web 2.0?by Malcolm Fraser

The Internet is a boundless universe of opportunity for just about any organization. For most, this is the biggest problem. There are too
many ideas.

Many business leaders have a hard time understanding, evaluating and deciphering great ideas brought to the table by their IT and Marketing experts. Consequently, they are missing opportunities to win in this quickly evolving media marketplace. From SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, to social networking tools like Facebook—too many choices and a tight budget, are at a crossroads.

So, let’s keep it simple. Here are a few questions that will help your organization evaluate these opportunities:

• What is the relationship between this strategy or campaign and our short term corporate objectives?
  

  If the project does not have the potential to contribute to your goals for this year, perhaps it needs to be rethought.
  
  

• Who is responsible for managing the content and results once we launch our new (insert Web 2.0 strategy of choice here)?
  

  Unlike most traditional marketing projects, web-based programs require dedicated resources and a budget to maintain, moderate and measure after launch. Don’t launch a Facebook site without knowing that someone is going to check it each day and moderate any response or question generated by your frienemies.
  
  

• How will we measure the success of this project?
  

  It still amazes me how many organizations do not review basic website traffic statistics. If you are not going to measure, how will you know if the project is successful? Failure is a great outcome, as long as you know why you failed.

• Do we have the right knowledge at the table?
  

  While this may sound a bit self-serving, do you have someone with enough web marketing experience on hand to review the implementation plan for obvious shortcomings? There are many examples of public-facing web projects that have backfired because they don’t understand online marketing culture.