Web 2.0: Is it For You?
I’m sure by now you already heard the buzz about Web 2.0, the one that supercedes the web as we know it today. You can read the full definiton over at Wikipedia.
Confused? Well here, let me make it simpler for you. Web 2.0 is a term that is used to describe how the world wide web will change from non-customizable to more dynamic and customizable. I’m not talking about the abundant use of Flash or flashy scripts, I’m talking about usability. This of course, adds more interactivity between the sites and its users. But the ultimate question is, is it for you?
Adding interactivity to your site (and therefore your business) is actually a good thing because it is enriching the customer experience. On the other hand, you can also learn more and more thing about your customers than ever before. But again, let’s get back to the first (and ultimate) question of all, is it for you? Does giving the customer a new way to interact with your site (therefore your business)? Is it really necessary?
Making a new interface to interact to your customer is surely not a cheap thing to do, it involves a lot of investment on this particular fields and of course a dedication from the management to make that happens is really important. For those purpose, I’ve created a simple “ask your self” method to find out is Web 2.0 is for you.
What’s the scope of my business? - implementation of a new technology is all about how it improve your current business. If you think it can, then you should go for it. But calculate the cost and the benefit on implementing Web 2.0 for your business, you don’t want the dotcom bubble burst version 2.
How do my customers reach me? - Web 2.0 is about catering the needs of your customer, and as the name represents, on the web. How many percentage of your customer really reaches you via the web? This is important because you have to calculate the ROI of your web investment.
Is my customer ready? - like all the new technology, it might get your customers confused at the start. Their willingness to learn the new technology is vital to your business because as soon as they gave up on learning how to use the newly implemented technology, at that very moment you loose your business. So study carefully, do your customers ready to learn?
What is your commitment to Web 2.0? - The chief questions of all, do you have the capability to really implement it? Do you have a commitment for it that enables your customers to interact with you better? Action without a commitment is useless and your customers can see it right through your inconsistency and leave you for your competitors.
There are some study case that I will discuss on later post such as Start.com, Flickr, and Tagging. Be sure to subscribe to our feeds and stay tune for the next batch of post ;)
