Tool Blogs and podcasts Social networks Communities Content aggregators Virtual worlds Use Informing of current events and new products Content sharing, creating and maintaining relationships Maintaining customer relationships, brand building Informing of new products Maintaining customer relationships, brand building Strengths Easy and cheap tool to maintain Easy to set up a profile, possible targeted advertising Intense two-way communication Easy to use Engaging customers effectively Weaknesses Requires time and constant updating How to persuade users to participate?
Requires lots of resources to maintain Content needs to be interesting enough to be tagged Requires lots of resources to maintain; inducing users to participate Only one-third or less of B2B marketers has used web 2. 0 tactics in their marketing mix. Based on the interviews made for this report, the utilization of web 2. 0 for marketing seems to be low among Finnish industrial firms too. Some firms had utilized video sharing sites, but more on ad hoc basis.
Blogs, wikis, and video sharing were seen as the most interesting options for industrial firms.
An expert opinion was that perhaps the most suitable web 2. 0 tools for industrial marketing are online communities, where a firm can contribute to brand building, have direct interaction with customers and other stakeholders, gain valuable information and provide services. Communities were not, however, an appealing alternative for firm interviewees, because hosting a community requires more work than benefits and community? s targeting power was considered low.
5 Web 2. 0 Tools Blogs Podcasts Social networks Online communities
Usage among six examined firms One firm has a (unofficial) management level blog, one is preparing a video blog, one is planning an internal blog or a blog to existing customers. Three firms have none. One firm has its CEO’s letter in webcast format (but there is no commenting option) and has done pilots for online teaching. Five firms have none. Four firms have unofficial groups in Facebook for internal networking.
One has more official Facebook group but does not know yet what to do with it. One firm has none. One firm has done some advertising in industrial communities and joined some communities and directories.
One has used communities to search information of other firms and customers. Three firms mention that customer extranets are the most important online communities for them.
One firm mentions nothing. One firm had official and one had unofficial YouTube videos. Two firms plan to build a wiki and one has tried to contribute to existing ones. One firm has none. Not participated or utilized actively, even though one firm takes part in some professional forums. One firm builds a mash-up for their website and three firms offer RSS feeds.
One firm is interested in social bookmarking.
