If Web 1.0 was all about chatrooms, tacky banner exchanges and cute emoticons, Web 2.0 is all about social networking, interactivity and user-generated content. So which sites are the icons of Web 2.0? Well, social networking websites (FaceBook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.), social bookmarking sites (Digg, Del.icio.us, etc.) and, of course, the grand daddy of user-provided information, Wikipedia, are a few examples of the new icons of the Web 2.0 universe.

Savvy Internet marketers look at the new social interactivity as a dynamo of solid traffic. Using a 2.0 platform guarantees interactivity, community and a stream of visitors looking to buzz backlink and comment on what's going on in the Web 2.0 universe. Through word-of-mouth, email and traditional publicity, people are flocking to sites that perpetuate the feeling that they are important. While all this traffic is terrific, getting the snowball rolling can prove a bit daunting at first.

But hang on a minute! Is this as easy as it seems?

Nope, it ain't. Web 2.0 marketing requires tremendous amount of time and effort, and yet you can't always figure out for sure whether you will get casual visitors (who just hang around and leave) or hardcore shoppers who're willing to swipe their cards. Here then are some fundamental guidelines for making your Web 2.0 marketing campaign successful:

1. First, your website will need to look chic and have quality content that informs and entertains. It must build a feeling of credibility in the person reporting, and it must be easy to read.

2. People like to hang around social networking websites just to kill time, so that must be a part of your traffic funneling system. Know that they are simply there to hang out and not buy. If you want to try and divert them to your website, it has to be really pulling piece of advertising copy, something entertaining like videos, games, audio, commentary and the like. It must hook the reader and entice them to read more. If you come at them with a sales pitch, it will immediately turn them off and you will wind up without sales.

3. Approach your Web 2.0 marketing campaign like your life depends on it. If you give it a half-hearted effort, put out boring, non-informative content and then sit back and wit to see what happens. Trust me, nothing will happen. Further, you will lose credibility because bad press spreads faster than viruses on the Net.

4. On Web 2.0 websites, your goal is to make pals, not sell. So, your posts have to be informal and conversational, devoid of heavy jargon.

5. You shouldn't expect Web 2.0 marketing to draw traffic automatically to your site the way pay per click campaigns operate. It doesn't work like that as you are not paying for people to read your stuff.

6. You don't want to start Web 2.0 marketing when your site is just starting or if the site is mediocre and sales are just average. Web 2.0 marketing techniques are good for established, working sites. Marketing this way needs to happen when you have a decent amount of content to offer arriving visitors.

These cover just a few of the basics of Web 2.0 marketing. Where ever you start with marketing in this new virtual world, will be a learning curve and stepping stone to more success. The sooner you start, the quicker you'll have results. Good luck in your pursuits.

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