What is Web 2.0?
The answer is a rather interesting and complicated one. Web 2.0 in its simplest terms means any website that in some way gets content or services from its users. Virtually every website except for static Web pages benefit from Web 2.0 inputs or manipulation and with the addition of Google's Sidewiki, even static websites can show benefit or detriment from Web 2.0 technologies. Web 2.0 technologies include the ability to make comments, do reviews, post URLs, send emails concerning the site and a variety of other social interactions. At its most complex, it means total information sharing and awareness through a variety of means - forums, blogs, newsletter subscription forms, email forms, order forms, website store applications, testimonial boxes, guest books, RSS feed widgets full of related content, and 24 hour live customer service applets - all working together to help your company connect with the consumer in the most meaningful and profitable ways possible.
What are the benefits of Web 2.0 for organisations?
Web 2.0 is highly beneficial to organisations because of the social nature of the technologies involved. The ability of consumers to discuss a product or service between themselves, with company added content seeded in amongst the conversations, can create spontaneous or viral buzz that can greatly benefit a corporation's promotional effort as well as their branding efforts. Web 2.0 technologies can also make it easier for a company to communicate with its fans from a centralised location that allows for input back from the consumer.Websites such as MySpace and Facebook are social networking sites. They both use Web 2.0 technologies to connect groups of people together for business and non-business purposes.
Websites such as Digg and Reddit provide a social news experience unlike anything in the history of content presentation where consumer activity determines what most people who visit the site see on the main page. Work related sites such as LinkedIn are primarily used as work related informational sharing and networking sites. Search engines such as Google use Web 2.0 services to improve their search results by allowing searchers to determine the type of searches that come up first and then use this data to fine tune their ranking of relevant content.
Properly presented Web 2.0 technologies can be a dream come true for companies and individuals. Never in the history of capitalism has it been easier for your fans to boast about you if they like your product or service. Likewise, if they dislike your products it is equally easy for them to display their anger and dissatisfaction with you and your company. With the widespread use of ready-to-type blog services, people can log in and write a negative review about you or your company in five minutes that will probably be impossible to remove from the Web unless the person who wrote it voluntarily removes it.
These risks should not deter anyone from the use of Web 2.0 technologies as a means to improving their offerings on the Web because with so many companies providing them you would be putting yourself at a disadvantage by not utilising them. If negative reviews become a problem the simplest way of handling them is to contact the writer and ask them what it will take to get rid of the negative review and turn it into a positive one. While it may sound like giving in to blackmail, Web 2.0 technologies have given the consumer a power they have never had before and the best option for a company or individual is to go back to a forgotten rule of business that says the customer is always right.
How can your business successfully implement Web 2.0?
If your IT staff is not up to date on the latest Internet technologies you should probably hire someone to train them in all aspects of Web 2.0 and how to use it to benefit your particular business or situation. Web 2.0 is all about bringing the customer and the business closer together. Whatever is appropriate for your website will be beneficial - ranging from a forum or blog, to an email harvesting application connected to an automated newsletter service.The Internet was created as a means of communication and Web 2.0 technologies are giving us an increasingly large number of means to communicate. Given that fact, it is clear that the Web is becoming increasingly interconnected and Web 2.0 technologies are at the forefront in achieving this.
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