What is web 2.0?

What is web 2.0? It is the greatest thing to happen to the small business owner. Now the little guy can reach as many potential customers and clients as traditional Madison Ave marketing firms. To understand how this can be true, you need to know what web 2.0 is and how to apply this technology to your business. Web 2.0 is not a singular technology. It is more of a philosophy. It is a new approach to how various websites are built. Early Internet users searched the web for information. That is not enough for the modern internet user/customer. The current trend is for people to want to interact with others on the internet; social media websites facilitate that connection. Imagine my surprise when my grandma sent me a friend request on facebook!

Imagine an independent film maker making a movie that millions of people can watch over the internet. Oh yeah, i forgot to mention there is no movie studio or corporate financing involved. What about an unsigned music artist selling millions on his own without major label distribution. The following story shows how a beginning wedding photographer can book more jobs using social media.

Susan, A wedding photographer from Los Angeles, used myspace.com to run a unique referral program. She used an old real-estate investment technique called bird-dogging and applied it to her business.

Bird-dogging is when an investor pays a third party a commission for finding a very good deal on a house. Susan did this on a large scale using her social network.

She sent a message out to over 1000 of her of Los Angeles myspace friends saying that she would give a $100 commission to anyone that successfully referred her to shoot a wedding. Her average fee is $2000 per wedding. A five percent referral commission isn’t to bad. Some entrepreneurs adjust there price by the amount of the referral commission so no profits are lost.

Susan may get more referrals than she can handle. In this case she can out source the jobs she doesn’t have time for. She is now diversifying her wedding photography income by referring her overflow referrals.

Web 2.0 and social networking helped Susan supercharge her business.