How to attract customers, from "Marketing to the Social Web"

Just wrote this blog earlier today in our Blog templates site at MyTypes.com, from a great book, we still like blogging on blogger so I still post on this blog. The object of that site is to provide SEO advice, Internet Marketing 2.0 advice, social networking marketing advice, and of course a great blogging community.

Last night I was reading a good book that a friend of mine returned to me on Friday. “Marketing to the Social Web” by Larry Weber. It’s a good book on the subject of Social networking, and what I call Internet Marketing 2.0 if you have read my recent blogs. What makes it a great book for me personally for SEO and other business owners is that it has sound strategies and simple statistical value. Before I get to the paradigm shifting marketing strategies of the web 2.0 concepts of “Marketing to the Social Web”, I do have to say Larry’s cover of Jookster is what made it a favorite of mine. You see Jookster was co-founded in Seattle by a friend of ours, Othniel Palomino. Do read the book as it’s has a ton of information, and it’s as up to date as anything on the subject. He also has great testimonials on the back cover, from experts whom I value and respect.

So last night as I am reading the book, I run in to some great stats. I skim through most of the topics of most books I read, sorry too much to do, too little time. Even if no one loved my SEO articles and blog writing work, I do consider my self a SEO expert and Internet Marketing 2.0 expert. Hey we are #32 on Google for the keyword “SEO” that is out of 60million plus sites, and we just started to focus on SEO last week. You will see us in the top 10 soon, we hope. Social Web or Social networking is the key aspect of web 2.o arrival as you have probably heard. Online communities such as MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, and even our small community of bloggers at MyTypes.com are all the rage. Why you ask? Because no man or women is an island, we are social beings. In my opinion, no one, Yes, I mean no one likes to eat alone. Very few if any, like to shop alone, and most people like to live with others, that is why Urban centers have so many people.

Now getting back to the subject of the book, marketing to the social web. How Larry how? I actually have not read that far yet, but I am sure there is no holy grail for every business, on how to attract more customers. But we do have an advantage over Larry in the fact, that we always talk about how to attract more customers via SEO (search engine optimization). We won’t go hammer the SEO mantras here once again, but Larry does mention that search marketing via proper keywords is great way to attract and invite members to your social web. The key to providing value is another topic, and I am sure that book covers it in detail. It’s a good book, based on what I have read so far. Here are the stats (4 things from Compete Inc. research) of what people are looking from Online communities based on the book:

“1. Meet people. Some 78 percent of the people who visit online communities join them to communicate with others, either colleagues or new acquaintances with whom they develop relationships.

2. Entertain themselves. Another 47 percent join to find entertaining content such as photos, music, or videos.

3. Learn Something new. Some 38 percent join because they want to obtain information about topics that hold particular interest to them.

4. Influence others. And 23 percent join to express the opinions in a forum where their ideas can be discussed, debated, or acted on.”

Now the hard part is to put this data in to practice, you are already here at a SEO blog community, learning to use SEO information, learn everything you can about this amazing subject. Do join our blogging community at Community.MyTypes.com? Why we actually promote the most recent 50-60 people on the front page of that site, check it out. Also, those pages are heavily indexed by search engines due to our SEO expertise. In the last 2.5 months we have been able attract over 3,100 people to that site, with nothing but SEO efforts. Now that may not be much, but I am proud of it.