Marketing in Web 2.0

Last night, I attended a speaking event called "A Whole New Ball Game: Marketing Successfully in the Web 2.0 World," which was put on by the Northwest chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. They typically have influential, well-known leaders in the space and the panel this time was represented by execs from Technorati, Facebook, Wetpaint, Aquantive, and Zaaz.

The turnout at the Bellevue Hyatt was quite good; lots of familiar faces from the Seattle tech scene. And I got the chance to catch up with ex colleagues at HouseValues, which was nice.

So what did I learn? Nothing too extraordinarily eye-opening but a few nuggets here and there:

• To leverage the power of Web 2.0 which they defined simply as being - 2-way interactions, expressions, personalized conversations, points of view, etc., a marketer needs to be active and present in the "communities" to reach them since they are highly atomized
  
• You have to engage the influencers first since they are the drivers of the content/influence
• It's important to reassess your audience and periodically reshuffle your segmentation to see what works
• Re: monetization, advertising is a necessary evil to users but make it as much as possible a benefit vs. a cost (related to various segmentation strategies)
• Embrace the fact that your brand is going to be manipulated and be" put threw the ringer"; as such, you need to be present to address what people are saying and be authentic in your voice (i.e. no corporate speak)
  
• Lastly, look for ways to leverage these networks/audiences on places like Facebook, MySpace, et al. (e.g. engaging distinct segments where they "hang out")