Answers to Web 2.0 Questions

From Information Systems at Pitt Business

These questions and answers were generated following the Spring 2007 presentation available at Web 2.0 and Pharmaceuticals Marketing.

Contents 1 What businesses are using YouTube for businesses and product development? 2 Stats on how many people are using Joga social networking sites? 3 How are users propagating visitors and promoting their site? 4 How can we take advantage of educational uses for blogs and wikis? Things that can be used for training and sales? 5 How do we help campus consumers connect more? 6 Are other pharma companies actually doing something with social networking? 7 How can Web 2.0 functions supplement current corporate apps to give the greatest benefit? 8 Is there any research on how corporations other than IBM have adopted Web 2.0 technologies and how they have benefited?

[edit] What businesses are using YouTube for businesses and product development?

Sports:

NCAA

http://www.youtube.com/cbsncaatourney

NBA

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NBA

Entertainment:

NBC

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NBC

CBS

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CBS

Sundance Channel

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=sundancechannel

Sony BMG Music Entertainment

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=sonybmg

Business:

Nokia

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NokiaDesign

Blendtec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs

[edit] Stats on how many people are using Joga social networking sites?

Joga never “took off” and did not attract a sizable user base. Some estimates place the site at around 1 million total users, but it is difficult to compile accurate user statistics because registering for Joga is tied to a Google or Gmail account, rather than a new site registration, making it easier to track. At of the time of this writing, Google had not released statistics pertaining to the size of the user base on the Joga network.

[edit] How are users propagating visitors and promoting their site?

YouTube:

• Give the video the right Tags to position it. This will not only help the visitors find the video, but also help to put the video into the right category.

• Stick to the hot topics.

• Have a cool name.

Second Life:

• Large companies acted as first movers in Second Life and were reported by traditional media (i.e. BusinessWeek).

• Take advantage of branding power from real life

• Create virtual items and service (i.e. Tringo)

• Host virtual events.

Prediction markets

• Prediction markets work well for companies because they give a voice to employees in a different media.

• The markets are particularly useful in areas, such as consumer goods or technology, where change is rapid and companies need to adapt quickly.

[edit] How can we take advantage of educational uses for blogs and wikis? Things that can be used for training and sales?

For an academic institute, teachers can share their experiences and teaching materials by using Wiki. Wiki, which works as a knowledge management foundation and can easily be shared.

A blog is a place for teachers to share their living experience, their teaching experience and a good place to interact with students and parents. When students have more opportunity to be interactive with teachers, they may feel teachers are just like one of their friends and not serious anymore (especially pre teens and teen students). As a result, they may be more willing to go to school and study. Also, a blog gives students and teachers more opportunity to know other students or teachers with whom they don’t have the chance to interact with in daily life. They may find out someone has the same interests or similar experience as he/she does; thereby creating a link with them.

For a company, the educational uses of blogs and wikis can be used in the following cases for training and sales:

• Using wikis as a collaborative tool to share presentation pointers and WebPages on the intranet which might be accessible to the employees for marketing or understanding a product.

• Using blogs within a campus connects experienced representatives with newly inducted representatives.

[edit] How do we help campus consumers connect more?

There are two groups in our target audience (students and faculty) For the faculty members, we can treat them as the people in the company. There will not be a big difference. For the student, they have two different parts of life in the school: study & life.

In order to catch up with their awareness, we need to identify what they need in their daily study and daily life. For example:

• Study: any health issue related to the study?

• Life: any health issue related to the school life, such as the football game, etc.

[edit] Are other pharma companies actually doing something with social networking?

http://www.organizedwisdom.com/ introduces health-focused social networking.

Pharma companies are going to take first steps towards social networking in 2007. According to Mr. Stoakes of organizedwisdom.com, they are involved with pharma industries to help pharma companies get involved with Web 2.0. According to him, first steps would include:

• Specific condition communities sponsored by pharma and taking a leadership role in promoting these conditions, not the drugs specifically.

• In short, steps to create environments of awareness of the conditions.

www.pharmadaq.com is a beta version of prediction markets for the pharma industry. According to their website, Pfizer and Lilly have pilot versions.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has opened a virtual health fair on the site that provides information on topics like influenza prevention and biohazard preparedness. Depending on the target audience, such online communities could present a viable marketing opportunity for real time, online interaction with consumers.

[edit] How can Web 2.0 functions supplement current corporate apps to give the greatest benefit?

Web2.0 provides a foundation for people to be more interactive, regardless of the content or personal information. For a company, it is useful to create a platform for employees to exchange opinions, share experiences, conduct team work and receive career training. Also, some Web2.0 technologies can deliver instant messages to employees, customers and partners. Thus, it improves the company’s efficiency and helps accommodate an instant response to any competitors’ strategy or other problems. More over, Web 2.0 technologies give companies more opportunities to understand their customers. For example, a corporate can learn what’s “in” by checking Tag or Digg, thus providing the right product to the right target. Also, Web 2.0 technologies provide more channels for a corporate to deliver information to customers.

[edit] Is there any research on how corporations other than IBM have adopted Web 2.0 technologies and how they have benefited?

Since Web 2.0 technologies are still emerging, there are many research reports on the various applications. For example, a research report from knowledgestorm published in June 2006 focuses on corporate blogs (corporate blogs and the importance of monitoring consumer-generated media). Gartner, IDC, Forrester Research or other IT research firms all have Web 2.0 related research reports. However, due to ongoing developments and comprehensive Web 2.0 applications, the specific findings on how other corporations have benefited from using Web 2.0 requires further study and summarization.