The social web (or web 2.0) will catch a lot of search marketers off guard. Now you’re probably thinking, “I know about the social web. I’m a search marketer.” However, you may not realize just how powerful the social web is.

The social web is not just getting 10,000 uniques with a front page story on Digg. It’s not only getting thousands of visitors from a funny video on YouTube. The whole internet culture is changing because of the social web. There are now niche social media sites that actually send traffic. Online community sites like Myspace and Facebook are among the most visited sites in the whole world. Other community sites like forums and Yahoo Answers also get a lot of traffic.

How is the social web exerting more influence over the internet landscape? Here are 3 main factors.

People are spending more time online.
As people spend more time online, they invite their friends to join them. I have a friend that didn’t spend much time online. However, because many of her peers were communicating through Myspace, she joined Myspace. Not only that, she got her mom (who’s over 50 years old) to join Myspace, too. The internet has stopped being a place where mostly computer geeks hang out. Because of sites like Myspace and Facebook, the internet is now mainstream. In fact, for many of people under 30 years old, the internet takes up more time than TV.

People are getting more comfortable and knowledgeable with online technology.
Instead of just checking email, people are building Myspace profiles. Instead of buying ads on newspaper classifieds, businesses are using Craigslist. Instead of keeping notebook journals, teenagers are starting blogs in Blogger. As internet users gain more experience surfing the web, they become more willing to use new internet technology. And for many of these users, the new technology is social applications like Netscape, Twitter, and Flickr.

Because of social media technology, the social web is accessible.
You don’t have to be a computer geek to participate in the social web. Social media sites make it easy for the average internet user. You don’t have to know HTML to create a Squidoo lens or Blogger blog. Also, the well-known social sites are free.

So, now that you know about the power of the social web, we’ll talk about how to use it to get traffic and links. But that’s for a later post.

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