Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0
You may not have heard the term Web 2.0 — but you have almost certainly heard of applications such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. These social networking applications, and others like them, have changed how people use the Internet and they are changing how successful dive stores market themselves. In this article, we will look at these and other popular Web 2.0 apps and show you how you can integrate them with your store’s website, eNewsletters and overall marketing effort.
To better illustrate this, we created a fictional dive store, gave it its own fully functional website, then created Facebook, Blogger and Flickr accounts for the store. You will want to open this website in a new browser tab so that, as we describe a particular Web 2.0 app, you can switch tabs and see an actual example. To do so, right click on this link and select Open in a New Tab.
Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as “…the second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications.” In other words, it’s like porn: Hard to define but you know it when you see it.
In this article, we will look at the Web 2.0 apps best suited for dive retailing. This includes:
- Flickr (and other image-hosting websites).
- Blogger (and other blog applications).
- Facebook.
- Addthis.
- YouTube.
- Twitter.
We will also look at a few more Web 2.0 apps you might want to consider, such as EventBrite, LinkedIn and MySpace.
Of the six apps listed above, three are all but essential for any dive store wanting to take full advantage of Web 2.0’s potential. These are:
- Some form of image-hosting website, such as Flickr.
- Some form of blog, such as Blogger.
- A Facebook page.
These are the ones we will look at first.
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