What Does The Utah Government Have to Do with Web 2.0 Marketing Tools or Strategies?

Deep in the spirit of Web 2.0 Utah State has plunged into a grand Web 2.0 strategy to connect with the community. Unveiling its official state Web site, www.Utah.gov has moved towards a fresh design. The essence of this web 2.0 business marketing strategy is to engage and encourage community users to increase their state and local government participation.  Very Web 2.0, don’t you think?

No different to companies of all sizes attempting the same objective and trying to find the best web 2.0 business model. And out of this connectedness a number of things can happen; some things are predictable while others are more organic or less predictable, often revealing community desires not even the community is aware of. And if you listen the solutions are very close behind.    

But putting up a site isn’t a guarantee for success as most of you know. You need a few other things in the mix before real community connectedness can develop and mature.

Leading social networks have:

1. Trust is a major issue particularly where there is a transfer of information.

2. Security is a priority for any individual, government, business or company engaging in transparency while protecting best practices.

3. Accessible information in itself does not instantly manufacture a two way dialogue. Unless a format, environment and community spirit is activated the dialogue can remain one sided.

4. Crowd sourcing the public effectively to deliver ideas, solutions and practical policies with the belief these will be used constructively to help the community at large and not just the Government.

Doing this without giving up total control is an issue some can’t get their heads around.

With this in mind Utah.gov Web 2.0 tools provide users with:

1. Geographical location software displaying location-specific information, schools and libraries, parks, local meetings and government Web sites for each use

2. Search facilities for government agencies, online services and 50,000 government forms.

3.  Access to 27 state blogs and over 100 Twitter accounts.

4. Access to Utah.gov Facebook page

5. Access to Utah.gov Flickr photo group to view and upload photos,

6. All state RSS feeds.

How this will evolve for the Utah Government is yet to be seen. So far many businesses have been shy about fully committing themselves to Web 2.0. They’re using all sorts of defences such as security, Web 2.0 best practices and Web 2.0 return on investment without getting to the real issue. Control.

But can they survive without delving into Web 2.0? Can you? Not just a website, video or Facebooking but the essence of Web 2.0? They won’t find the perfect web 2.0 business model, next generation marketing or become the leading social network without connecting with their crowd, taking their observations, experience and desires and creating something from it.

This goes way beyond a questionnaire, market research or loyalty cards. This is fluid, flexible and reactive to the now of the crowd. And built the right way the costs are neglible and the returns are very high.

Crowd sourcing within public institutions is starting to catch on. Take the example of the Smithsonian Museum of Art which used an impressive model using Web 2.0 features. 

"Fill the Gap" challenged "citizen curators" to find replacement works of art for the gaps in Luce Foundation Center display cases when collection pieces are on loan sometimes for more than twelve months.

The Museum staff generated assistance from an underestimated resource; its public.

By opening the process, staff turned to online communities for help. Using Flickr they shared photos of cases that need replacement artwork, provided information about the other works in the case, and challenged their community to search their collections for substitutes.

It’s proven a brilliant strategy to engage with their die hard audiences, find what they like while revealing some behind-the-scenes museum activities.

What’s so clever about this model is that it’s a repeating challenging contest that the public is dying to solve with prizes at no expense to the Museum but carries a high perceived value to the winner, who becomes part of the museum’s process along with an unforgettable experience. The success lies with transforming a mundane task into a special opportunity finding the best solution in the shortest time.

The benefits to any individual, business or enterprise that can do the same will find their measurable returns in hours, solutions, dollars and publicity.

Anyone who doesn’t think it will work for them should learn more about Web 2.0; the process, the underlying intention and then apply it. More important than a bigger budget for Web 2.0 platforms is a change of perspective. Find the mindset that goes with Web 2.0 territory.

Without this there will always be some issue standing in the way between a meaningful dialogue between individuals, businesses and their audiences.

See you next time

Christine

If you would like to learn more about Web 2.0 consider reading my book Web 2.0 Traffic Demolisher

Technorati Tags: business marketing strategy, crowd sourcing, crowdsourcing, leading social networks, twitter, Utah universtity, Utah.gov, Utah.gov Facebook, web 2.0 business model, Web 2.0 Tools, Web 2.o, web 20, web2

The Web 2.0 playing field is changing, it’s changing from a toy or play medium that Gen Y ran with to a serious Web 2 tool that businesses of all sizes are using in their business marketing strategies. Web 2.0 as a business model is growing, it’s deepening and the social, business and cutural applications are being added as fast as new names can be created.

Generation Y was the first to see the benefits of Web 2.0 social media. Suddenly friends, aquaintances and relatives were boxed away safely in one place online. Guys rummaged through networks to find the cute girls and photos of football games. Girls did the same.

Although not the first application, Facebook stormed crowds with similar tastes, interests or hobbies to a new level. Then Second Life created a virtual world for people to stroll around with their alter egos, LinkedIn claimed shortcuts for older white-collar professionals and lately Twitter has blasted on to the scene.

Gen Y is still active but the hungry audience of the new web are older, often in business or the corporate world. And statistics tell us there are a lot of them. They can see the implications of reaching prospective clients and customers regualarly especially with the cost, implementation and delivery methods being so  accessible.

But it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There’s so much out there to choose from. Finding the best social networks for branding your corporte identity can be difficult. You can start with the best known for your business web marketing but in the end who you choose should be part of an overall business marketing strategy and not some loose end. This is a great way to get eyeballs and very cheap web traffic  but without an objective you are wasting your resources.

Twitter

The majority of Twitter users worldwide are 35 or older. Just over ten percent of Twitter population in the US is between 18-24 and tweet less often.

LinkedIn

Gen Y is not on LinkedIn. LinkedIn profiles do two things. They sneeze out to the world all the great things you’ve accomplished and connect people in your industry.

Not surprisingly most LinkedIn users are 40 years and over. Gen Y hasn’t stockpiled a heap of things to shout about; they’re still discovering what industry they want to be in and their connections aren’t very connected. 

LinkedIn did a major marketing push offering grads their premium service for a three month free trial; even pitching the site as a way to get jobs. It’s not working.

So has LinkedIn failed to get Gen Y or is Gen Y too busy? 

Facebook

Facebook is growing with chilling speed. New adopters are between 35 to 54 years old which grew at a rate of 276% over the last six months and the 55 and over demographic grew by almost 200% for the same period. Meanwhile, 18-24 year olds only grew 20%.

 Over 35’s are also joining Twitter where it’s all about real-time updates. 

In fact, when Facebook made design changes comparable to Twitter astonishingly the angry mob wasn’t older demographic groups shaking in fear of change but from the long time Facebook users; Gen Y.
 
Those aged over 45 years are actively taking up Web 2.0 social media consumer technology including blogs and podcasts almost 20 times faster than younger generations. Gen Y consumers are reversing their bull charge away from social networking, blogging, podcasting and internet videos. 

What happened and where are they going?

It’s possible that Gen Y has decided that too much is too much. Gen Y may have liked flirting with Web 2.0 but are no longer interested now that the wrappers are off. Maybe when the lights came on it just wasn’t what they expected. After all, chatting over a glass of wine wins hands down over a hot screen and mouse.

Unexpectedly older users have scratched the social media surface and found new strategies beyond the cool PR fog that early Gen Y adopters ran looking for.

Even Chris Cox, Facebook’s Director of Products says, "The people who started the company weren’t cool. I’m not cool, if you look at the people who work here, it’s much more nerdy and curious than cool… Cool only lasts for so long, but being useful is something that applies to everyone."

He’s right. Gen Y are chasing cool not useful. But thousands of others have found useful applications for unexpected things like enhancing branding corporte identity, supporting web marketing, implementing business marketing strategy and are devouring it. 

These are some of the Web 2.0 tools you should consider in your Web 2.0 business model to get cheap web traffic, develop social media networking and develop transparency between you and prospective clients. They will help you with positioning marketing faster and provide many marketing solutions other mediums struggle to deliver.

See you back here soon,

Christine 

Technorati Tags: best social networks, branding corporate identity, business marketing strategy, cheap web traffic, facebook, linkedin, small business web marketing, social media, twitter, web 2 tools