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By now if you are in the online marketing industry you may have heard the term “Social Media Marketing” or “Social Media Optimization.”

These terms refer to the next generation of what online marketing will become.  It is online promotion in the Web 2.0 world.

Knowing that, we must decide how to market within the confines of this new medium.

Therefore, in this article we will take a look at some of the sites that are springing out of Web 2.0 and how, as an online marketer, we must take advantage of these sites.

In our previous article we introduced you to SMM.  In it, we explained what it is and gave a couple quick examples of sites exhibiting SMM attributes.

In this article we will go a little deeper into SMM and give some more examples of sites which are able to harness the power of user generated media.

Case Study #1 – Digg

One of the more well known sites in the early adopter circles is Digg.  This is a news aggregation site which relies on its users to find and share newsworthy articles online.

Originally started as a means of sharing technology news, Digg has expanded into other news areas including world news, entertainment and business.

So why has Digg become so successful?  After all, it’s only been around for a relatively short time online (Since the winter of 2004), yet it has become one of the top 1000 websites on the web, and has an Alexa ranking of 95.

But why is Digg so popular?  What has driven it to such heights online?

The answer has to do with how Digg operates.  Digg doesn’t act like a typical news aggregator.  It offers something unique that, prior to Digg, was not available to the general public:  A way to provide input into the stories presented online.

You see, the site has a built in voting system which allows visitors to vote up, or down, a particular story they find on the site. If they found the article or story newsworthy or entertaining, they would vote it up (called a “Digg”) while if they found the story lacking or otherwise non-important they could vote it down (or “bury” it).  The more votes a story got, the higher up the listings it would climb.

By now you can see how such a simple system can have such an influence.  Not only on it’s users, news media in general, but also on those sites linked to from Digg.

For example, It is quite common now to see new products being promoted through Digg and other similar sites.  If the company can craft a compelling enough press release or article, and get enough people to read it and “Digg” it, then the article/story will move up the Digg ladder.  The higher up the ladder the more exposure it gets which ultimately translates into greater traffic for the site.

But Digg is just one example of these types of sites.  While it is generally considered to be the first such site other’s have entered the field lately including Reddit, and a recently relaunched Netscape.  These sites also use a community based voting system whereby “good” stories rise to the top while not-so-good ones get buried.

Case Study #2 – YouTube

Our second site today is an example of an SMM site that is also user driven, however it takes advantage of improved Internet speeds to offer something new to the Internet masses – video on demand via YouTube

Before YouTube it was next to impossible to share video online with friends and family.  Usually one had to transfer the video to their computer and then run it through some software to compress it before posting it on their own website.

Once that was done they usually had to pay extra money to their hosting provider because of the bandwidth requirements the video caused.

Today, however, YouTube and others have taken these problems out of the mix.  Not only that, but they’ve created a video delivery platform that works on almost every computer out there including Windows, Mac or Unix based.

They’ve also improved video delivery.  No longer do you have to wait for the entire video to download.  Instead, YouTube streams the video to you.

So why is YouTube so important?

Well for one, it is built on user submitted videos.  Average people create video content and share it with the rest of the world.  From there, YouTube has built in a ratings system, as well as allowing for viewer comments.

And while Internet video such as this is still relatively new we see how other important websites are taking notice.

Google and Yahoo! have both either released or relaunched video services similar to YouTube where users can share and rate video. But it’s not just the bigger players which have gotten into the video space.  Others such as Flurl, ZippyVideos and even Download.com have gotten into the video sharing business.

It’s grown so much that hybrids are being offered by the major television networks.  NBC, ABC and CBS all offer some form of video download whereby site users can download and/or watch their favorite TV shows online.

Overall, the video revolution is just in its infancy.  We are beginning to see business attempting to monetize video on demand by providing web only content, web advertising and more using services such as YouTube.  Over time we expect such services to find a niche in web only video advertising or video production/promotion.

Case Study #3 – MySpace

The concept of MySpace isn’t new.  There have been many other social networking sites similar to MySpace which preceded the popular site.

The idea is that one can post a public or private page about themselves, as well as blog about themselves, share their favorite music and even share photos of themselves or things which interest them.

Through a system of “invites” one can build up a substantial “friends” base whereby they authorize who their friends are (and aren’t).  In some cases only invited friends can see parts or all of a persons space.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “but there’s nothing new here” and you’d be right.  In fact many other sites have tried similar models, and while some have succeeded in most cases they haven’t.  This then leads to the question:  If MySpace has already been preceded by other community sites using the same model, how has MySpace become the success it is?

Just so you understand how successful this site is, we have recently found out that MySpace is the 3rd most visited website, and 7th largest web property on the Internet according to reputable online measurement firm ComScore.

MySpace received almost 51.5 million visitors in the month of May placing it’s total traffic ahead of well known networks such as Amazon, Real.com and Expedia.

In fact, in terms of web properties (that is all websites, not just a single entity) search engines and Ebay ruled the top 6 spots.

These are some pretty impressive stats, considering companies like Yahoo, Google and Ebay are comprised of dozens of websites while Myspace is a single website.

So what is it that made MySpace so successful?

Well many people have many opinions.  Perhaps it is because MySpace offers a free way for people to interact.  Perhaps it is in the ability to find others of similar interests and connect with them.

Or maybe their success has to do with the demographic which seems ideally suited to the “Web 2.0”.  That is, those between 15 and 25 who have actively embraced SMM sites and, in some cases, have also figured out a way to begin monetizing such sites.

In any case, MySpace doesn’t appear to be slowing down at all.  In fact, it continues to grow, both in terms of user base and popularity.  So much so that we are seeing many events unique to the world.  For example, movie studios have taken advantage of MySpace almost exclusively to promote upcoming movies while performers are using MySpace to highlight their works.

In any case one of the strengths of MySpace lies in it’s ability to be many things to many people.  Whether they want to share information, promote a new CD or link up with old friends, MySpace is another example of the types of SMM sites which are making a splash.

Conclusion – Why are these sites important?

There are, of course, many other examples of SMM sites out there that have taken new and unique ideas and turned them into social sites.  Websites such as del.ico.us, Flickr, BoingBoing, and more all have tapped into a new market.

So now the question becomes, how should online marketers take advantage of these spaces.  Is it even possible to integrate SMM into online promotion?  Should we do this?

These are all interesting questions.  Questions which we will begin to answer in the final article of this series.  We will also pose a hypothesis to you.  One which you may or may not agree with.  It has to do with links and how important they become in the new SMM age.

Should we take advantage of these?  I think we have to.  If you consider the demographic of most of these sites, these are users who don’t typically use search engines the way their parents do.  Therefore a new way must be developed to reach them.

In the last article of this series we will take a look at how to take advantage of these and other social sites to help achieve your online goals.