A lot of companies have approached me- asking me how they can enter the web 2.0 marketing space- how they can access the Gen Y crowd; and leverage existing networks instead of building their own via ‘push’ marketing.

Some people spend money to direct market - and other people invent ways to market through social networks, blogs, or viral media. I have seen both types of campaigns work.


midVentures recently brought on Mike Damian to lead our Social Marketing efforts. He grew sales at justgrapes.net by 40% by using social networks, business networks, twitter, and blogging. Alex Wilhelm assists with Internet Research for Strategic Business Partnerships; which lets you leverage the next company’s success.


I see social technology and social marketing as two pieces of the same web 2.0 business model. When your site, your product, and your information have value - spreading the word through people’s social networks, linkedin, contact lists, blogs, forums, twitter feeds, affiliate networks, etc - can have huge low-cost payoffs. You cut the cost of acquisition per customer drastically; and you can measure results.


When social technology and social marketing happens in tandem - growth occurs organically.


Linkedin.com is a great example of the power of combining social marketing and social technology into an open source contact list.


Combining social marketing and social technology is the goal of midventures in the coming months.


We are actually developing an application in-house to manage the roll-out of a social marketing campaign. More info to come.


Send me an email if you want to hear more about doing the social marketing thing.