NI-Limits Blog

Wayne Liew wrote an interesting article regarding Social Networks for businesses, and it’s an especially important piece of literature as it gives a Malaysian point-of-view to this fast-growing marketing and information organization phenomenon known as online social networking:

Corporate blogging or business blogging are terms describing the action of setting up and managing a blog to serve the aim and purpose of a business. As a business owner, you cannot underestimate the potential of this new media or ignore it. You will lose out very fast to your competitors if they have the edge over you in tapping blogging as a medium for their business expansion.

Wayne goes on to give more detail regarding what he considers as the 10 most important benefits of blogging for businesses:

1. Huge Market (Surpassing Localized Markets)
2. Proper Medium for Customer Feedback (Interactive Communities)
3. Marketing with Low Overheads (Cost Effective)
4. Using Viral Effect to Stimulate Market Reactions (Syndicated Content)
5. Human Friendly Sales Copy (Personalized & Un-intrusive Sales)
6. Retain Loyal Customers (Closer Relationships with Better Support)
7. Stopping Rumors Spread (Defense Against Competitiveness)
8. Repossess Lost Customers (Automated Search Engine Optimisation)
9. Sourcing New Talents to Provide Job Opportunities (Wider Audience)
10. Acquiring First-Hand Benefits (Opportunities for Leading the Market)

Several weeks after Wayne wrote this article, Read / Write Web wrote an article regarding a new report from Forrester Research that is predicting an increase in Web 2.0 technology adoption from enterprises that will result in a new market-share worth US$ 4.6 billion by the year 2013 for Enterprise 2.0:

What is Enterprise Web 2.0?

Most technologists segment the Web 2.0 market between “consumer” Web 2.0 technologies and “business” Web 2.0 technologies. So what does Enterprise 2.0 include then?

Well, what it doesn’t include is consumer services like Blogger, Facebook, Netvibes, and Twitter, says Forrester. These types of services are aimed at consumers and are often supported by ads, so they do not qualify as Enterprise 2.0 tools.

Instead, collaboration and productivity tools based on the concepts of web 2.0, but designed for the enterprise worker will count as being Enterprise 2.0. In addition, for-pay services, like those from BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, Awareness, NewsGator Technologies, and Six Apart will factor in.

How Web 2.0 Will Reach $4.6 Billion

All that being said, the Web 2.0 market, as  small as it is now, is, in fact, growing. In 2008, firms with 1000 employees or more will spend $764 million on Web 2.0 tools and technologies.

Over the next five years, that expenditure will grow at a compound annual rate of 43%.

The top spending category will be social networking tools. In 2008, for example, companies will spend $258 million on tools like those from Awareness, Communispace, and Jive Software. After social networking, the next-largest category is RSS, followed by blogs and wikis, and then mashups.

The vendors expected to do the best in this new marketplace will be those that bundle their offerings, offering the complete package of tools to the businesses they serve.

A month later, they wrote another article expressing their support for a very important report from Business Week that quite clearly states:

"Social Media Will Change Your Business!"

The story highlighted the current trend of workers not just using blogs, but also social networks and other Web 2.0 applications to spread news, connect, create buzz, interact and socialize with others -both for business and for pleasure. While this lack of control frightens upper management and causes I.T. nightmares in some cases, businesses are already becoming aware of these new trends as the next Generation, Gen Y or the “Millennials,” as they are sometimes called, enters the workforce.

Even 60 Minutes recently updated their story about this new generation, 80 million strong, who are rapidly taking over the web…

Web 2.0 Numbers Reveal The Change Underway

The adoption rate of Web 2.0 technologies by I.T. is actually stronger in enterprises than it is in SMBs, with 42% of enterprise businesses now utilizing Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX, Flash, Flex, etc. to 32% of SMBs. Additionally, there is growth in the areas of Web 2.0 app investing, with a number of companies investing, piloting, or considering investment in Web 2.0 technologies like RSS, podcasting, wikis, and blogs.

Getting Web 2.0 Right

Internally, the trick to getting the right mix of Web 2.0 and other technologies has to do with the speed of change and the amount of risk to the business.

Externally, Web 2.0 technologies are used to take content to the customers. RSS, social networks, web and desktop widgets, blogging, user communities, and more can help a company easily reach customers to communicate a company’s message and  increase brand awareness.

Ultimately, companies ignoring this shift will only do so their own peril. The numbers don’t lie: your customers have adapted and your competition has adapted - turn a blind eye and prepare to lose market-share. You may even just lose altogether.

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In our first article dedicated to Facebook, Mashable reports on a recent server-upgrade that cost them US$100 Million without spending anything:

According to Business Week, the social network has closed a deal to take a $100 million loan (“venture lending”), all of which will be spent on new servers. Facebook gives up no equity as part of the deal. Essentially, it’s a really, really huge credit card, with very favorable terms. In all, Facebook has now raised in excess of $300 million, including $240 million from Microsoft, $100 million from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and an undisclosed amount from the Samwer brothers.

Inquisitr (the new blog from TechCrunch’s Duncan Riley) reports on a rumor that co-founder and CTO of Facebook, Adam D’Angelo is leaving…

The reasons behind D’Angelo’s departure have so far not been disclosed, but it’s a strange move given D’Angelo’s supposed close relationship with Mark Zuckerberg; D’Angelo has been often cited as Zuckerberg’s best friend. It’s also a rare employee move away from Facebook at a time the social networking giant is attracting the cream of Valley talent.

As CTO at Facebook, D’Angelo oversaw the Platform Development team, the Data team and new product design and architecture. As well as holding a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Caltech, D’Angelo was named one of the top 24 finalists in the international Topcoder Collegiate Challenge in 2005, which competition which tests the ability to design and implement complex algorithms in a timed environment.

Duncan also reported on another potential rumour that Microsoft may be looking to buy Facebook and save face over the Yahoo deal:

A report just released by the Wall Street Journal claims the company’s bankers have been in touch with the social networking site to “gauge [its] willingness to sell.” The Journal cites the also Dow Jones-owned All Things Digital blog for first breaking the news early this morning. It does note, however, that there are no “active discussions” going on as of yet.

Microsoft already has hundreds of millions invested in Facebook. It bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company last fall. But how serious the idea of an actual acquisition could be is yet to be seen. Just today in Tokyo, Bill Gates said his company won’t go after any other takeovers following its failed talks with Yahoo. Microsoft dropped its discussions to buy the search engine over the weekend after failing to agree on a price.

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