Web 2.0 in Business

WEB 2.0 IN BUSINESS

G. Kiryakova*, L. Yordanova, N. Angelova

Faculty of Economics, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

ABSTRACT Information and communication are essential prerequisites for successful operation of businesses in the information society. The new level of business is directly related to Web 2.0. It is characterized by the enrichment of new business models to dynamic ones based on the services and technologies offered by Web 2.0. The role of social media in developing and implementing business strategies is expanding. Companies, who appreciate the power of social media, now use them as a new promising business environment with unlimited possibilities. The variety of social media does not facilitate business companies in their choice of facilities and services. Often, despite the use of the most popular social media the desired efficiency is not achieved. The goal of this paper is to investigate and analyze different tools and services, especially social media and to determine an effective model for integrating and implementing them in order to manage successfully business.

Key words: Web 2.0, social media

INTRODUCTION the companies only if they choose the right Information and communication technologies tools for the target group of customers. change the business environment and models in modern information society. Social media play an increasing role in developing and implementing business Through the application of Web 2.0 services strategies. Companies, who appreciate the and technologies basic model of interaction power of social media, use them as a new between companies and customers has promising business environment with changed from “sending” to “sharing”. This unlimited possibilities. On the other side the model is characterized by (1): variety of social media does not facilitate • Increasing visibility and influence of business in its choice of facilities and services. companies; Often, despite the use of the most popular • Changing the way customers interact with social media the desired efficiency is not each other; achieved. • Communities that are created around a The purpose of this study is to compare and brand, product or service; analyze various social media and to determine • New opportunities for rendering an an effective model for integrating them in account the customers’ views and order to manage business successfully. recommendations; • Improving interaction between employees. SOCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF WEB 2.0 Companies can benefit from the use of tools Characteristics of Web 2.0 can be viewed from and applications of Web 2.0, if they apply different perspectives. According to (2) the them properly and efficiently. New business main features of Web 2.0 can be classified into opportunities and new markets are opened to two aspects: social/business and technology. ______*Correspondence to: Gabriela Kiryakova, Faculty • Architecture of participation of Economics, Trakia University – Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, [email protected], Web 2.0 provides a Web architecture that encourages user participation in the process of

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. creating and sharing content and collaboration and can help to analyze various errors and between users. The available information bugs. There is a rapid and continuous resources are enriched and improved feedback. This model avoids the creation of continually as the result of this feature. different versions of software; the need to update to new versions and related problems of • Personalization of Web resources different nature.

In the Web 2.0 model users play an active role • Syndication of information and in managing Web resources. They have the services tools to manage resources that are relevant to their needs; personalize content and resources Web 2.0 provides opportunities for reuse of according to their preferences; choose a way of information resources. It is possible thanks to navigating among them; choose the means for the use of Web applications that make notification when there are changes and etc. syndication of different applications and services (offered by different suppliers) • The power of Long tail possible. Web 2.0 technologies create information and resources not only for The theory of Long tail is a concept describing consumers but also for reuse by other software the strategy for selling a large number of applications. unique products in relatively small amounts – usually in addition to the sale of less popular SOCIAL MEDIA products in large quantities (promotional Social Web. Web 2.0 is often defined as social products). Successful implementation of the web according to its new role and fundamental strategy in distribution and inventory allows change in the way users use the Internet (4). the companies to realize significant profits of They become a part of the Web, actively selling small quantities of products that are participate and contribute to the creation of hard to find instead of selling large amounts of content, interact and collaborate with other a reduced number of popular products. Total users. sales of this number of “unpopular” items are called “long tail” (3). 1. What are social media? Social media are a set of Web-based In Web 2.0, each user can create its own technologies that enable the democratization of products – information, music, and video, content, change the role of users from designed for both personal and business goals. consumers of content to creators and These products are in digital form, thanks to publishers of content. These technologies technologies used to create them and are allow people to connect with each other and to available anytime and anywhere. This reduces create value through collaboration and the expenses associated with them. cooperation (5).

• Deployment of Rich applications Other experts say that social media can be defined as a group of Internet-based The definition of rich in this case is associated applications created on the basis of ideological with the deployment of applications, providing and technological foundations of Web 2.0, a rich set of features and capabilities for which allows to create and share user interactivity directly in Web browsers. These generated content (6). applications and technologies provide opportunities for reducing the number of From those definitions we can conclude that queries from client machines to servers and the term social media includes different means therefore reduce the traffic between them. On – tools and services that make possible to the other hand complicated Web applications create, share and publish Web content or can be deployed and complex business services resources by the users themselves. On the other can be delivered. hand, these means create conditions for active communication, interaction and collaboration • Constant beta release between users. The result of these activities is

New features can be added to each Web expressed in content creation, users’ application in the process of its use. The users interaction with the content and with other themselves contribute to the development of users. applications because they test each new feature

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. Using social media users can share their ideas, • Stimulate the activity of employees to photos, videos; become a part of a community participate in discussing and solving sharing common interests and views. different problems; • Opportunities for distance work – from From a business perspective, social media are a remote locations and at different times. subject of interest because they make possible the establishment of business contacts; market For the company: expansion; create communities that support • Establishing a web presence; companies or their products. Social media can • Creation and maintenance of community; be used also as a tool for marketing and etc. • Presentation of products, services and

The main advantages of social media for events; business are: • Implementation of marketing campaigns.

• There are no additional investments in Customers – Company: hardware, software or maintenance – Web • Effective communication in an informal 2.0 services allow remote access to form with customers and business partners; software and its functions thanks to the • Understanding the views of customers for model for software delivery – SaaS company’s products, collecting ideas from (Software-as-a-Service); them, etc. • Easy to use; • Do not require any special training of staff. One of the best examples of a company that manages to maintain and benefit from a blog is Disadvantages are associated with the losing Starbucks(Figure1)(http://mystarbucksidea.for control of: ce.com/apex/ideaHome). Through its blog, the • Content – sharing content gives control of company enables its customers to offer and it to users; share ideas for new drinks, food, even the • Services and tools – Web 2.0 services are design of cafes. Other users have the provided by vendors (Cloud computing). opportunity to discuss and evaluate the ideas. This results in the inability of company to Each user feels personally involved in implement full control of them. developing new products and the company has a generator of ideas and suggestions. 2. Which means and tools of Web 2.0 are in the group of social media? Corporate blogs of Google Ones of the most popular tools and services of (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/), Coca Cola the social Web are blogs, wikis, social (http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/), networks, social bookmarking, sharing of Delta (http:/ / blog.delta.com /) and etc. are multimedia information (7-10). good examples of using blogs effectively. An interesting Bulgarian example is the blog of 1. Blogs Bella (http://blog.bella.bg/). Publications in Blogs are one of the most popular blog are about new products of the company, representatives of the social Web. The term different recipes, reviews of company events, corporate blog is usually used in the field of photos and performance of employees and etc. business. Corporate blogs are focused on marketing and can be used for announcing and 2. Wikis promoting new products, services, company Wikis are tools that fundamentally alter the benefits and new markets. Blogs are divided nature of communication and collaboration into two groups – internal (only company between employees of a company. Modern employees use them) and external (they are Internet encyclopedias provide opportunities accessible to all users and they aim to present for collaboration of many people on: corporate policy, products and services, etc.). • documents – problems with versions of Blogs can be used by business company in the documents are solved; following areas: • projects – participants have access to all

For the employees: information and documentation of the project; they can complement and edit • Improve internal communication between each document and track changes. This employees, solving the problems with not encourages employees to actively received or lost e-mails; participate, share ideas, offer solutions to • Sharing personal opinion and experience;

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. the problems. Wikis give an opportunity to Each wiki can be seen as a knowledge determine the contribution of every database, filled in by the community of users. individual in the final group result. It becomes a source of knowledge shared by knowledgeable and informed users. On the other hand, anyone can contribute to the enrichment and expansion of knowledge.

Figure 1. Starbucks blog.

Intelpedia (company Intel) is one of the most purpose. Some of the pages are devoted to the indicative examples of the use of Wikis in company, its history, values, its products and businesses (Figure 2). The Wiki system of this services, employees, etc. Employees use company contains different pages. Not every Intelpedia to share information about social page is created for achieving specific business events and activities.

Figure 2. Intelpedia.

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. Other successful applications of Wikis are in modern society Web presence of a company. companies like British Telecommunications, This can significantly increase the potential Motorola, Novell, Disney and others. market and customers in a broad geographic scale. 3. Social Networks Social networks are a mirror of the real social The most popular social network nowadays is and professional lives of users. They are a Facebook. Facebook provides not only place where anyone can announce, comment, registration of individuals but also of business even brag with his achievements, projects, users. Users can connect with other people; partnerships, etc. announce their business and conduct advertising campaigns of their products; Social networks provide tools and encourage the discussions with potential and opportunities to connect with people, joining actual customers, reaching multi-million groups, organizing and presenting events. audiences. Especially valuable for businesses are: an access to a wide range of existing and potential Some good examples of companies that customers; opportunities for presentation and manage to use Facebook in an effective way promotion of business brands and products. are: Pringles – amazing use of video materials, interactive games, discussions and etc.; Best One of the most important advantages, that Buy – the company conducts F-commerce, social networks provide, is that users where users can directly view product (individuals and companies) can control the categories and make online purchases; Pepsi – information that others see and know about uses Facebook to promote corporate them. An immediate consequence of that is responsibility program and conducts various that social networks can be used as a source of campaigns; Coca Cola, Kodak, Nokia and information. many others.

In terms of business social networks are means The most popular example of using Facebook for presentation and advertising of the by Bulgarian company is Brewing company and its business – free or at very low “Shumensko pivo” (Figure 3). price. They provide particularly important in

Figure 3. Facebook page of Shumensko horata sbira.

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. New social networks aimed primarily at When a company decides to use or not businesses are on the horizon. They provide microblogging an important issue is whether tools to meet companies and businessmen this service is applicable to its business. This requirements and needs. depends on whether customers and its partners use this service. Benefits of microblogging for The group of social business networks the company can be summarized as follows: includes: • Promotion of activities and advertisement of • LinkedIn – opportunities to connect new products and services through short professionals; team building; new business messages. opportunities. • Expansion of contacts and partnerships with • Ecademy – business network that allows customers and other companies. networking between professionals; • Opportunities to obtain actual information knowledge sharing. about the field of company’s business. • Networking for Professionals – business • Posts can announce interesting articles and network, which combines online social discussions published on the sites or blogs of business network with real life events. the company and thereby contribute to • Ryze – opportunities to build business increasing the sites visits. communities by interest, location, past or present employment. Among the most popular microblogging are • XING – one of the oldest business Twitter, Yammer, and Plurk. networks with more than 7 million users, Large companies find that microblogging is an offering different services for contacts, effective Web 2.0 service and use it to achieve doing business and other business various purposes. For example: operations in 16 different languages. • Dell and Starbucks – they inform and offer new products to their customers; 4. Microblogging • JetBlue and TheHomeDepot – they offer an In most cases, companies use microblogging to alternative customer support (Figure 4); send short messages to their customers about • Southwest Airlines and Best Buy – they new products or tips how to use them. There is communicate and run non-official an active communication between users and discussions with their customers and fans. companies.

Figure 4. Using microblogging by TheHomeDepot.

5. Social bookmarking bookmarks are accompanied with tags or In modern society online business occupies an keywords. As a result of this is the important place. Social bookmarking becomes categorization of the catalogs. Users can more popular and replaces the word-of-mouth. comment, rank and vote on the quality of the bookmarks. Benefits for businesses from using Social bookmarking is a means of storing links such services are related to marketing and can to Web resources. This service allows users to be summarized as follows (11): create a catalog of links. In comparison to the • Increasing the visits of Internet users to the creation of bookmarks in user’s browser social sites of the company. This is associated bookmarking allows access to the catalog of with the promotion of the company and its links anywhere and anytime. Another key products. On the other hand, the ability to feature of this Web 2.0 service is that trace links can be used as a source of

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. information for development of potential A MODEL OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA future markets. Traditional model • Saving time and effort to find out More and more companies rely on various interesting and useful sources of social media to expand their business information, business ideas and etc. activities; to attract more customers and thereby increase profits. The use of various Many sites for social bookmarking are offered services of Web 2.0 is becoming more in Web space. The most popular examples are commonplace. Sometimes companies use Web Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and others. 2.0 services and tools because they are fashionable at the moment or because the There are some sites for social bookmarking competition is aimed at them, without taking that are specially designed for business. They into account the specificities of the company, focus on the entrepreneurial side of business the target groups, expected results, etc. This and how to improve various aspects of inevitably leads to inefficient use of social company activities rather than on business media, negative and disappointing results for news. For example: the company and for its customers. • bizSugar – social bookmarking site on topics related to business; Many companies have an official Web site, fan page on Facebook, blog, wiki system, Twitter • Tip'd – social bookmarking site designed acounts. We call this model Traditional. The for sharing ideas and financial news. results show that in most cases the Traditional

model does not lead to better results. The main 6. RSS (Real Simple Sindication) questions are: Where is the difficulty in Using RSS, users subscribe to various implementing social media in business? Why information sources and quickly and promptly some companies manage to increase the can be informed of any changes that occur with number of their customers and sales, while these sources. On the other hand, RSS is a others fail? technology that allows obtaining information from different places in a form suitable for The main drawback of the Traditional model is each user. that all social media included in it work independently. The company uses any new RSS plays an important role in the effective popular Web 2.0 tool or service separately use of social media. The main advantages of from others. Of course there are hyperlinks RSS in business can be summarized in the between different company’s sites, but this is following areas (12-13): not enough. We get a situation where none of • Delivering actual information to users – the means gives current information about the employees, customers, suppliers. Each post company and its campaigns to customers. The in a blog or site of the company is possession of many profiles in various media is published on the websites of other users difficult to monitor and the process of who have subscribed to this service. Using synchronization of information in them is often RSS articles and discussions are promptly almost impossible. available to end users. • Facilitating access to information that Testing many social media “dilute” the improves the company's Web presence and presence of companies and does not lead to provide more visits to the company sites. good results – investments in time, human • Possibilities for promotions of events and resources and others do not refund. The activities, which is associated with purpose of commercial presence on the advertising the company and its business. Internet market is overlooked; the company • Presentation and advertising of new does not reach its target group and the products, implementation of promotions expected effects of social media are not and etc. achieved.

• The mentioned above services and tools It is obvious that even the choice and are a part of the services offered by Web implementation of the most appropriate Web 2.0. Each company can select and apply 2.0 tools and services in company is correct, them according to its features, preferences the fundamental problem of synchronizing and needs. information is not solved.

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KIRYAKOVA G., et al. Recommended model It is appropriate to apply different types of SEO optimization helps to the appearance of Web 2.0 services and tools that help people the company's main site in the first pages and groups in business organizations to share delivered by search engines in response to and manage content and projects; to work and relevant keywords and tags. The means of communicate interactively. ensuring the effectiveness of this process is improving every day and it requires companies In terms of their informational role, it is to have people who follow trends and advisable to include Web 2.0 tools such as: developments in this area. Sites and blogs of • Persistent data are presented to a the company will be visible to users thanks to comprehensive Web site of the company. SEO optimization. It is also appropriate to have a wiki system or simply to be presented in some of the It is very important to be included a module to general encyclopedias in different the site of the company for its definition as a languages. supplement to sites that provide Web 2.0 • Using microblogging account for the latest syndication service – for example iGoogle. news. Company’s customers will be facilitated in searching and receiving new facts about the • Sharing experience, knowledge and company via RSS module/emission. content can be done by using corporative and individual blogs. The best solution for ensuring synchronization • Video materials are distributed through between the various profiles and pages listed Youtube channel. above is on-line tools for integration and • The social networks are the place where synchronization (Figure 5). They facilitate companie can conduct campaigns that posts in many social media. Users can change present products and services or organize their status and this reflects in all services, events. Social networks have tools for used by them. communication and can be used for the exchange of messages and files.

Tools/Services for integration and synchronization

Figure 5. A Recommended model of the application of social media in business.

The advantages of Web 2.0 services and tools As representatives of Web 2.0 tools and for integration and synchronization are: services for syndication and aggregation can be • synchronization of information in different pointed out Lotus Notes, TeamLab, Ping.fm social media; and others. Some of them require the purchase • free of charge or at minimal cost; and payment of license fees, while others are • free choice of social media to connect and free and can be used free of charge or at monitor. minimal cost. The advantages of open source tools are related to the open information

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