Social Networks that Boost Your Business

by Daniel Burrus

Most people are familiar with the term "Web 2.0," which refers to a second generation of Web development and design that focuses on fostering social networking via the Web. Innovative companies are beginning to embrace Web 2.0 as a way to enhance communication, information sharing and collaboration, thereby allowing them to work smarter rather than harder.

The business use of Web 2.0 represents a new trend called "Business 2.0." Aside from being the name of a defunct magazine, Business 2.0 is about using new, Web-based social networking applications (many of which were originally created for personal use) in a way that fosters teamwork, customer touches, and internal and external collaboration in a low-cost seamless way.

Unfortunately, many businesses feel that Web 2.0 and social networking are for the younger generation and a waste of time when used by employees.
However, once you understand the power of these applications and how to use them in your massage business, you'll quickly find they can be invaluable tools to boost your bottom line.

Here is an overview of the best Business 2.0 tools.

Personal tools with business applicability

• Facebook
  Personal use: Facebook enables you to connect and share with the people in your life. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region to connect and interact with others. People can add friends, send messages and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
  Business 2.0 use: Large organizations can connect all of their employees, or members, with Facebook. Some are finding an added advantage of using an internal, secure version of Facebook. This has helped organizations dramatically increase their internal networking and collaboration.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Facebook, or our own internal version, to get people to collaborate at a higher level?
• Twitter
  Personal use: Twitter is a microblogging service that allows friends, family and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of short, quick answers using no more than 140 characters per message. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or co-workers. Users can receive updates via the Twitter website or other social networking sites, such as Facebook. Young people use Twitter for answering the question: What are you doing?
  Business 2.0 use: Business users could change that question to: What problem are you trying to solve? Several companies have used this as a fast way to solve problems. Hotels, airlines and airports are using Twitter to pitch services, travel updates and respond to travelers needs.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Twitter to solve problems faster with our organization or our customers?
• Wikipedia
  Personal use: Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia anyone can use to find information on virtually any topic. Anyone can edit the content as well.
  Business 2.0 use: A large manufacturing company with engineers in locations around the world increased problem solving and collaboration by creating an internal, secure version of Wikipedia for sharing information on parts and service offerings as well as repair and maintenance instructions. Retailers and suppliers could create a version of Wikipedia to foster education and training as well as enhanced information sharing.
  Ask yourself: Could we create an internal version of Wikipedia to foster better information and knowledge sharing?
• YouTube
  Personal use: YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube displays a wide variety of user-generated video content as well as movie clips, product demonstrations and commercials. Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos.
  Business 2.0 use: Businesses are posting humorous commercial videos to generate interest in their products with great success. The more entertaining it is, the more people watch it. Business partners could create a YouTube-like channel for the purpose of educating and training.
  Ask yourself: Could we enhance our marketing efforts as well as general communication by using YouTube?
• Digg
  Personal use: Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting and accessing links and stories. Voting stories thumbs up or a thumb down is the site's cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying.
  Business 2.0 use: Many organizations have found this to be a good way to track the most interesting advances in technology or the most useful business news. Large organizations can create their own internal version for sharing what employees consider to be the most useful information.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Digg, or our own internal version, to get people to share their most interesting and valuable Web-based information with each other?
• Delicious
  Personal use: Delicious is a social bookmarking Web service for storing, sharing and discovering Web bookmarks. It uses a nonhierarchical classification system in which users can tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms.
  Business 2.0 use: Business users can share their most useful websites with co-workers or business partners. If a customer purchases a product, sellers could share relevant bookmarks that keep the customer coming back for more information and hopefully more products.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Delicious to share important new websites faster within our organization or with our customers?
• Visual Communications
  Personal use: Visual Communications, unlike traditional video conferencing, uses your desktop, laptop and your smart phone to hold a quick, anytime, anywhere video conference with one or more other people. Travelers who must be away from home are using their laptops in hotel rooms with broadband access and free software, such as Skype and AIM, to communicate with family and friends to enhance their personal connection.
  Business 2.0 use: Businesses are discovering the power of Visual Communications to enhance the connection with their sales force, business partners and customers.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Visual Communications to enhance communications internally and externally?

Purely Business 2.0 tools

• Wiki
  A Wiki is a collaborative Web page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone to create a quick Web page that allows visitors to search the Wiki's content and edit the content in real time, as well as view updates since their last visit. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. On a moderated Wiki, Wiki owners review comments before additions to the main body of the topic. Additional features include calendar sharing, live AV conferencing, RSS feeds and more.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Wikis to enhance internal and external collaboration?
• LinkedIn
  LinkedIn is a business-oriented professional networking website for exchanging information, ideas and opportunities. There are more than 35 million registered users spanning 170 industries actively networking with each other. For example, large insurance companies use LinkedIn to foster networking with their independent sales representatives. Human resources professionals from all over the world could use LinkedIn to share best practices.
  Ask yourself: Could we use LinkedIn to expand our organizational network for enhanced knowledge sharing?
• Cloud Computing and Software as a Service
  In Cloud Computing, some or all of the storage, software, IT processes and data center facilities you use can exist on your provider's server, which is maintained and cared for by your provider, giving you 24/7 access from any device anywhere. The cost of upgrading hardware and software, maintenance, and associated IT labor costs can be dramatically reduced or eliminated.
  Currently, the ideal organization would be any size company that's facing big investments in computing and communications infrastructure. For example, Amazon.com can give you an entire e-commerce back end. Software as a Service(SaaS), such as SalesForce.com, has a CRM package, SciQuest has a spend-management package and Google, Microsoft and others have a suite of offerings.
  Ask yourself: Could we use Cloud Computing and Software as a Service to streamline our IT needs?

Gain a new competitive advantage
By reframing the use of social networking technology, companies can increase communication, collaboration, problem solving and competitive advantage with little cost. Remember, many of these tools are free or nearly free, making them accessible to even the smallest of businesses. Therefore, the sooner you embrace Business 2.0 and put it to work for you, the faster you can penetrate new markets and win the lion's share of business.

Daniel Burrus is CEO of Burrus Research and author of six books, including the highly acclaimed Technotrends. Over the past two decades, he has established a worldwide reputation for his exceptional record of accurately predicting the future of technological change and its direct impact on the business world. Burrus monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. For more information, visit www.burrus.com.