Web 2.0 For Business
Organisations need to move away from a mentality of buying in shrink-wrapped, generic style solutions to their business level challenges. Web 2.0 tools don't readily fit into neat solution boxes; and often times they need to be deployed in unique combinations. Experimentation and quick trialling is the easiest way to figure out what combinations can bring value to an organisation. This approach is also an effective way of internally building up an important new skill set.
Here are a few web 2.0 technologies we recommend for trial:
For External Use (Sales & Marketing)
Online Video – a digital recorder and a YouTube account is all you need. The next step of streaming multiple videos from your YouTube account directly into your website is a simple and costless exercise.
Microblogging – much simpler than maintaining a fully blown blog. Twitter is proving, amongst other things, to be a powerful customer service tool.
Social Media Monitoring – sites such as Socialmention make monitoring a wide range of social media platforms an easy task. Keep on top of what the online world is saying about your organisation, your brands, your competitors or your industry.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) - allow your customer or clients to subscribe to your organisation’s RSS feeds on their own terms – much simpler than either pulling them back to your website each time you've got something to say or pushing information out to them via interruptive email. Common RSS feeds include press releases, product announcements, newsletters, special offers, and reminders.
Online Mapping – interactive mapping platforms such as Google Maps allow people to access geographically based information about your organisation in multimedia driven layers – all at their own pace or particular angle of interest.
For Internal Use (Operations)
Online Mapping – overlay traditional business data on a Google Map for competitor analysis, optimising sales runs, identifying new store locations, or asset management – to name just a few applications.
Newsrooms – customise and filter selected RSS feeds into a newsroom style dashboard for your industry, allowing pertinent real-time information to flow into your organisation as its posted around the world wide web.
Wikis – replace your intranet with a wiki. Wiki’s are a cost effective, communications, collaboration and knowledge management tool all wrapped up in one online application.
Organisation Wide Social Networks – strengthen internal relationships across all levels, departments and offices by allowing people to connect, communicate and share digital media with one another.
Want to Know More? Attend a NET:101 Internet Marketing & Social Media Workshop.
