by Sheri Fink

Created on: May 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 25, 2007

As the Internet continues to evolve and consumers become more web and marketing savvy, email marketing campaigns and bland websites are becoming less effective. It's important for marketers to embrace and leverage new technologies in order to continue reaching their target audiences. Social networking is a relatively new way to create, publish, and distribute content, photos, audio files, and other information online. This collaborative platform enables users to communicate openly and collaborate on the Internet.

Several enabling technologies include: blogs, podcasts, wikis, and feeds. Each of these social networking tools are easy to use, are viewable with a standard web browser, and are easily shared and syndicated. Requiring no specialized knowledge or technical skills in order to create or publish, these tools are quickly becoming mainstream channels of communication.

Consumers like social networking tools because they have fresh content, contain more believable information, are easy to navigate, and offer interactivity. Using these tools, the consumer has complete control over what, when, where, how, and from whom they receive information.

From a marketer's perspective, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and feeds are a valuable way to quickly distribute information and to build stronger relationships with target audiences. These tools enable marketers to offer interactive and collaborative user experiences to target segments, creating efficiencies in their marketing tactics and customer acquisition strategies.

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