick a subject and there may already be a social network for it. And, if there isn’t, there will be soon.

The Web is also all about the next new thing so before social networks become passe (which I’m sure they already have in some areas of the country), let me tell you about the ones I use and whether they are worthwhile.

1. LinkedIn: This is a great business networking site. It follows the principle that you only have 6 degrees of separation from anyone else on the planet. LinkedIn builds a database of your contacts and then, by accessing your contact’s contacts, it shows who you are connected to through your contacts. Over the last few months I built my network to about 120 contacts. From that group I am also connected to over 600,000 additional contacts. Whew! That’s a pretty big network.

So what do I do with LinkedIn? Let me re-emphasize this–, I built up my contact base to over 100 people. I think that’s essential to really make this worthwhile. It was after I reached 100 that new contacts appeared that I could utilize. In one case, a voiceover talent that I used in the past contacted me and we referred him to a client. In another case, a new vendor for insurance leads was discovered on LinkedIn.

Another useful aspect of LinkedIn is the Groups directory. Members can create groups and then control the access to the group. A group can be based upon a workplace, an association or an interest. I joined several groups which gives me access to more members of LinkedIn with common interests.

LinkedIn has also paid homage to the FaceBook and twitter crowds by adding a “What are you doing now?” feature. Of course, this creates another thing to worry about (what if it says, “Jim is blogging” when really I’m watching the Cavs?) Who will know? Who will care?

2. YouTube: If you haven’t watched a video from YouTube by now it can only mean you don’t have an Internet connection or haven’t figured out how to open a browser. There are thousands of interesting, hilarious and even educational videos that are shared on YouTube. If you upload your video(s) you instantly become part a enormous archive of information that is indexable and searchable. At first that sounds wonderful especially for us marketing types. Actually, it means you are a needle in a haystack. But eventually the needle gets found.

We submitted a series of green earth videos to YouTube. In the beginning, there was hardly any response but after a few months the videos were seen over 1,000 times.

The end result is YouTube is a great place to distribute your media and get new traffic to your blog or Website.

3. Flickr: I love the all the interest groups and the information that is passed on to the members. Also, the variety of the groups is wonderful. I can find just about any version of camera, lens, filter, and technique imaginable. It’s one thing to join the Canon 5D group but it’s even better to join the Canon “L” Lenses Group (yeah, I know, its sounds like a snoozer).

Here are some other Flickr favorities: “Engrish” - funny translation signs seen in China, and, “Bokeh: Smooth and Silky” - images of sharp foreground objects with mystical-looking backgrounds (bokeh).

The worst part of Flickr is the outright theft of images and for that reason I no longer post anything there. Case in point: One of the great success stories is the Flickr site of Rebecca Guðleifsdóttir. Some of her top images were copied out of Flickr and was put up for sale in istockphoto! The thief took 25 of her images and posted them for stock sale. Yikes!

I have had some honest and sophisticated people say to me that they thought if an image is on MySpace, YouTube, or Flickr, it’s all right to use it. Nope! It’s a copyright violation and if the image owner has registered the photo with the U.S. Copyright Office then you can be hit with an expensive damage suit.

4. Squidoo: This is a new site by Web guru Seth Godin. It takes the premise that everyone is an expert on something (wow, I knew collecting bronze eagles for thirty years would come in handy some day). You then create your expert Squidoo “lens” which is a focused Web site on your subect of expertise. This sounds like a blog but actually it augments your blog.

For example, check out Funky, Chic and Cool Laptop Bags at Squidoo. It’s written by Kate who also has a blog site on Web marketing. Using Squidoo, Kate was able to make new fans because of the laptop bags story. Subsequently new visitors found her blog.

Right now, I am working on a Squidoo lens, probably on photography or something I think I’m an expert on (maybe drawbridge oiling?).

5. FaceBook: This is probably the most pointless site ever. It seems the members either try to get as many friends as possible in order to feel loved (can someone really have 500+ friends?) or must converse about every meaningless thing in life as possible. Now that I’ve offended every FaceBook user let me suggest a few problems with Facebook.

Here is my first point: like most people, we find other people’s life’s uninteresting (unless of course they are a celebrity). We’re more interested in our own life and that’s why we spend most of our time working over our Facebook profile. How can I look cool? What will make me authentic, one-of-kind, and unique compared to others?

The next problem with FaceBook is the potential disaster it can do to someone’s career. Will employers review your FaceBook or MySpace sites before hiring? Ah, yeah, probably. So if you have on your Web site that you like to have weekend togethers with keggers and strippers, well, that may be something you may not want corporate HR to know about.

I never invite employees to be my “friend” at FaceBook. It puts them in an tough position. Do they say no to the president or do they accept and worry that I’ll see something offensive? Most of my staff think I’m some kind of olden time Puritan. As such, I only accept invites from fellow staff but never send invites.

What about family? My two sons invited me to be a FaceBook friend, but my daughter won’t. It’s a source of great amusement and hilarity in our family about this.

I was once a big user of Instant Messenger (AIM). Friends, family, even co-workers would burst onto my screen with messages like, “What cha doing?” (gee, I’m at work and working!) or “I’m bored” (so now I’m going to be bored by you) or “I just broke up with my boyfriend” (great, there goes the next hour or two). I had to drop AIM or lose my sanity. Even now I’m a Treo junkie with all its e-mail and SMS tools. Can anyone ever get away from the Net anyore? I serious wonder about this.

Why do I still use FaceBook? One word, Scrabulous! I love it, it’s easy to play and sometime I even win.

There are other useful social sites I use such as Digg, Technorati, Delicious and reddit which are social bookmarking sites. I’ll review these soon.

Which social networking sites are the most useful for you? Let me know your experience.

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