What is Your Business Strategy for Web 2.0?

We have an amazing array of web based social networking, media, and knowledge management tools at our disposal these days – for e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Wikis [explained further down], blogs, RSS or syndicated feeds, even Facebook.
But we need to keep these in perspective. They are tools, not solutions or proxies for savvy business strategy – unless you know how to use them correctly.

I work as a business strategy consultant (and I’m not a geek!) therefore my approach to working with clients always starts with three practical questions: what business are we in? Who are our stakeholders? How are we creating value?
The questions appear simple enough, but all too often I hear solutions before we get a chance to map the landscape.

Today, in the age of Web 2.0, organisations are jumping to solutions well before they have determined what exactly is going on in their business, with their staff or their stakeholders.
For example one client decided (without much research) to set up a Facebook group account to ‘connect’ with their GenY staff as another means to get across their ‘corporate message’. What do you think the result was? GenY staff thought it was a joke and become even more disengaged. Facebook groups were designed as a channel for informal socialising, and engaging, this company used it to preach.

Similar examples are happening across the whole gamut of my clients – from government departments, to corporate monoliths, to shiny new start-ups. Organisations tend to react before they think and all too often they seek quick fixes that create another set of problems elsewhere in their business.

Another example: a small software company I worked with established a wiki (a free open space platform that enables you to share documents, information and ideas with your staff and customers). The company started the wiki to generate ideas of how to adapt their products and service to better service clients. However by starting the wiki they created an expectation among staff and clients that they would actually act on the feedback. With inadequate level of resources or a responsible manager to manage the process, the wiki had created additional stresses on staff and a rise in customer complaints.

Going back to my original three questions, organisations need a clear and balanced approach to their business strategy before deciding on the best technology tools they need to achieve their goals.

This is best illustrated in the diagram below:

At the core is your business strategy – what is your vision, your objectives, and your goals?
• Competency: do we have the right level of skills, resources and business processes set up to create value for our customers and our stakeholders? Example of a potential techno strategy that could assist here: Wiki to share information, knowledge and skills.
• Engagement: do we have the right language, approach and channels in how we connect with our stakeholders? Example of a potential techno strategy that could assist here: blogs, website and ‘traditional’ email newsletters. Note that the key here is engagement through meaningful conversations with your stakeholders regardless of the medium used.
• Alignment: are we listening to and delivering what our customers need and want in our products and services? Are we creating superior value for them ahead of our competition? Potential techno strategies that could assist are those listed above that will enhance ‘traditional’ market and product research.

The key to operating business in the Web 2.0 era is to balance each of these key areas and align them to your business strategy. Key traps to watch for are as follows:

1. Use technology applications appropriately and wisely. For example, some businesses are ‘misusing’ Twitter by treating it as a new free channel to continue with old school selling and PR. Twitter is about having conversations to make more meaningful connections with your stakeholders. You must understand the technology you are adopting.

2. Employ experts only in their area of proven expertise. There is an astonishing number of so called “social network and social media strategists” that have sprouted out of nowhere. Check their credentials – what are their qualifications, check their references, and ask for credible research that backs up their proposals. And if they dodge your questions about how they propose to measure tangible returns for your business, show them the door.

3. Business strategy. This is where it all starts and finishes. Use all the tools and experts you need to enable your business strategy, but don’t allow them drive your strategy. Leadership, vision, entrepreneurship are those innate human qualities that have been at the heart of every single innovation over time.

Keep an open mind and network with your peers, ask questions, learn from their experience. Start with small steps in a few easy tools and experiment and above all do your own research and trust your own business instincts. After all, only you really understand your business best and what your business goals are. Tools are only a means to that end.