Web 2.0 doesn't work!

OK OK I'm sorry, before a thousand shrieking twitters tell me "You just don't get it do you" (in a manner oddly reminiscent of a flock of starlings). I'll introduce the caveat: "Web 2.0 does work for some things, but it is quite over-hyped at the moment!"

Is that better?

It does make you wonder though, whether the massive and increasing influx onto the web 2.0 sites are the same people that were jumping into the housing market ("can't lose can you - safe as houses") a couple of years ago. When housing prices fall - go social networking!

So web 2.0 is fantastically and increasingly popular, and the marketing Gurus on every street corner are blazing on about the benefits of social interaction. And to an extent they're right. I'm twittering away with the best of them (apart from Stephen Fry of course), on Linked In, eCademy, Facebook, and a number of others I could mention if I could remember the login details.

However a lot of the fuss runs the danger of distracting people away from the fundamentals of web marketing, so I'm going to make the case for keeping an eye on the fundamentals.

Now you can of course ignore this whole post if the fundamentals of your web marketing strategy are all in line, however so many people still don't even know what those fundamentals are (judging by the sites that are still being commissioned for page 789 of Google) that I should still have an audience.

So what are the fundamentals?

• If your site is running anything like efficiently, you will still be attracting something between 60 - 95% of your traffic through search.
• Of that the vast majority is likely to come from Google.
• Visitors from search are looking for what you've got on your web site.
• Visitors from Social Networking once met your auntie at a cocktail party.
• The way to get traffic from search is through content - great content, and lots of it.
• Content should contain key phrases, properly research and placed on the page.
• Content should be compelling, interesting, and convert the visitors to customers.
• Content should be updated and added to regularly.
• You need lots of links pointing to your site, from other great sites with some relevance to yours. This tells search engines that you are important.
• You need good Analytics to track your visitors, and understand what on earth is going on with your site.
• You need a mechanism to bring visitors back to the site again, on a regular basis after the first visit.
• When they come back they must continue to be impressed with what they find.
• Eventually they may trust you (above everybody else on the Internet) sufficiently to buy what you are offering.

That's about it really, and it hasn't changed since Facebook passed its 175 millionth user, or Twitter became the coolest word to use at a posh dinner party.

Web 2.0 is fascinating, a genuine social phenomenon, growing fast, and changing the way many of us live our lives. But for those making serious headway on the web it is just another tool in their armoury, and the basics of making your site successful on line continue much as they have done for the last few years.

Twitter all a jitter

Many of the more "hip" web types who have got bored with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Linkedin or eCademy are now raving about Twitter, as the latest funkiest thing for a nerdy type to be involved in.

And we do - I exchange pleasantries regularly with other Twits, usually the same people with whom I exchange similar pleasantries via most of the other online networking, um networks.

Like all things successful Twitter is no longer immune to the spammers, hence this entertaining post on ZD Net about people developing a way of spamming you via Twitter:
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12691-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=60438&messageID=1110916

Now the main lessons of the story are this:
1. Its OK to use twitter, its quite fun and if you haven't tried it you don't know what everyone is talking about.
2. Don't automatically "follow" everyone that "follows" you (you'll see what I mean if you get in there).
3. Twitter remains rather pointless. You can get some followers knowing what you are doing (aka Stephen Fry ). If you use it to post links to your web site they don't pass any real "link juice" or advantage to the site. However if you have thousands of followers then some real visitor traffic could find its way through.
4. Some are claiming "monetisation" strategies for Twitter, but perhaps that is only these new spammers!

Anyway get tweeting - its fun
-really!