Web 2.0 Technology
Improving sales in any business is usually one of the priority goals. Currently, many marketers are continuously inventing ways of attracting more customers to their businesses (Weber, 2007, p.34). With the development of information technology, many clients are using the internet especially social sites to network, find out information about products, and do their shopping. This has prompted business and information technologists to turn to social media for promoting business (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008, p. 234). The traditional methods have lost their efficiency since they have been overused and do not bring out the required results.
It is for the above reasons that we need to understand that engaging in social media for marketing our products will be very successful. This is because many clients are using the internet to review the market products and purchase them even online. This is very critical information and as a forward-thinking company, we will have to leverage the web 2.0 technology to be able to compete with other firms in the industry and also to remain competent (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008, p. 234).
Why Web 2.0 is Appropriate for Marketing
Web 2.0 is a very important technology in marketing that needs to be exploited to ensure that its benefits are utilized to the fullest. The technology can be described as a set of philosophies that offer browsers a very deep and exciting experience on the web. Otherwise, the technology can be considered as a new collection of applications that ease the process of finding information from the large internet ocean and allow connecting with other users (Shuen, 2006, p. 65).
The UK market is very big and some sections have not been exploited for business. The web 2.0 is a new technology in the UK as has not been extensively exploited they way the American has done it. Nonetheless, the UK portends a very good environment for such type of marketing. This is because it has an exceptional internet environment though there are some applications like Silicon Valley that are very hard to achieve in the United Kingdom environment. For the same reason, it’s very hard to begin a pure web 2.0 model of business directly as it is in the US (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008, p. 234). The major barrier is competition and language. The US models have been in some places cloned to fit the UK market. Dealing in the UK will require that we seek fundamental and disruptive resolutions. When sites or applications are greatly localized or targets a certain niche like the UK population they become successful (Shuen, 2006, p. 65).
The number of people that are using the internet in the UK has increased considerably meaning that when we apply web 2.0 as a strategy we are likely to meet more customers who use the web (Weber, 2007, p.34). The UK market also reveals that there is a possibility that the internet bubble would result since many entrepreneurs (45%) are investing in web 2.0 and those waiting launches are even more. There are aloes a very interesting development from web 2.0 to mobile 2.0 which is anticipated to increase the number of people using the services greatly since mobile browsing is very common and cheaper.
Best Web 2.0 Types for UK Market
Several technologies are used in the application of web 2.0 in marketing (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008, p. 234). Nonetheless, those that apply to the UK market are discussed below;
- Business to Consumer (B2C): this technology comprises several successful, case studies that include GoldCorp and Lego among others. I believe this type is very important since it will enable our customers to contribute their ideas, share knowledge, express their feelings and offer their expertise towards our products for the betterment of quality (Shuen, 2006, p. 65). We may choose to compensate our contributors with small gifts to encourage them.
- Consumer to Business (C2B): this strategy cans help us to be able to solve some crucial problems in the organization by creating a forum that will get people to contribute suggestions. Whirlpool is a very good example of such a model. This model has helped Australians in getting free information (Shuen, 2006, p. 65). Nonetheless, the situation can be tricky since some cases can result in people ranting very bad information about our products or the company hence we will have to be very careful.
- Business to Business (B2B): This is very important as it connects two firms that are associating to share very important information about the market, customers, competition, and so on (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008, p. 234). This model is very workable as a supply chain business can link up with other organizations where it can only share part of its information, say the inventory information only or production reports only. It’s also important to note that even main staff issues are communicated through communal platforms on the matter of progress and updates (Weber, 2007, p.34).
- Enterprise 2.0: this is an internal tool that will assist in governance as well as control of the business.
Web 2.0 Applications
Several applications are being used to produce the functions of web 2.0. A blog is a major application that can be very beneficial for our business. This is a representation of journal entries that are made by various contributors. The postings are usually arranged to show the newest first (Shuen, 2006, p. 65). Contributors respond to opinions and give comments. Blogs are majorly text but more specialized can allow our business to collect specific data like podcasts and the use of Vlogs. Participation in blogging is voluntary. Very critical information can be obtained from these blogs, however, there is usually a challenge from the notion that whatever Tom, Dick, and Harry have to say is not evidence-based and therefore not reliable.
My team will be able to integrate this strategy in the process of marketing by creating blogs that would address issues about our products to find out facts like the process on the market like quality, competition, usability, size of the market, and the prices. I believe that this marketing strategy will be able to reach a lot of people and even assist in retrieving very sensitive information that we would otherwise not been able to access in normal marketing research. This is because there is that notion of hiding behind the internet (Weber, 2007, p.34). Our motivation as a team is that our clients are speaking and we need to be listening to them. As internet use and web 2.0 expand, more customers will be ready to express their opinions about our products in our blogs.
Reference List
Constantinides, E & Fountain, S.J (2008). “Web 2.0: Conceptual Foundations and Marketing Issues,” Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Pp 231 – 244.
Shuen, A. (2006). Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide, Cambridge, O’Reilley Publisher.
Weber, L. (2007). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons, Inc.