How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0 - McKinsey Quarterly - Business Technology - Strategy

Over the past three years, we have tracked the rising adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, as well as the ways organizations are using them. This year, we sought to get a clear idea of whether companies are deriving measurable business benefits from their investments in the Web. Our findings indicate that they are. Podcast How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey results Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to this year’s survey. Their responses suggest why Web 2.0 remains of high interest: 69 percent of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues. Benefits of Web 2.0 This year’s survey turned up strong evidence that these advantages are translating into measurable business gains (Exhibit 1). Who benefits

Move Over Social Media; Here Comes Social Business It takes extraordinary chutzpah to promote a vision before it can be fully realized by your audience, let alone your company. IBM did just that in 1997 when it introduced the notion of e-business. Fourteen years later, it is doing it again with a concept they call social business. Given its prescience about e-business, a concept that radically transformed how companies buy and sell their products, it is hard to dismiss their latest idée fixe. That said, getting your arms around this grandiose idea is not easy. 1. While social media has helped many companies become more customer-centric, it is treated primarily as a modestly effective marketing tool. 2. One of the notions behind becoming a social business is that your employees should be front and center in your digital activities. 3. Becoming a social business means recognizing the need for your employees to become “digital citizens” and providing the training for them to manage their digital reputations. 4. 5. 6. 7. Final Note