Half of Enterprises Use Web 2.0 Media Technologies

Half of Enterprises Use Web 2.0 Media Technologies | Engagement: a one-hit wonder, or long-term keeper?

Helge: We've discussed the use of Web 2.0 technologies to promote Mediracer and to get into a dialog with CTS professionals and clients. What are the pro's and con's? Does improved communication and web presence lead to new contacts with new customers in the specified market areas?

54 percent of enterprises use Web 2.0 technologies, as do 74 percent of companies with fewer than 500 employees, according to a study Web 2.0 technology adoption and the future of social-media initiatives in enterprises, reports MarketingCharts.

Helge: Smaller companies are more flexible and adapt new technologies faster. Mediracer is an innovative point of care diagnostic devices company and fits well into the first in line user groups.


Among the highlights of the study, "Trends in Adopting Web 2.0 for the Enterprise in 2007," released by Awareness (via FASTforward):

• Blogs are the most-used Web 2.0 technology (87 percent of respondents), followed by communities, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking.
  Helge: Mediracer started with blogs: English, Swedish and Finnish. Social Networking might be useful in project management and for CRM / Intranet applications. Mediracer has adapted a net based CRM.
  
  
• The most successful are blogs (44 percent of respondents), communities (42 percent) and wikis (39 percent).
  Helge: Blogs are a good starting point.
  
  
  
• 96 percent say all Web 2.0 technologies they've used have been successful; 83 percent reporting no clear failures.
  Helge: We still need to improve the traffic to be sure about the value. No problems with the initial implementation. Traffic and focusing concerns are still in the background.
  
  
• The greatest obstacle to Web 2.0 deployment is limited internal resources.
  Helge: Blogging has been outsourced.
  
  
• Some 64 percent of those using Web 2.0 technologies rely on a combination of internal- and external-facing media/tools.
  Helge: Blogs are external and CRM is internal.
  

Among the benefits of external-facing social media, according to the study:

• Increased customer engagement: 68 percent Helge: We would like to see people commenting more. The dialog aspect is still lacking.
  
  
• Increased brand awareness & loyalty: 64 percent Helge: I hope the brand awareness has improved. The blog readership has risen from 10 to 20 per day up to 50 and over 100 readers per day. We already had 111 readers today from 89 places for the En, Se, Fi blogs.
  
  
• Effective market research: 58 percent Helge: I think we've have a good reaction from all the key market areas. The "reader maps" are showing a continuous flow of new readers.
  

Among the benefits of internal-facing social-media technologies, according to the study:

• Improved communication, collaboration: 91 percent Helge: Communication yes, collaboration still to show up.
  
  
• Locating experts within the company: 81 percent Helge: Hopefully locating experts around the world willing to work with Mediracer.
  
  
• Improving knowledge management: 78 percent Helge: I would like to say yes, but there is much to do in this respect in the future.
  

"The Awareness research found that … 28 percent of organizations with over 500 employees have budgets greater than $50,000 for web 2.0 tools or social media. The top tools planned are blogs and wikis (56 percent) but many are also planning to deploy online communities," writes FASTforward's Bill Ives.

Helge: We speak bout a much smaller budget and do only apply one of the tools in the Web 2.0 toolbox.