Web 2.0

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Created on Monday, 09 January 2012 13:59

Just what is Web2.0 and why is it important? Depending on who you are asking you can be sure to get a difference in opinion.

Tim O'Reilly who is CEO of the influential technology group the first to coin the phrase and is known to many as the father of the Web 2.0 movement. He explains that Web 2.0 is a continuation of the force set up decades ago with the birth of the software industry, in the early 80s. IBM thought the future was with hardware, so the company signed software rights to Microsoft. Microsoft of course visualised the network effects of a rapidly-expanding install base and was able to build a proprietary monopoly. That monopoly lasted until the net hit the big time and the usual rules about software competition went out the window.

O'Reilly now believes we are now witnessing the rise of internet as a platform. Web 2.0 is not really about software, im the same way the IBM personal computer was not a platform. It's about delivering live services which get smarter and more powerful the more people use them. (Source Net# Magazine)

It has become accepted that a site can be dubbed as ‘web 2.0′ when it offers the user the ability to interact with it rather than just be a passive observer. Blogging platforms such as Blogger & Wordpress are web 2.0. Social media sites like as Digg, Facebook, Twitter are all web 2.0. Sites with user driven content like YouTube and Flickr are web 2.0.

How Can Small Business Benefit from Web 2.0

1. Write and Share Documents

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of two services, Writely and Spreadsheets, which were merged into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations, including technology designed by Tonic Systems, was released on September 17, 2007.
Visit: http://docs.google.com

2. Communicate with your team

Web based communication represents a significant cost saving for small business. Their are a number of systems that have now evolved into incredible business tools.

Skype allows users to make telephone calls over the internet to other Skype users free of charge and to landlines and cell phones for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer, short message service, video conferencing. A very useful feature of skype is a service called skype in. SkypeIn allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers no matter where they are in the world. The caller will only be charge local rates. Visit: http://www.skype.com

For more interactive conference calls services like Webex and Yugma will allow you not only to talk but also drive presentations on remote computers.

3. Invoice Customers and Collecting Money

Google Checkout and Paypal both give you the opportunity to invoice customers online via email. It's a great way to take payment from your customers especially if you don't have credit card processing facilities yourself. Both Google Checkout and Paypal are free to set up. A small processing fee is charged on each transaction.

4. Publish your Ideas

There are lots of reasons to consider using a Web2.0 publishing platform. From sending regular email newsletters to your clients to keeping a blog about your industry or even your own internet TV show. Web publishing tools provide a powerful way to virally grow your brand awareness.

When it come to blogs. Typepad and Wordpress are popular and powerful services.

Typepad: TypePad is a blogging service from company Six Apart Ltd. Launched in October 2003, TypePad was based on Six Apart's Movable Type platform, and shares technology with Movable Type such as templates and APIs, but is marketed to non-technical users and includes additional features like multiple author support, photo albums and moblogging.TypePad is currently used by many large organizations and media companies to host their weblog, such as ABC, MSNBC, the CBC, the BBC and Sky News.

Word Press: blog publishing system written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg. Features include a What You See Is What You Get post editor, a great templating system, search engine-friendly permalink structure and more.

Both services work well with a vast number of widgets and other services that help you extend the functionality of your website.

When it comes to publishing and sharing content, the big story in 2008 will be video. If you are ready to broadcast your corporate masterpiece to the world then You Tube may not be the only option. It is worth a looking at BLIP.TV which is more focussed on letting you create your own channel and syndicating content to several platforms around the world. Another option is Revver where you can gain an inome from people watching your videos. You can earn 20% of the ad revenue from people viewing your videos.

5. Find Customers

Using Google to find customers for your website is not a new idea but lately Adwords have intergrated several new analytical services that allow you to directly associate traffic on your site to campaigns, and calculate the return on investment.

Even if you have an agency helping you with your online marketing its worth paying close attention to Google Adwords and Google Analytics yourself. Understanding the equation of what you pay for your traffic and the path that customers take from seeing an ad in buying something or your site can be a crytical step to boosting profitability,

Google Analytics: Service offering traffic measurement and interactive reporting for small and large sites, which includes visitor tracking and navigation analysis.

Google Adwords: Google's advertising platform offering both cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing for advertisements served on Google.com and partner sites.