Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

by Larry Weber

Overview

An updated and expanded Second Edition of the popular guide to social media for the business community

Marketers must look to the Web for new ways of finding customers and communicating with them, rather than at them. From Facebook and YouTube to blogs and Twitter-ing, social media on the Internet is the most promising new way to reach customers. Marketing to the Social Web, Second Edition helps marketers and their companies understand how to engage customers, build customer communities, and maximize profits in a time of marketing confusion. Author and social media guru Larry Weber describes newly available tools and platforms, and shows you how to apply them to see immediate results and growth.

Rather than broadcast messages to audiences, savvy marketers should encourage participation in social networks to which people want to belong, where dialogue with customers, and between customers, can flourish. in Networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and even Flickr are the perfect forums for this dialog; this book shows you how to tap into this new media.

In addition to the tools and tactics that made Marketing to the Social Web a critical hit among marketers, this second edition includes three entirely new chapters that cover recent changes in the field. These new chapters describe how Facebook will monetize its business and one day surpass Google; how companies can measure the influence and effectiveness of their social media campaigns; and how marketing to mobile social media will grow into an effective practice in the near future.

Marketing must reach out into new forms, media, and models. Marketing to the Social Web, Second Edition presents an exceptional opportunity to use these new tools and models to reach new markets, even in today's fragmented media environment.

Larry Weber has spent the last three decades building global communications companies, including Weber Shandwick Worldwide and the W2 Group. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange, the nation’s largest interactive advocate association.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470410974
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/03/2009
Edition description:	Second
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Larry Weber has spent the last three decades building global communications companies, including Weber Shandwick Worldwide and the W2 Group. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange, the nation's largest interactive advocate association.

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Table of Contents

Foreword Jimmy Wales ix

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Part I Pandemonium: The Landscape of the Social Web

Chapter 1 The Web Is Not a Channel (And You’re an Aggregator, Not a Broadcaster) 3

Chapter 2 Community and Content: The Marketer’s New Job (Or How to Cut Your Marketing Budget and Reach More People) 19

Chapter 3 Making the Transition to the Social Web (First Change Your Mindset) 33

Chapter 4 How to Let Customers Say What They Really Think (And Keep Your Job) 51

Part II Seven Steps to Build Your Own Customer Community

Chapter 5 Step One: Observe and Create a Customer Map (Otherwise You Can’t Get There from Here) 65

Chapter 6 Step Two: Recruit Community Members (With a New Toolbox and Your Own Marketing Skills) 77

Chapter 7 Step Three: Evaluate Online Conduit Strategies (And Don’t Forget Search) 89

Chapter 8 Step Four: Engage Communities in Conversation (To Generate Word of Mouse) 97

Chapter 9 Step Five: Measure Involvement With New Tools, Techniques (To Keep the Cutting Edge Sharp) 113

Chapter 10 Step Six: Promote Your Community to the World (Get ’Em Talking and Clicking) 127

Chapter 11 Step Seven: Improve the Community’s Benefits (Don’t Just Set It and Forget It) 139

Part III Making Use of the Four Online Conduit Strategies

Chapter 12 The Reputation Aggregator Strategy (We’re Number One!) 155

Chapter 13 The Blog Strategy (Everybody’s Talking at Me) 167

Chapter 14 The E-Community Strategy (Go to Their Party or Throw Your Own) 183

Chapter 15 The Social Networks Strategy (Connecting with a Click) 193

Chapter 16 Does Facebook Matter? (To Marketers?) 207

Chapter 17 Living and Working in Web 4.0 (It’s Right Around the Corner) 219

Notes 231

Index 239

Editorial Reviews

"…outstanding book…an intelligent, accessible guide to a new world." (The Marketer; Chartered Institute of Marketing, October 2007)

From the Publisher