Leveraging the long tail

Have you ever heard about internet marketing? If you have then you might know about the long tail. Now, I am going to explain about web 2.0 another pattern which is Leveraging the Long Tail. It means that the way to maximize the usage of internet marketing. According to Kaw (2009), there are several ways to do it such as :

1. Optimize site with lots of keywords
   Providing more keywords will help readers to understand quickly and easily about the content of the thing which being marketed.
    
2. Provide much of contents
   While too little of contents would not be helpful. On the other hand, the more of the contents with lots of details will help readers to know what we want to tell them.
    
3. Have more fans and followers
   More fans and followers means that they will be able to advertise our product indirectly can be from mouth to mouth or through social networking, for instance using Facebook or Google+ to inform their friends and acquaintances about the product they like.
    
4. Invest in link developing strategies
   Using link from others to let others know what do you think about a certain products will help you gain more popularity and profits by making a good posting in your blogs.
    
5. Spread the contents to other people
   Use the social networking to engage more people to your blogs.
    
6. Utilize the website footprint
   Visiting other website and blogs to occupy more readers to your blogs and website is one way to utilize people to left footprint in your blog.  

For this pattern, I will use Second Life as an example. Second Life is a virtual application which has a similarity with The Sims where your character can buy online products and also building a community there.

Through the perspective of Leveraging the long tail, Second Life has a huge amount of share where people are really want to buy their land there as an investment. It even reached almost 40.000 of residents in Second Life (SL). A good Return Of Investment (ROI) also become a main benefits of long tail for SL to gain more customers. SL also using a business model like other virtual world used, which is “who is here?” rather than “who is been here?” indicated that the present customer who is currently online is more important than the customer who is currently not online.

Reference

Anderson, Chris. (2007). Why I Gave Up On Second Life

Kaw, Prasant. (2009). Six Ways to Leverage The Long Tail in Your Marketing

 

Perpetual Beta

Another method of web 2.0 is Perpetual Beta. What does it means? It is software which being updated for certain time and since it is connected to the internet, the service would be available and stay updated unless there is maintenance. It allows users to interact in a real time with the software.

For this method, I will explain it with the software called KakaoTalk. KakaoTalk is mobile phone software for communication which has a function like chat and messenger. This application available on Iphone, Android, and BlackBerry for free (only required to download the application)

KakaoTalk provides lots of benefits for the users who need to communicate with their relatives, families, friends and other people who have known you. One of the benefits is this application only required an internet connection. Therefore, you only need to find a WIFI spot or using internet data from your smart phone. Another advantage is that this software is cheaper to use rather than using instant message, especially if you want to communicate with people outside of your area or abroad. This software also has a unique method, which is ask you for a special ID. It means that you do not have to know your friend phone number to be able to communicate, you only need to know your friend’s ID to add him/her as your friend in your KakaoTalk account.

From a perpetual beta perspective, KakaoTalk required updated its service after several weeks. Sometimes this update is required to make the application run smoother.

Reference

KakaoTalk FAQ

KakaoTalk Wiki

Target Serve and Adapt a Simple Model For Audience Development

Software above the level of a single device

Software to connect to the internet recently is not limited with only Desktop PC and laptop, even with our game console or smart phone can access internet almost everywhere. Here, I am going to explain one of many functionality of Web 2.0 which is software above the level of single device. It means that the ability of a software to integrate with multiple applications. In this example, the application which is able to integrate with multiple applications is called Tagged.

Tagged is also a social networking similar to Facebook, the only difference is that the interface of this social networking is a little bit like a dating site even though not all of the member really looking for their partner here.

The synchronization this application has is the integration with Facebook. If you are a member of Facebook, you will be definitely able to log in to this site without any sign up needed.

Lightweight models and cost effective scalability

Another pattern for web 2.0 is lightweight models and cost effective scalability. Lightweight models mean that a web 2.0 application should have a good business models. In addition, Cost effective scalability means that it has the ability to get an income to overcome the costs while it has a wide range of networks.

For this pattern, I am going to explain the integration of multiple applications with an application called Instagram.

Some of you might already know this application. This application is a photo sharing software like Flickr, which popular with its integration with the famous social networking, Facebook. Facebook even bought the stock of this application.  Instagram also has an compatibility with  mobile operating system, Apple and Android.

For the income they get quite a lot since its popularity. They get around 1 billion and almost beat Facebook’s income. But then, recently the Facebook bought Instagrams stock to keep its popularity.

Reference

Instagram Homepage

The Instagram Architecture Facebook Bought For A Cool Billion Dollars