Web 2.0 and other often called 'social media' technologies is today's buzz phrase for all things new that are online. Many market sector industry leaders and upstarts are becoming expert at leveraging such new technologies as blogging platforms, RSS feeds, Wikis, and mashups. If you have not thought about what such technologies might be able to do for your own company, consider Gartner's advice. They suggest that your company may need a Web 2.0 strategy if:
- Web 1.0 has already had a transformative impact on your company
- Your products or services are largely information-based
- Your products or services are highly customized and personalized
- New products or services are rolled out on a regular basis
- You employ lots of home-based or widely dispersed workers
- Your workforce is comprised of younger workers
- Customers or suppliers could potentially exploit Web 2.0 technologies to become competitors
Good advice - especially that first point. Ask yourself if your company has already leveraged every established Web 1.0 capability to enhance growth, reduce cost, or gain market share. Odds are there is plenty left that should be considered or improved when it comes to staff, prospect, customer, and supplier communications, e-commerce, and online marketing and promotion of your goods and services.
In our experience, there is generally no shortage of ideas that could be developed into opportunities. The trick is having the proper strategy to determine which are the right ideas and initiatives that will return the greatest ROI and are in synch with overall corporate goals and objectives. That makes it much easier to leverage not only Web 1.0 capabilities but also consider which Web 2.0 opportunities will be good investments of company resources. Then the trick is getting all internal stakeholders in IT, sales and marketing, and operations to agree on the best specific tools to leverage, and who will put it in their budget.
Comments