The Impact of Web 2.0 - Essay Example

The term “Web 2.0” refers to the concept of a “second generation” of web site development which enables Internet users to collaborate and share ideas, information, opinions, ratings, reviews, pictures, videos, and more (Blizzard, 2008). Web 2.0 is the second generation of web-based services and tools that emphasize online sharing collaboration among users. It is no longer a place that holds static pages; it is no longer a “medium” that people come to. The web pages are now dynamic and organized and based on serving web applications to users. It is now a platform that enables or delivers Web based services to users, independent of the computer they use. Web 2.0 has no ‘walled gardens’ which implies information can freely flow in and out of the web services (James, 2007). There is a rich user experience and data organization; it provides services and has characteristics that support and enhance interaction among users. Web 2.0 helps to create websites that look and can act like desktop programs. Examples of web 2.0 include Blogs and Wikis, IM Chat, tagging, RSS Feeds, Google Maps and Docs. Photos and video sharing and social networking are the web 2.0 tools, social office suites and podcasts (Carpenter & Steiner, 2005). The web2.0 space leads to the evolution of three distinct areas – user-generated content sites, social media applications and true online communities (Young, 2007). User-generated content also known as consumer generated media (CGM) reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies like digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis. Social media applications refer to the online practices and technologies that people use to share files, content, insights, experiences, perspective and media themselves. Social media can be in the form of text, images, audio, and video. The social media sites include tools like tools like message boards, forums, podcasts, bookmarks, communities, wikis, weblogs. Wikipedia, Flicker, Second Life and Twitter are some social media applications. Online communities are a group of people that interact via email, chat, Usenet rather than face-to-face. Software is used to regulate the activities of participants. Lenhart and Madden (2007) describe social networking site as an online location where users can create a profile and build a social network that connects him or her to other users. As of 2005 there are over three hundred known social networking sites. In the last five years the growth of such sites has been phenomenal and it keeps tens of millions of users engaged on the internet. Some of the popular social networking sites include MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster and Linkedin. Social networking has permeated the lives of the adults as well and it has been found that professors and librarians use social networking as well. Forty percent of the user base of MySpace comprises of those between 35 and 54 years of age. All of these sites are free and it is easy to create it as well. The social media sites have become necessary for the hotel and travel industry as the travel community focuses around the experiences and the word-of-mouth testimonials of those experiences (Young, 2007). RSS feeds - RSS is a simple XML syntax for describing a channel or feed of recent additions to a website (Wusteman, 2004). These additions may be news items, blog updates or any other discrete elements. Blogs are web-based journals and maintaining a blog feed means those interested can be informed when the blog is updated. Blog software includes RSS feed generation. RSS is thus helpful to make formal announcements. Businesses use it to meet customers in their own environment as the environment is informal and intimate. The intention is to connect with a community that they have chosen. Small businesses use this to create new business opportunities. It supplements the traditional marketing methods with targeted messages aimed at attracting the particular segment and influencing the customer decisions. Some of the top food and beverage brands market their products on such sites that are popular with the teens. Downloadable TV shows were offered by Burger King on MySpace (Chester & Montgomery, 2007). The current generation has the ability to customize and personalize everything in their world and daily experience in ways that the previous generation could never do. The social networking sites have become powerful channels of reaching the youth and having them willingly and enthusiastically engaged with brands. MySpace provides demographic and psychographic data which is used by marketers to identify the brand preferences of the youth. MySpace is leveraging its online community into a peer-recommended framework that provides leads on anything and everything. Through their web spaces people define what they are and the benefit is derived by the advertisers. The social networking sites are also powerful platforms for political expression and participation. While it can reap rich dividends, social networking sites can also bring about huge damage to businesses (BCS, 2006). A community member can pour scorn over bad buying experience and the message spreads like wild fire. As long as businesses are aware of the pitfalls, the benefits far outweigh the negative impact and businesses can take advantage of the social networking revolution. Campbell (2007) too is not quite sure of the benefits to businesses. She quotes the CEO of a search engine marketing firm as saying that unless the businesses have a clear social networking strategy in mind and the social networking sites they choose fit your target market, they could waste a lot of time and money. Technology has empowered the individual in searching and extracting information. Consumers no longer rely on the search engines or the travel agent if they have to book a hotel room. Photo-sharing has become very popular and Flicker is one of the most popular photo-sharing sites (Rubel, 2007). People can geotag (definition) their photos which show where the photos were taken. Wikimapia is a Wikipedia-like service on top of a Google Map that allows everyone to label every single place on earth. Listening to the voice of customers has changed with the rapid growth of the web2.0 technology and the social networking sites. Customers can now post, read and aggregate blogs and this has created a dramatic shift in the power of opinion. The impact that web 2.0 has made is that consumers have started rejecting the traditional marketing channels and relying more on social networking to make buying decisions. In the hotel industry the web 2.0 tools enables to tap into the social networking sites. This is an extremely valuable way to gain exposure and credibility in markets that have been difficult to penetrate (Blizzard, 2008). The popularity of tagging sites like Deli.cio.us and social networking sites like MySpace have demonstrated phenomenal growth and market value thereby proving that web2.0 technology is here to stay. Seeing the popularity of MySpace, Yahoo! has embraced web2.0 technology in all its areas including travel (Bray, 2006). As soon as one enters a search query for any hotel, short-cuts appear on the screen that lures the consumer to different pages where maps, user-reviews, stored trips, as well as rates are available which simplifies the travel planning and the buying process. The Internet user aspect of Web 2.0—also known as Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) or User-Generated Media or Social Media is of special importance to the hotel industry. CGM is online content created by Internet users and made available to other Internet users via Web 2.0 interactive technology applications (Starkov & Price, 2006). This technology allows consumers to drive the content and the relevancy and importance of sites like MySpace, YouTube and travel space sites like TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel Planner, Igoyougo, HotelChatter are unquestionable. Research suggests that most hoteliers do not feel that these travel space sites or web2.0 is a threat to the search engines. The hotel industry should consider CGM initiatives as a part of a comprehensive Direct Internet Marketing Strategy along with search marketing, website re-design and optimization and email marketing. Through CGM initiatives like blogs the hotels can generate a lot of feedback about its hotels, they can also use this space to advertise for their hotels. User-generated sites like TripAdvisor and IgoUgo offered total transparency which unnerved the hotel suppliers. The hotel suppliers then started posting their own glowing comments about the different properties in order to convince the consumers. TripAdvisor then went a step ahead and transformed itself into a complete travel experience aggregator (Bray, 2006). Consumers can now narrate and guide others through their own experiences. This is a lesson for the hotel industry to ensure that their websites contain first-hand user experience rather than those fed by suppliers. The hotel industry has to accept this as an exploding channel and they must find news ways to offer their products and services. The consumers need to be convinced that there is total transparency. According to Salerno (2007) what is being posted on the social media could be useful for the large chain hotels especially if they are associated with their guest service program. Hotels lack the time to work and implement sales and marketing tasks but concentrating on what the social media could offer, may be beneficial for the hotels in the long run. Salerno (2008) suggests that every hotelier should find time to monitor and regularly check travel social media sites like TripAdvisor. The hotels should include guest comments and the means to add comments on their hotel website. The hotel industry is continuously evolving and changing. People in the industry can learn from one another. Hotels need to take notice of the trend how social media communities like Facebook are consuming the online environment. They can use this as a platform to encourage communication about their brand. Today hotel marketing is all about extending customer delight, which is beyond customer satisfaction, if a hotel has been able to extend this delight experience to the guest, it is definite to find expression in the online travel community and these work much better than traditional forms of advertising. Social media sites are better tools, allow far wider reach and provide easier access to information in everyday language (Young, 2007). A hotel could start its own blog by writing about how it offers differentiation. It is bound to grow from there and be used by the guests. it would also help the hotel to understand customer expectations and determine where the hotel needs to better its services. Another reason that hotels need to wake up and use the web2.0 tools is because a study by PhocusWright indicates that small group travel such as weddings, family reunions will be dominated by web based sourcing and booking of hotel rooms in blocks (Verret, 2008). Thus hotels need to develop a strategy for Action Plan to monitor and influence the online presence of the hotel. Tools like chatter Guard assist in monitoring every new online reference and review to the property. Google Alerts also send email every time the hotel has been referred in any online blog or review. The hotel must respond to online reviews especially when there is a negative review. Thus web2.0 is here to stay and every industry needs to be alert to this new media of communication. The hotel industry needs to especially alert as online communities and social media sites give reviews. A positive experience printed online fetches far better response and is a better marketing tool than traditional forms of advertising. Online communities and travel communities leave messages, share views, content and photos and these work better than hotel websites. The hotels need to read reviews and respond to these reviews. The hotels must also start their own blogs and invite guests to leave their reviews. The hotel blog needs to be transparent as there are many travel related online communities and sites that offer unbiased reviews. The web2.0 is going to ever more important in the future and the hotel industry cannot afford to ignore this technology. Guests practically live online and to have a competitive edge or to fight competition, the hotels need to tap into the concerns and the decision making process of these guests or the potential customers. References: BCS (2007). Social network sites - An SME business opportunity. Available from: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.8451 [accessed 05 August 2008] Blizzard (2008). Web 2.0 and Viral Marketing. Available from: http://www.blizzardinternet.com/blizzard-live/ [accessed 07 August 2008] Bray, J. (2006). Web 2.0 Begins to Sprout in Travel. 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Available from: http://www.hotelresource.com/trends-detail-sid-28886.html [accessed 08 August 2008] Wusteman, J. (2004). RSS: the latest feed. Library Hi Tech Volume 22 · Number 4 · 2004 · pp. 404-413 Young, A. E. (2007). Social Media Marketing and the Hotel Industry.. Available from: http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=2351 [accessed 06 August 2008] Read More