Is It 2.0, Social Media, New Media, or Inbound Marketing? Picking a Name that Sticks

The problem with getting in on the second floor of a movement is that usually the boundaries aren’t defined. Take this example:

Are you a business looking to enhance your web presence? Do you know what you’re looking for?

You were probably overwhelmed with a mountain of concepts. Keep those business strategies safe and dry underneath their biggest umbrellas and you still can’t come up with one term which identifies the movement.

Picking a Transcendent 2.0 Online Marketing Term

I know what we don’t call it:

Blogging: It’s a popular term and an effective tool, but it doesn’t encompassing everything.

Twitter Marketing: Twitter is microblogging. Once again, popular but doesn’t cover everything.

Content Marketing: Content is king, but using this term separates it from its kingdom.

Social Media: Social Media comprises the tool set, but It’s Social Media Marketing that defines how it’s used.

Front runners for this 2.0 world:

2.0: It’s the current term that identifies the concept. It’s the most popular as well as the most branded term. But as with 1.0, 2.0 will evolve and become something else. That’s a whole lot of rebranding for the next number, and so on.

Social Media Marketing: It’s the term that applies the most at current. Social Media Marketing shows how web tools enhance business and personal relationships. There’s a fair chance that the name sticks, but it’s still being weened by its fad roots and doesn’t contain all potential 2.0 aspects.

New Media: The original umbrella term. It’s accepted and used by leaders. The rationale is “it will always apply to the new stuff.” Identifying with the term means you’ll embrace the new stuff that comes along regardless of whether or not the tools help.

Inbound Marketing: Inbound Marketing is the term coined by HubSpot of Cambridge, MA to identify the movement. The concept has picked up steam with leaders including Chris Brogan and it’s a term used by Indy Tech Leaders including Douglas Karr, but most customers are not aware of the concept. The term still needs to be piggybacked along more better-known concepts.

What Will I Use?

I will use ….Digital Marketing. It will need to be piggybacked along 2.0 and Social Media Marketing, but the concept makes the most sense to me.

Time will tell.

Which Name Would You Go With?