Member Article

Making Web 2.0 work in your business

With David Coxon

Last week I continued Justin Souter’s look at Web 2.0 and explored how technology and the internet may change in the future. This week I’m going to look at how an SME might utilise some of the technologies and internet services around today.

The European Union currently defines small businesses as having less than 50 employees and medium businesses less than 250. It is estimated than in Europe SMEs make up 99% of all businesses in Europe and employ 65 million people.

How easy it is to integrate Web 2.0 into your business will depend what business you are in and what your goals are. Some businesses might want to change people’s perceptions of them, other companies may want reach new audiences, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase sales or reduce costs.

Obviously all businesses are different, and we’re not saying that there is a one size fits all solution, or even that some of these services are appropriate, safe or legal to all businesses. What we are suggesting is that there are some areas of business where Web 2.0 technologies can be used effectively, whether you build them into your site or use existing online services.

Blogs, discussion boards and chat rooms are possibly the areas that most of us think of when we think of Web 2.0, and these are great ways to keep customers up to date and to encourage discussion.

Social Networks (like Facebook, MySpace or Bebo and increasingly Twitter) are great for building communities, connecting and bringing together your clients, uses or suppliers so that they can help each other find solutions. Social networks like LinkedIn can also useful to businesses especially when recruiting or looking for suppliers, as you can get recommendations from people you know and trust.

Mashups allow you to collect other people’s data and add it to your own to provide more useful resources without having to recreate the wheel. You may also want to make your data available to other to pass on to their customers, getting you more coverage/exposure.

Online applications can provide a cost effective way to buy your software – maybe your business is too small to warrant its own mail server, backup solutions, CRM system, or even office software. These days with a fast reliable broadband solutions you can purchase software as a service paying on a monthly basic or based on usage.

A friend recently described recessions as being like pruning – cutting back dead wood, so that newer, green shoots can grow and make things beautiful again. These newer, greener businesses are likely to be the ones that offer the best service and that means having done their homework, listened to the customers, built communities and offered something extra. These are all areas that Web 2.0 technologies can be used to help.

I want to conclude by saying that simply implementing some web 2.0 technologies may bring its advantages, but embracing the culture of Web 2.0: the openness, the sharing, the collaboration, the community and having a genuine interest in what your customers and suppliers have to say to you – these are the things that will make a difference.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Supreme Ice Cream .