Thursday, March 13, 2008

Enterprise 2.0 Case: Northwestern Mutual



Northwestern Mutual, formerly reliant on email and a formal hierarchical structure that inhibited information flow, instituted a blogging system that combines web based blogging and content management with good security, workflow and regulatory compliance tools.

Security, authentication and version control are particularly important in this application, according to a Northwestern's CIO report.

Blogging is better than email, the system's sponsor told CIO, because it involves more people: "You are not determining and limiting who your potential audience may be"

Yüce Zerey

www.marketingtrends.biz

Enterprise 2.0 : Hype or Reality?


WhenTime magazine named “You” person of the year in 2006, it confirmed that Web 2.0 has turned traditional media content and the economics of the media business upside down.

In this playground, content can be generated and distributed in seconds, while YouTube and MySpace, two companies that successfully exploited the new medium, were established and then acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars in a matter of a few years.

The question is whether such success is sustainable.

Can Web 2.0 technologies—largely applied only in a social sphere—be used to make business more efficient and effective?

Evidence among the growing number of businesses converting to “Enterprise 2.0” (enterprise social software or E2.0) technologies seems encouraging.

What are the applications of Enterprise 2.0?

How can they help us in the key managerial challenges of the twenty-first century, namely knowledge sharing and management, problem solving, innovation, and collaboration? The following tables provides some real-world examples.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

What is Enterprise 2.0 ?

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. (Andrew McAfee)

Enterprise 2.0 is the synergy of a new set of technologies, development models and delivery methods that are used to develop business software and deliver it to users. (R. Rangaswami)






Design 2.0

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Web 2.0 Glossary



Blog: Personal or corporate online journal that offers reporting and opinion about people, things and events.

Enterprise 2.0: The use of Web 2.0 concepts and software within an enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 was first used by Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School in the Spring 2006 MIT Sloan Management Review.

Mash-up: An application that gathers, integrates and displays information from multiple sources and deliver to users as a customized result.

Network effect:
A situation in which a product or service becomes more valuable the more people use it.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication, an online system that lets average consumers designate what news or information they want multiple sources to deliver directly to them. Tagging: An online labelling system that lets consumers create a de facto index for the purposes of identifying and sharing content.

Web 2.0: ““Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects
through an ‘‘architecture of participation,’u’ and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.”” ( Tim O’’Reilly)

Wiki: A collaborative website that average users can update, without a need for programming skills. Wiki is a Hawaiian word for quick.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Successful Web 2.0 Strategy

10 Tactics for Web 2.0 Success


1) Create a Community!

Provide membership facilities such as profile pages, friending , defining groups and friend invites. A feeling of influence is also required such as a platform for expression where the audience is in charge.


Fulfil social, ego and self-actualisation needs of your users and then allow them to show their status and expertise.

Greet every new member


2) Simple Proposition and Simple Platform!

Have a simple proposition, you can explain your website on the phone. S/he can easily and truly imagine your web site.

Provide a benefit to the person that makes a real difference in their lives.



Promote active participation such as user generated content.

3) Viral Growth!

If you want to grow, you must include facilities to encourage word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) both altruistic and incentivised.

Provide integrated sharing mechanisms: Email, blogs, RSS, widgets, cut and paste of code snippets, IM, and SMS.


Develop ways to lower the barrier to invite friends such as: "Import from address books (hotmail, gmail, outlook express), import from instant messaging clients."

Encourage a natural network-effect, whereby the site has more value to users the more people they invite.

4) Continuous Research and Development!

Continually research and develop the site on a rolling basis. Do not be afraid of experimentation.
Keep an open dialogue with your users and involve them in decisions.
Provide an easy mechanism for users to provide feedback. It’s free testing.

Closely monitor real user behaviour and use this information to improve and develop your site.

Do not forget that web development and design is a process, not an event!


5) Platform for Advertisers!


With your community, think about how you can meet advertisers with the right consumers.
Create opportunities for advertisers to interact with the users.

6) Outside in, Inside out!

Allow content from the web into your site such as widgets, rss, etc.



Allow syndication of your content and brand through rss, widgets, open APIs etc. Set your content free. Let your users do your marketing for you.

7) Focus!


Target your proposition to an audience.

You can target on one of the following:

Location Based Focus

xianei.com = China Focus

Interest Based Focus

myspace.com = Music Focus

Identity Based Focus

ivillage.com = Female Focus

Condition Based Focus

theknot.com = Marriage Focus

8) Be Profitable!



Don’t forget to be profitable! Check the real costs of content creation!
Measure and focus on your rate of monetisation such as total revenue per visit,this is your yield.

9) Rich Content Presentation!

Readers are looking for complete solutions. Make sure your content is interesting. Expertise is relative, people are looking for the like-minded people.




Be specific! Readers want the specific content.

Provide a mix of content from broad to narrow; from small audiences to large audiences delivered from a range of sources, from editorial content , blogs, UGC(User Generated Content), Forums and ratings, reviews and comments.

10) Sell Something!

100% advertising revenue = eggs in one basket

Don’t forget to sell something!



Virtual World: Facebook Gifts; Second Life Island; Ad-Free Memberships
Real World:
DeviantArt Printed Material; Merchandising Products

* inspired by Paul Lomax

Yüce Zerey | y=f(yuce)