Online: the rise and rise. How Web 2.0 is changing construction PR and marketing

Online:the rise and rise
Paul Wilkinson

Agenda
before web
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0 – a lightning tour
Web 2.0 – putting it all together
Why does Web 2.0 matter?
Final words

‘Before web’
Mainly printed collateral and face-to-face:
print advertising
brochures, company magazines, newsletters
media relations and other PR
direct marketing
market research
events – exhibitions, conferences, etc
Still important, but from 1993 …

Web 1.0
Mid 1990s …
first generation websites
static pages instead of dynamic user-generated content
HTML ‘brochure-ware’, later PDFs
limited interaction with site visitors
some integration with email

Web 1.5
Since late 1990s …
shared drives
intranets – closed internal websites
extranets – private websites shared, for example, among project team members
But still mainly information-centric

Web 2.0 – aka: social media
Definitions:
primarily internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings
the use of web technologies and web design to enhance creativity, information sharing and collaboration among users.
“People having conversations online”
In business, also Enterprise 2.0
(Sources: Wikipedia; Kaizo)

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0
(Sources: Joe Drumgoole’s Copacetic; Darrenbarefoot.com 2006)

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0

Web 2.0 – a lightning tour
Discussion forums (eg: Building, Contract Journal, Constructing Excellence)
Wikis
open – Wikipedia
organisation – RIBApedia
internal - Fielden Clegg Bradley
Blogs
personal and work-related
corporate
media tool
micro-blogging – Twitter
“Wisdom of crowds”

RSS
RSS publishing (from bloggers, media, corporate, search)
Feed-readers (local or web-based: Newsgator, Google Reader, etc)
Social networking
from personal (eg: MySpace, Bebo, Facebook) …
to professional (Facebook, LinkedIn) … to networks/communities (eg: Be2camp - built on Ning platform)
Social search (eg: Wikia)
Tagging/sharing (eg: Delicious, Digg, etc)

Sharing:
Documents, presentations, etc (eg: Google Apps)
Voice over IP – Skype
Calendar - Google Calendar; fixing meetings (Doodle)
Photos – Flickr
Video – YouTube
Stuff – Freecycle
Mashups: Maps (Google Maps, OSM), timelines (Dipity)
Virtual worlds – eg: Second Life

The digital news release
release issued as a webpage, linked via RSS or a URL – no attachments, can be updated as necessary
URL disseminated by email, Twitter, SMS, IM
easily monitored – eg: number of unique visitors, time spent reading, downloads
bespoke pages for different journalists –with different URLs for distribution
includes social bookmark tools –page can be shared via Reddit, Digg, etc
multimedia content – eg: YouTube video,high and low-res images, PDFs, etc
content tagged with keywords

Be2camp – Built Environment and Web 2.0 community
2008 ‘unconference’ organised using Web 2.0 tools
50+ attendees in London
180 online during the day

Crowd-sourcing tools for marketing:
Logo design = 99designs
run an online competition to design a logo to meet your brief
Brand names = namethis
“48-hour contest to find a brand name for your venture. The namethis community suggests names, and then votes on the best ones” ($99)
Product design and manufacturing = Ponoko
take a picture of a sketch, upload it, and then wait for designers to tell you how much it would cost to have made for real
Product redesign = redesignme
“platform where communities and companies collaborate on new / revamped products and services.”
Software & usability testing = uTest
Images = Flickr

Context:
70% UK homes have PC or laptop
65% have home internet access (58% via broadband)
71% UK adults access internet
41% of UK adults accessed blogs during August 2008
30% of British adults have a social networking profile
Half UK's online population have a Facebook profile and spend an average of nearly six hours a month on the site
not just Gen Y: 35% of Facebook users in 35-54 age range
2m+ UK LinkedIn users; 2.6m UK Twitter users
27.4m people watched online videos during May 2008
(Sources: Ofcom, ComScore, BBC, LinkedIn – 2008, 2009)

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

Online:the rise and rise
To find out more…
paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk
http://www.pwcom.co.uk
Twitter: @EEPaul
Tel: 020 8858 1104, mob 07788 445920