There has been a lot of buzz these days about Web 2.0. Most people don’t really understand what it is, how it can help them or?how they can utilize it to grow their own company. Like the dot com bubble of the 1990s, Web 2.0 is not the end all be all answer to overnight riches, rather, it is simply a paradigm shift in how the internet is used.
There was a time when all you needed to do was slap a web site up on the internet, tell a few people about it and you would be light years ahead of your competition. Once pretty much everyone had a web site, the novelty factor wore off and you had to take it a step further by introducing something new and different. Many companies did this by adding a multitude of garish animated gifs, and shortly thereafter, flash intros. Since neither of these did anything to add to the user’s experience, they had little to no positive effect on business. Eventually, smart company began to implement ways for their visitors to interact with each other, such as forums or chat rooms. This took web sites from simply being a static source of information to being a dynamic form of communication between an unlimited number of people with a wide variety of points of view. As the success of this phenomenon caught on, other companies began to follow suit, and online communities sprung up all over the world. New ways to connect began to develop, such as blogging, social networking and bookmarks, and a new internet revolution was well on its way.
This just means that you have more tools available?than ever before to promote and market your company.?From social networking web sites like MySpace or LinkedIn?where you can create?your own?profile and then search and connect with other members?that fit your target market, to social bookmarking web sites like Digg or del.icio.us?where users can decide what they feel is important and let others know about it. Even your blog can have an impact by giving your visitors a taste of your knowledge, skills and corporate culture while allowing them to post comments if you allow that feature. Using Web 2.0 to grow your company is simply a matter of finding out what you visitors need, and?using technology, give them a way to get it not just from you, but from others, especially their peers. Remember, it’s all about the relationships.
