Making Your Website Web 2.0 Compliant

March 25th, 2008 - Stuart Lisonbee, Content Director

In my previous post, I talked about the difference between my vision of what the Web should be and the vision of those who came up with Web 2.0. Today, I’m going to talk about how one actually goes about making their website Web 2.0 compliant.

Now, there is one big part of Web 2.0’s vision that matches mine, and that is communication. Although we are doing better, we still have a long ways to go.

I used to send email updates to all my friends and family whenever I learned about some new computer-related technology. Then I realized I was using the Internet incorrectly for something like that. Thus I started my first blog back in 1999. I had no idea what a blog was, and I’d never heard the term before or even seen a real blog before. But realizing that there was a better way to communicate with like-minded individuals, creating a website where everybody could see my latest computer-related postings and contribute their own thoughts on the matter just seemed like the logical thing to do.

Well, better communication and interactivity is a major point of Web 2.0. Set up a blog and you’ve taken a big step toward Web 2.0 compliance. Blogs are a technology that allows you to more easily communicate with others. Discussion boards are another that have been around a long time, but were never really properly used by businesses en masse.

Want to know what your customers are saying about you? Want to know what they wish you would do differently? Provide them with a place to talk about it anonymously and easily. Your customers are far more likely to have a conversation with other consumers online about their frustrations or praise rather than send you a letter in the mail or give you a phone call. Consumers trust each other, and will open up to each other. Opening up to a corporate entity, not so much.

Other ways Web 2.0 compliance can be achieved is with the use of wikis, Ajax, RSS feeds, and so forth. Other technologies that are considered Web 2.0 applications include Flash, any open source software, content management systems (CMS), and similar technologies. Remember, interactivity with the Web community is the key.

But now we get to the real question: how will Web 2.0 help you make more money? Well, this is where the excitement of Web 2.0 wears off. While a lot of Web 2.0 can be useful and helpful to users who visit your site, the real question you should be asking is, “Will it help me make the sale?”

The rules of business haven’t changed because some people got together and wrote up some rules on how they thought the Internet could be made better. Don’t install a wiki just because you have a burning desire to go Web 2.0. If it makes no sense to have a wiki, then don’t implement one. But if having a wiki helps you make the sale, then by all means install one!

For example, if you have a members-only site for hard-core campers, then a members-accessible camping wiki could help you retain members. If you own a pizza parlor, then using Flash technology to create an interactive pizza menu that allows users to click and drag ingredients onto a virtual pizza would probably create some buzz and improve business. If you create new content on a daily basis, then having a blog, CMS, and RSS feeds all make sense. Curious to know what features your customers want on the next version of your widget? Implement a discussion board.

The point here is that you shouldn’t go full-bore Web 2.0 just because it seems to be the “in” thing. Do it because it will help your business, and don’t abandon anything “Web 1.0″ if it’s still working for you.

In the end, there is no hard definition for what, exactly, Web 2.0 even means. As an entrepreneur, you need to be aware of what technologies are available to you, but just forget whether something is Web 2.0 or not and simply focus on those things that you know will have a positive impact for your business.

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Is Your Business Web 2.0 Ready?

March 8th, 2008 - Stuart Lisonbee, Content Director

There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about Web 2.0, the supposed next revolution in the World Wide Web. For some webmasters, this has led to a scrambling to update their sites to make them Web 2.0 ready.

But just what is Web 2.0? How do you make your website compliant? Do you really even need to be concerned about it?

Despite the perception its terminology creates, Web 2.0 is not the next generation of Internet hardware and technologies. The truth is that most of the technology that makes up the definition of Web 2.0 is old. Simply put, Web 2.0 is just a more interactive Web, designed to facilitate sharing and interaction between users.

“Gee, that’s great Stuart. So how do I make my website Web 2.0 compliant?”

Okay, so you don’t care that Web 2.0 is simply an overly ballyhooed term that doesn’t really mean anything, or at least that’s my personal opinion of it. For me the Web is still a giant, underappreciated and vastly underused commerce and communications platform. While Web 2.0 has done a lot to change that, we still have a long ways to go.

I built my first website in 1998 for a retail computer business I cofounded. I still remember clearly having a discussion with my business partner about whether or not we should spend the money to build a website. Back in those days, having a website was quite a bit more expensive than it is today, and the number of people that actually had Internet access was a small minority.

I told my partner, “The World Wide Web is the future! In 10 years, EVERYTHING will be done on the Web. We’ll be buying groceries, cars, clothes, and even ordering pizza online. Telephones will be obsolete because we’ll be communicating over the World Wide Web with video. We’ll be taking orders and handling tech support over the Web. Customers will be able to view our inventory in real time. Our cell phones will be connected and be able to transfer data between each other. Even our cars will be connected! We’ll be able to dispatch a technician, whether he’s at home or driving around town, directly to a customer’s home – all over the Web.”

Well, the 10 year mark is approaching. Have we reached MY vision of the Web? Well…

I walked into a national tire store chain a few days ago. When I saw that each store’s inventory databases aren’t connected to the corporate website, I realized that we still have a long way to go. Imagine the day when you can browse the corporate website and view real-time inventories for all 1,200 stores in the chain and get prices on every brand and every size of tire, then being able to order and pay for the tires, schedule an appointment to have them mounted and balanced, doing all of this online, and simply dropping your car off at the store… all without ever talking to a single salesperson.

As a business owner, I believe that this is how you should be thinking regarding the future of your business on the Web. Despite my tire store experience, there is plenty of good news as well. I haven’t ordered a pizza over the phone in years!

Okay, but seriously now… The reality of Web 2.0 is that it is simply the vision of a few people for how the World Wide Web should be. The difference between their vision and mine is that they got the airtime and publicity.

In my next post, I’ll talk about how to actually make your website Web 2.0 compliant.

Posted in Web 2.0, Web Building Tips | 1 Comment »