It’s no secret that companies both large and small employ web 2.0 applications, like blogs, wikis, chat rooms and online communities. While many businesses are feeling like these apps are boosting business functionality via increased communication and collaboration, there is an evident and increasing need to effectively measure the success of these tools to ensure that businesses are realising full achievements as a result of their employment.
Dion Hinchcliffe on Determining the ROI of Enterprise 2.0
Some company executives explain that data received from web 2 sites designed to effectively measure web 2.0 success for companies could potentially “improve customer relations and even measure the buzz surrounding their brands” (Havenstein 2008). One company, Kimberly -Clark set out to examine web 2.0 data about the company by installing a “beta version of a so-called marketing warehouse from Portland, Oregon -based Web Trends Inc.”
- “WebTrends Marketing Warehouse is an “enterprise-scale hub for online and offline data storage and analysis and can integrate the web data with other corporate information sources, applications and systems”
-Dirk Hoerter, team leader for relationship marketing at Irving, Texas-based Kimberly-Clark
One key finding showed that the more frequently a user (or customer) participates in the community, the more loyal he is to the companie’s products. Kimberly-Clark harnessed in on this information and now uses this data storage and analysis company to help identify these loyal customers and discern which content they view or which tools they use the most. This enables the company to produce the most sought after content for its loyal users to strengthen customer relations.
- A company called Responsys Inc. is currently employing something called, “DemandBase Stream” to learn whether sales calls or emails to potential customers have been a success.
A 2009 article from E Marketer provided insight from a McKinsey Quarterly “Global Survey” which polled companies about the benefits achieved from various web 2.0 tools, both internal and external. The survey revealed that some web 2.0 tools were extremely effective at enhancing relationships with employees, as well as customers and external ties.
Results indicated…
- Company blogs were the most effective tools for producing customer-related benefits, “bringing measurable benefits to 51% of responding companies worldwide.
- Video-sharing and social networking came in second both representing 48%
- RSS feeds came in at 45%
- Wikis, podcasts, ratings and tags were reported to be less useful to companies “but still benefited customer relationships for about one-quarter to one-third of companies worldwide.”
* Perhaps the most important lesson in measuring the success of web 2.0 in companies, is that the companies can’t expect their customers to jump into using these tools with total functionality and satisfaction. Of the companies that reported measurable benefits from web 2.0, 74% expressed the importance of integrating the web 2 tools with “other forms of customer interaction,” and 52% said that “marketing the web 2.0 initiatives themselves was a best practice.” This reveals that companies, whilst interested in employing the latest web 2 tools, realise the eminent need to measure their success and market these initiatives.
*Also, when considering the benefits achieved from web 2.0 in companies, it is important to remember to account for benefits associated with;
- Internal purposes
- Customer-related purposes
and
- External partners/suppliers
