Communications 2.0: Beta is Better

By Roger Warner Nov 27, 2006

What does 'Web 2.0' mean to the world of Public Relations?

Executive Summary

This paper provides communications professionals and marketeers with a variety of best practice approaches for communicating on the web today, as well as some simple suggestions that companies can implement to make the most of the changing world of communications.

Web Two Point What?

As technology companies, both Text 100 and Squiz have longstanding experience of the internet. Our clients include publishers, mainstream media, and technology firms young and old. Both of our firms contain experienced marketing professionals, but when it comes to 'Web 2.0,' we must confess a certain scepticism…

On Saturday November 4th, The Guardian's 'Weekend' magazine was devoted entirely to the hottest media and technology property on the planet — Web 2.0. Hot? It has to be! Google just paid $1.65 billion for YouTube. It's clear that the Internet is back in vogue, which is a very good thing, but the notion of 'Web 2.0' sits a little uneasily with us.

You see, nobody told us what 'Web 1.0' was about, and we're also a little miffed that we only got to hear about it after it was pronounced dead. Also, 'Web 2.0' seems a little woolly — we're having a hard time figuring out what it's about, let alone what we need to do with it. (It seems like silly season for the techno-evangelist club once again!) So we're just plain unsure. How much of a distinct property is 'Web 2.0'? And as communicators, to what extent do we need to accommodate the existence of a trillion blogs, a million mashups and a bazillion web sites with curved edges and drop shadows? Is RSS the new SMS? SOA the new Siebel? LinkedIn the new Excite@home? Is Bloglines the new grapevine? Will IPTV replace ITV? ……or are we just blowing bubbles all over again?

Well, when all's said and done, we realise that something profound is happening right now. And so this white paper is an exorcism. Its purpose is to dispel the hoopla surrounding '2.0' and bring some meaning and direction to the question of how we need to communicate today. As a result — and with a more sober head on - we will suggest how key 'Web 2.0' concepts and tactics can be applied to help us to communicate better — with more people, more of the time.

What's the Point?

So, let's define what Web 2.0 is.

To date, the best description we've found is by web developer and blogger Ian Davis. In his words, Web 2.0 is “an attitude rather than a technology. It's about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services.” By this definition, 'participation' means the ability to contribute, share, mix and publish both data (technology) and ideas (content) through today's web applications and services. Practical examples include the ability to post a photo from your smartphone in response to a BBC News article on their web site. Or taking the Google Maps API and mixing this up with some of your own code to produce a site that allows estate agents to reachs customers directly — and show where their property is. Web 2.0 is giving businesses new ways to reach customers — be they tech savvy teenagers or hard-nosed businessmen.

As such, today's innovation is predicated on a realisation that the connected, chaotic nature of the web is something to be embraced, not restricted. AOL/Time Warner fails. YouTube wins. Any example of 'broadcast' communications on the web fundamentally misses the opportunity to exploit its connectedness, cost-effectiveness and scale. The future is all about creating 'open' web services, and standing back and letting customers loose on them. Which of course is anathema to the way in which communication networks have been run until now. This is the same point that was made during the last dot-com boom by The Cluetrain Manifesto:

“The Internet is a place. We buy books and tickets on the Web. Not over, through, or beside it. To call it a “platform” belies its hospitality. What happens on the Net is more than commerce, more than content, more than push and pull and clicks and traffic and e-anything. The Net is a real place where people can go to learn, to talk to each other, and to do business together. It is a bazaar where customers look for wares, vendors spread goods for display, and people gather around topics that interest them. It is a conversation.”

As Ian Davis points out, the ability to contribute, take, remix and repost is a step back in time to the spirit of good old Internet 1.0 — where the birth of the networked hyperlink “encouraged participation from the start.” What's happened in between times is that we've managed to apply traditional modes of communication through the medium — e.g, webcasts (read conferences), banner ads (read TV ads), email spam (read direct mail), etc — and lose our way a little.

And so Web 2.0 is offering a 'back to the future' style path upon which we can really exploit the Information Super Highway. It's enabling us to get closer to our customers and to understand what they really think about us and our products……so that we can serve them better and become more competitive and profitable as a result.

Communications 2.0

OK, so if Web 2.0 is an attitude towards to the web, underpinned by the provision of services that empower customers to do their own thing, then let's take a look at why this is useful for us as communicators…

To do this we'll establish the key “2.0-ish” principles that we need to consider, and discuss each one in detail. They are:

Content is king (again!)
The web site as a communications service
Beta is beautiful
Participation is mandatory
Technology is meaningless
(If content is king, then) Open source is queen

Content is king (again!)

…in the sense of user-generated content, that is. Imagine Amazon without user reviews, eBay without user ratings and life without wikipedia. These are the big, glamorous consumer examples but there are a thousand business networking forums, email discussion groups, and loose gatherings in the blogosphere discussing everything aspect of business — including probably your own. These examples wouldn't be what they are today without having been built upon the two way nature of the web. Broadly speaking, all of them have ceded a measure of editorial control around their services in exchange for the value that user-generated content can bring. And each has become a 'trusted' source of goods, services and information as a result. The value of their service depends on their users. It's a no-brainer.

A referral or a recommendation from a like-minded individual inspires confidence. Commerce has always worked this way - it's why so many of our clients clamour to publish glossy case studies on satisfied customers.