Jump Into the Web 2.0 Game
Another company's jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon to revive its finances. Decreased profits in Playboy's TV and magazine operations have inspired its new "sexy social networking site," Playboy U. The site will be for college students only, prohibiting users whose email addresses don't end in .edu. Playboy hopes infiltrating the college market will establish a fanbase that will follow the brand well into adulthood. There's no word yet on how Playboy U will bring students to the site (although with message topics like "How Many People Have You Slept With? To Lie or Not To Lie?" they probably won't have trouble keeping them there).
Assuming your company isn't planning to start its own social networking site -- like DunderMifflinSpace -- you may be interested in ways you can leverage Web 2.0 to strengthen your online presence. Information Week offers some suggestions for getting started with Web 2.0 (more tips and details on their site):
- Start a blog on WordPress or TypePad and/or a wiki. Wikis are websites users can edit (check out WetPaint.com for free wiki hosting.) Both blogs and wikis are community-driven, making them great points of entrance for your customers.
- Install interactive Q & A products. There are many companies, like RightNow Technologies, that will track questions and answers by visitors, giving you better insight into your customers -- allowing you to improve customer loyalty.
- Exploit social networks. You can take advantage of social networking's viral nature to build brand awareness. Here's an example: Rassak Experience, an online marketing company representing software vendor BigFix, created a fake character (Ray Hopewood), and signed him up on several social networking sites to draw traffic to BigFix.com. The character's interesting story uses entertainment to draw attention to the company. 47 percent of BigFix's traffic now comes from Stumble Upon, a social networking site.