Web 2.0 - The salvation of SME´s

The most important information that I found on social networking was about the importance of web 2.0 in business companies, specially the small and medium enterprises (SME´s).

I decided to post here two articles referring to web 2.0 and its usefulness on the modern business world. The first article that I will address is from the Financial Times. This article entitled -Web 2.0: The salvation of SMEs- was posted on the 6 of August by Ivan Croxford, Head of BT Tradespace.

The author highlights the importance of social networking on times of economic difficulty. He writes about the unparalleled opportunities of web 2.0 and the fact that this type of technology is still very much unknown between people.

According to this text, in these turbulent times, as economic slowdown approaches, web 2.0 could hold the key for the survival of the SME´s. By using web 2.0, these companies could cut down costs by establishing a straight line of communication with its customers via social network interaction.

Worldwide consumers are constantly accessing web 2.0 tools, such as Blogs, podcasting, video sharing, etc. This could be a major break opportunity for the firms to implement and redirect their marketing strategies.

The article also shows that more and more consumers are willing to express their opinions about some marketing campaigns and that the tools provided from web 2.0 give them this option. By allowing the consumers to provide an immediate feedback about the marketing campaign or the products advertised, the SME´s would save time and money invested on costumer’s surveys and other types of costumer satisfaction measurements. This technology allows the companies to extract vital information about customer´s demand and sensitiveness to prices as well as their views on competitors’ products.

The article also exposes the already ongoing battle between the giants Amazon, eBay, Facebook and BT. They are all targeting the 4.5 million SME´s in the UK as potential users of web 2.0 platforms for launching marketing campaigns.

The other article considers the development of web 2.0 in Europe. This article is actually a speech from a member of the European Commission responsible for Information, made in Luxembourg on the 26 of September 2008 that is available in pdf format on the website http://europa.eu . The author is Viviane Reading and the speech is entitled "Social Networking in Europe: success and challenges".

In this speech, the author gives a short overview about the current market of web 2.0 in Europe and like the previous article it also highlights the importance of web 2.0 in SME´s and their advertisement campaigns. It shows that 40% of the European SME´s do not have their own website because of high maintenance costs to keep the site running. This is where web 2.0 surges again as a business opportunity.

This speech is very detailed, providing a lot of statistics and data about the suppliers and users of social networking sources in Europe.

I decided to concentrate simply on the parts concerning the SME´s to follow the same line of thought as the previous article from the Financial Times.

Therefore my conclusions after reading both these articles are based upon the importance of web 2.0 on SME´s and their possible future.

In conclusion I would like to highlight the importance of social networking as a business tool, especially on times where companies have to focus on cost optimization.

In my personal opinion, web 2.0 is already changing the way companies are launching their marketing strategies and I think that the next generation of technology, like web 3.0 or even 4.0 could change dramatically the way some sciences, such as Marketing is taught and applied today.

This source of interaction between consumer and the company could even change the current policy of many companies. We could be facing, in a not so distance future, a scenario where customers simply command or dictate all the production line and services provided. Also where agents or intermediary retailers are no longer considered, where their influence on the company policies is a mere spectrum of an obsolete system.

Companies will find more lucrative and easy to use these technologies as a main stream for sales and marketing.

But in my opinion, not only sales and marketing departments can benefit from this technology; also the human resources department and the engineering department can have major benefits from social networking.

Recruitment and interviews can in the near future go all through a social networking channel.

Also the engineers can better serve the company interests by proving a product with the exact characteristics that customers seek. All these information can be directly provided to the engineering department without having to go through marketing.

To finalize I would say that after reading these articles and other more, social networking will in the near future become part of the core business for many competitive firms.

To access both articles, please click on the following links:

Financial Times (for some of you it’s possible that you have to register to view this article; however it’s a free registration)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/93bc113a-63ae-11dd-844f-0000779fd18c.html

Speech on "Social Networking in Europe: success and challenges"
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/465&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Francisco Trigueiros