Web 2.0 - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

How do you measure the success of an online business, given the current economic climate?

Tying in rather neatly with Chris Lake’s blog post a couple of weeks ago, 20 ways to delight your customers in 2009, last week saw E.Factor hosting their Measuring Success event.

E.Factor is a relatively new online social networking-site that has already gone global, with a rapidly growing membership of business people and investors.

Google's SearchWiki, which allows users to re-rank, delete, and comment on results, was released this week, leaving users with plenty of questions about the new feature.

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has been talking to Google about SearchWiki, and has answers to a few questions... 

Last month Facebook apparently offered Twitter $500m worth of its stock to buy it. Mark Zuckenberg is a known fan of Twitter, having described its ‘model’ as ‘elegant’ at this year’s Web 2.0 Summit.

Following on from an earlier article on how universities are failing to educate students on the career opportunities available in the internet industry, here’s a how-to guide on how to break in through the back door.

Firstly, don’t wait for your university to catch up. Asking some questions to your lecturers might help the students of the future, but I doubt it will help you in the near term. You’re going to have to figure this out for yourself.

Thankfully there is a wealth of information available to help you do this, as well as some fantastic support networks. Employers will admire your gumption.

Microblogging service Twitter is not only useful for online marketers, or to link to interesting blog posts; it can also be an effective customer service tool.

Rebecca on SEOmoz has provided an interesting case study describing how Comcast used Twitter to solve an issue for her; something other companies can potentially learn from.

One of my new favourite web tools is called bit.ly, a kickass URL shortener with a difference.

Essentially, bit.ly is, backed by the interesting folks at Betaworks, is a next-gen version of TinyURL, replete with some advanced features that you might find useful.

And where TinyURL has stood still, bit.ly has innovated...

Whatever your political views, it's hard not to be impressed by the way in which Barack Obama used the internet to get his message across.

From YouTube channels to Twitter and Facebook accounts, Obama's team showed a real understanding of online media to campaign and raise funds for the candidate.

There is plenty that charities could glean from the Obama campaign's online marketing, and much of it didn't cost the earth...

GetSatisfaction is a website that provides a possible alternative for both companies and customers to resolve online customer service queries.

Get Satisfaction allows users to post feedback about their experiences with a company or to simply ask a question about products or services, and allows companies to respond directly and publicly.

Fresh Apps, currently in beta, aims to make it easier to search and find useful iPhone apps than is currently possible on iTunes.

It can be tricky to search through the sheer number of apps in the iTunes Store, so has Fresh Apps made it a smoother process? 

While it's widely accepted that advertising on social networks can be a mixed bag in terms of results; for certain types of campaigns, it may be worth giving a shot.

If you're interested in dipping your toes in social network advertising, here's a list of the ways you can reach users on social networks.