Web 2.0 and Business

Web 2.0 has almost completely penetrated out daily lives. The very mere fact, that I am an active blogger, demonstrates this more than enough. At the same time, I must also admit, that I do have acquaintances, who perhaps are not even aware of this and maintain a certain distance. For those, who are not fully informed; Web 2.0 is not a software update - it is basically the same conventional internet but instead of just surfing for information, booking a ticket, order a book, it has some additional platforms, which offer a more dynamic networking possibility: To directly and real time interact with anyone, no matter where both parties may be. Communication by only e-mail has been extended to another level - the social platforms.

While many people utilise environments like Facebook only to post party photographs from the last weekend, or holiday, perhaps to get in touch with lost friends from the past, companies have obviously discovered this medium as a new way to promoting and propelling new business opportunity. Although the former is actively being used by businesses as well, it is more platforms like LinkedIn, Xing, or and others, which offer a more serious environments to induce networking.

In a dynamic age - in which we are - we have quickly absorbed this new tool into our lives. Whether we have done so effectively enough remains to be questioned. Lately, I noticed an urgent request from one of my LinkedIn contacts. As I could provide a solution, I immediately responded - not just via LinkedIn, but I anticipated the probability, that the said person would maybe not visit LinkedIn within a few hours, therefore I also forwarded an e-mail as well. There was indeed a prompt reaction. Some weeks passed by, however, and I inquired on the status. The response was more or less disappointing: "Hasn't received anything".

I seem to notice an unfortunate trend, where individuals sign up (for whatever reason), and assume that the crutch of the whole thing is to accumulate connections. And there it stops. The person from my previous example, was indeed priding herself with a 2000+ status. Impressive, but what did it bring? Apparently, from further correspondence it transpired, that she had a complete chaos in her work. Perhaps the fanatic acquisition of links prevented her to keep focused on her initial work. Her waste of time, and in the end, my waste of time as well.


Another example is of somebody, who frequently (perhaps over-frequently) feeds twitter-like messages, which seem fully out of context, posting video messages that rather show a certain over-enthusiasm but hardly any profound added value, and instead of getting useful info, it became rather an irritating bubble. Perhaps better presentation skills and improving the language would somewhat help to overcome this problem, but in all, the strategy was fairly unprofessional.

Social networks can have a very useful role, when utilised in a sensible way the impact can be amazing. Promoting your business there can be very effective - after all, the basic "word of mouth" advertisement is far more powerful than any prestigious marketing campaign. And social platforms serve as a kind of real-time electronic word of mouth medium. No more, no less. And as in real life, the users are just people. Those who find a proper way to get to business, and those who will not. I am fully convinced of the benefits of Web 2.0, and I shall be using it optimally. Yet, remaining critical at all times is perhaps the best approach. 
PS.: I deleted the contacts from my list...