There's quite a bit of buzz going around the internet marketing groups about tapping into the online social networks to promote our products and services. As with anything else, there are a good ways and bad ways to go about this. Since I want to go about it the "right" way, which provides real value to those networks, I've been doing some ongoing research on how best to do that.

I came across a post on conscientious marketing which doesn't really address the topic I was looking into, but it did make a point that stuck with me. Recently Shaklee has been emphasizing their record on environmental activism with a relaunch of environmentally friendly cleaners, the news stories about their [tag-tec]climate neutral building[/tag-tec], the initiative to plant a million trees worldwide over the course of a year, appearances on Oprah for [tag-tec]green household cleaners[/tag-tec] and high ratings in Consumer Reports for the quality of their [tag-tec]water purification[/tag-tec] products.

The delicate balance to achieve is to find a way to relate the positive experiences and benefits of the products without really getting in people's faces. One the one side, you can just put your products out there by just mentioning them in an aside and hoping someone takes action, while the other side involves aggressive marketing that hits all of the "hot buttons", talks on and on about the products and demands action right now.

Personally, I'm more oriented towards the "tread lightly" approach in [tag-tec]internet marketing[/tag-tec]. I like to have people do their research and due diligence before making a decision. If a person has questions, I'll do my best to find a great answer, but otherwise I'll just stay out of the way. That's how I like to shop and I imagine that's how my audience would prefer to approach shopping.

On the marketing side, if a person has a great experience shopping, then they are more likely to mention our service if a friend has similar interests or is looking for a similar product. In the realm of online social networks (or Web 2.0 as it's been called) this could mean a site being added to an online bookmarking service like del.icio.us or a blog post being added to digg.com.

So rather than coming up with all sorts of automated ways to try and cheat these services, just use them as they were intended. As a marketer, you need to provide useful content and great service!

That's really the secret to it.

What makes the social tools like online bookmarking and story rating sites different from search engines is that there are people in the loop for rating and ranking content. With search engines, it's all software. I don't get too worked up about treating software with "respect", but when people are involved I definitely want to help them as much as I can and not just put garbage out there.

In that vein, what do you think about marketing in the online social networks? Is there a place for it at all? Should it just be limited to personal experiences with products or business plans?

Also, how do you like to shop online? Do you respond to the "buy now!" type of ads or do you do more research before finally making a purchase?

Leave a comment and we'll explore further!