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Unfortunately, many businesses feel that Web 2.0 and social networking are for the younger generation and a waste of time when used by employees. However, once you understand the power of these applications and how to use them in your company, you'll quickly find that they can be invaluable tools to boost your bottom line.
Using Them to Make Your Company Recession-Resistant
Most people are familiar with the term "Web 2.0," which refers to a second generation of web development and design that focuses on fostering social networking via the web. Innovative companies are beginning to embrace Web 2.0 asa way to enhance communication, information sharing, and collaboration, thereby allowing them to work smarter rather than harder.
The business use of Web 2.0 represents a new trend called "Business 2.0." Aside from being the name of a defunct magazine, Business 2.0 is about using the new web-based social networking applications (many of which were originally created for personal use) in a way that fosters teamwork, customer touches, and internal and external collaboration in a low-cost, seamless way.
Unfortunately, many businesses feel that Web 2.0 and social networking are for the younger generation and a waste of time when used by employees. However, once you understand the power of these applications and how to use them in your company, you'll quickly find that they can be invaluable tools to boost your bottom line.
Following is an overview of the best Business 2.0 tools.
PERSONAL TOOLS WITH BUSINESS APPLICABILITY
PERSONAL USE: Facebook enables you to connect and share with the people in your life. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with others. People can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
BUSINESS 2.0 USE: Large organizations can connect all of their employees, or members, with Facebook. Some are finding an added advantage of using an internal, secure version of Facebook. This has helped organizations to dramatically increase their internal networking and collaboration.
ASK YOURSELF: Could we use Facebook, or our own internal version, to get people to collaborate at a higher level?
PERSONAL USE: Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows friends, family, and co-workers to...