May 12, 2008 – Internet marketing sites are “a-Twitter” – forgive the pun – with talk of recent moves by Facebook, MySpace, and now Google, that will enable small business websites to tap into the potential for online marketing through the social networking media. Online marketing advantages that were formerly enjoyed by only the largest of sites with reams of resources and technical expertise are poised to become features that savvy small businesses, growth companies and mid-size players can easily tap into.
Today, Google announced it is rolling out a new Google FriendConnect feature that will easily allow small business web sites to let their clients and customers interact right on their web site without ever leaving their page. According to David Glazer, Google’s Director of Engineering, “Many sites aren’t explicitly social and don’t necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other.”
The potential for small business marketing online through building customer loyalty, brand marketing and driving revenue is fantastic. Imagine the potential for a local wedding planner to enable bride, groom, families and friends to interact online, sharing their ideas with each other to maximize what they would like to experience at an upcoming wedding -and being able to purchase the products and services online, onsite to realize those ideas – all without leaving the planners site. As potential customers interact in brainstorming ideas for one upcoming wedding, they will be able to invite their family and friends onto the site to discuss and get feedback on their own upcoming events. Fantastic ‘long-tail’ prospects await entrepeneurial small businesses that tap into the emerging new technical capabilities Google, Yahoo!, Facebook etc. are letting the little guy into!
Google will preview its new features s that will allow them to make the Web 2.0 world of “any app, any site, any friends” a reality for website owners at its Campfire One, Googleplex.