“Web 2.0” is a catch-all term for a variety
of technologies and tools. They can be useful for building interactive elements into your branding approach. Here, we provide a primer on some important Web 2.0 tools:
blogging.
Blogs are diaries published on the web, often with functionality for readers to enter, read and respond to comments. They can lend an element of humanity to what could otherwise be perceived as a faceless entity. However, blogs must be insightful, engaging and frank, in order to attract attention and generate value for both readers and brand owners.
Corporate blogs are useful for engaging external stakeholders. Technology firms such as Microsoft and Nokia often use blogs authored by product development teams and marketing managers to generate interest in products or maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers.
crowdsourcing and wikis.
Crowdsourcing is a principle, rather than a technology. It is about harnessing the knowledge and power of the group, often enabled by digital media, to create more effective results than any single individual
or company could produce. For example, Threadless, a Chicago-based T-shirt retailer, allows customers to submit proposals for shirt designs, which are published on its website. The Threadless customer community rates the proposals and comments on them. The company then buys and produces the highest rated designs, assured that customers really want those products.
Crowdsourcing is also a key element of wikis, which are web-based applications
that allow groups to input, categorise, tag, share and verify knowledge. Wikipedia, the web-based encyclopaedia, is a well-known wiki, but the tool is equally effective in customer self-service and support, for example.
ajax.
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) are techniques for creating interactive
applications. They allow asynchronousactivity. For example, a web page is served to a customer with information generated from a database. The page and its underlying database are then modified with data input by the customer into the web page. Yahoo’s Flickr, Google’s Gmail and Google Maps are example of AJAX-based tools.
By combining the vast amounts of knowledge that can be embedded in data stores, with live user input, AJAX makes it possible for brand owners to create powerful, mass-customised brand experience.
rss.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standardised data format, with which web publishers can deliver updates of content to an audience. For example, readers can use RSS-based tools to re-quest that newspaper websites or blog writers send certain type of articles, in real time or at predetemined intervals. This tool allows users to determine precisely what content they receive, rather than wading through reams of unwanted material. It disaggregates or chops up large groups of content created by publishers but in the process, creates the opportunity for permission-based interaction with highly targeted audiences.
social networking.
Social networking websites are bridges between the web and the offline world, in which individuals interact in webs defined by friendship and niche interests. Facebook and MySpace are the best known social networking websites, but there are also countless other niche-oriented social websites, such as the photography-based Flickr, which takes photography as the basis for its networking.
Traditional marketing approaches can face difficulties in tapping into social networks. Facebook was forced to back down last year, when its users reacted to the company’s plans to sell information about them to marketers. However, social networks are inherently suited to user-driven efforts to learn about products.
British fashion retailer Primark, for example, benefits from a large following
on Facebook, where a huge Primark customer group shares news and opinions on the company’s products, stores and sales promotions.
