Legal Research

SIIA Report on Web 2.0 and Business

So, I have competing information on Web 2.0 and business and intranets. Interesting.

Stephen

SIIA Survey Reveals Businesses Increasingly Embracing Web 2.0 Technologies

New Applications Advance Business-to-Business Use of Social Networking Sites, Blogs, Wikis and User-Generated Content

Washington, DC February 8, 2008 -- The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry, today released the results of a survey on business use of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, social
networking and user-generated content, which indicated that businesses are increasingly embracing these new technologies.

?Clearly, Web 2.0 is infiltrating the B2B space at a rapid rate, as businesses attempt to reach new markets and increase their connection with consumers? said SIIA Vice President of Content Ed Keating. ?As new applications are developed, we expect to continue to see further
penetration of tools adapted for the business market in a relatively short time.?

Conducted to coincide with SIIA?s Information Industry Summit, the survey explored the ways in which business-oriented content companies are using the various forms of Web 2.0 capabilities to enhance their connection to their users. Nearly 42% of respondents are currently using social
networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, while another 35% plan to do so in the near future. Only a third place user-generated content on their sites, while more than half carry at least one blog.

The survey found that B2B users expected social networking to enable them to reach new markets and increase user engagement and loyalty. While just over 80% of respondents expected to achieve these goals, about 40% feel they have already reached new markets and a third believe they have increased customer engagement.

About a third of the firms surveyed currently post user-generated content, with a quarter planning to do so in the near term. The major driver for its use is again to increase user engagement and loyalty (92%).

Those surveyed about the utility of blogging had a mixed reaction. While more than half of survey respondents indicated that they do publish blogs, almost two-thirds believe that their influence on the industry has been mixed. Only 15% view them as ?critically important? to the industry?s market environment.

To view the full results of the SIIA survey, please visit:
www.siia.net/content under Recent Publications.

SIIA Contact: Ed Keating, VP, Content Division, 860-663-5535,
ekeating@siia.net
PR contact: Don Marshall, Rational PR, 202-429-4932,
donmarshall@rationalpr.com

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).