Social Media + Web 2.0 Design

As the web evolves, social media strategies and Web 2.0 technologies need to be considered prior to a web design project. The reason is simple: Extend the reach of your web site beyond its immediate domain, thereby attracting new web visitors and customers.

The usage of social media web sites has grown exponetially and will continue to do so in the near future. This growth will take traffic away from the traditional search engines as a source of information; as friends, co-workers, and complete strangers provide personal info and insights into products and services. Below are some popular social media web sites that businesses can use to extend their reach:

Collaboration sites:
Opinion sites: Yelp, epinions
Social bookmarking: StumbleUpon, De.licio.us
Social news: Digg
Wikis: Wikipedia

Communication sites:
Blogs: WordPress, Blogger
Events: Meetup, Eventful
Micro-blogging:Twitter
Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo,
Social network aggregation: FriendFeed

Multimedia sites:
Audio & music sharing: Last.fm, ccMixter
Livecasting: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv
Photo sharing: Flickr, Photobucket
Video sharing: YouTube, Vimeo

Reviews and opinions sites:
Product Reviews: epinions
Q&A: Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers