Web 2.0: Valuable business tools or worthless distractions?
Category: Blog - July 31, 2007
Beehive is in. Our newly overhauled Website includes our first direct commitment to the Web 2.0 toolbox. We’ve been researching, writing business cases and delivering 2.0 strategies — podcasts, wikis, RSS, blogs — for our clients since the dawn of the technology. Now we’re walking our talk.
Our first Waxings post comes right on top of the release of a Forrester survey in which 275 IT decision-makers declare Web 2.0 deployment to be “soft” and measurement elusive. The IT crowd declared more value in RSS and podcasting, but those surveyed said social marketing and blogging show the lowest business value. Forrester’s summary says “… those firms with the largest number of tools deployed see the best value, although no ‘killer combination’ of tools has emerged.” Forrester Analyst G. Oliver Young’s headline is what really caught the attention of my PR mind. It reads “IT Will Measure Web 2.0 Tools Like Any Other App.”
Let me be clear. We don’t recommend any strategy because we think it’s fun, cool or trendy. PR and marketing strategies must deliver ROI and business value. No exceptions. What scares me about Forrester’s findings is that, in the absence of rock-solid analytics, IT experts will discount the emerging power of Web 2.0 for business to those occupying their respective C-suites.This discussion parallels the long-standing debate comparing the value of paid advertising to editorial. Media coverage, the ad types argued for decades, isn’t a good investment because you can’t measure it. Well, now you can. Outcomes-based measurement tools are routinely used to analyze the link between editorial coverage and public opinion. Share-of-discussion research, which analyzes a brand’s quantity and quality of editorial coverage against competitors’, shows a direct correlation to key business outcomes, including sales and customer preference.
Web 2.0 may still be viewed by some IT experts as the wild, wild west of business strategies. But based on the explosion of corporate-sanctioned blogs, including thousands now written by some of the world’s most celebrated business and management minds, Web 2.0 is far more than a worthless distraction. Companies now have the opportunity — some might argue an obligation — to tell their stories. Directly, globally, transparently and authentically.
Lisa Hannum
CEO
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