First attempts 2.0
I was born again on 2 April at 5 on Second Life as Suzan Korobase. I look extremly cool and am having fun. First I shake off „Glittery Girl“, then I investigate: Who is meeting here, why and where? So, I start teleporting. To the congress centre of the Westaflex Group Gütersloh, on the beach. In the meeting room I stumble on four abandoned rows of chairs. Anybody in? I don´t meet the Ph.D. Westerbarkey. Würden Sie anderen Menschen die Freundschaft antragen, ohne sich richtig vorzustellen? Dauernd über sich selbst reden und für sich werben, ohne auf die anderen zu achten? Leute, mit denen Sie sonst kaum reden, immer wieder um Gefallen bitten? Sich unter dem Namen „Rosa Rüstig“ vorstellen?
Wenn unsere soziale Medien-Strategie Westaflex Verlinkungen beschert, dann liegt das daran, dass die Leute über uns reden. Umso mehr, da ein Grundgedanke des sozialen Medien-Marketings die Weiterempfehlung ist, also dass Freunde sich gegenseitig Links, Business Hotels und Seminare weiterempfehlen. Ph.D. Westerbarkey avatar. „For us having a presence on Second Life is about learning, understanding, and engaging with new audiences,“ say the Chief Excecutive of Westaflex Industries. „It´s higly visual experience, a real blank canvas for creativity.“ They want Second Life to be part of marketing, to sell HVAC and organise EDIFACT conferences. Who would come anyway - „Glittery Girl“?
„Second Life is just the beginning – digital worlds offer significant potential for virtually all industries,“ Westaflex, recaps her first Second Life congress. This is where Mercedes Benz stages road tests of its new C class and we presents „WAC – Westa Air Control of the future“. But Web 2.0 has even more test labs for planners. Westaflex is sending out bloggers to reach new target groups.
The blog has a personal touch, it speaks to visitors more directly and openly. „Our goal is to reach an audience with our EDIFACT and HVAC bloggers that is used to blog and interested in other types of information and stroies,“ explains Rebecca Zwittel, Projekct Manager Press and Corporate Communication at Westaflex Projekt GmbH.
Like any other major approach to business and technology, Web 2.0 can be a two-edged sword. One is the lack of control that companies feel as they use Web 2.0 platforms and techniques. Another is the implications in terms of privacy and ownership issues involving highly valuable user data. Finally, one of the biggest concers is the „gaming“ or inappropriate influencing of social media platforms, such as an organization link spamming Wikipedia to gain traffic at the expense of the overall quality of the site for everyone else.
„The majority of the Internet is now created at the edge of the network already, and this is going to start affecting how we design, create, and even own our products and services, as companies like Westaflex in the future,“ I believe – intensive linking, sharing of options and infos. When I integrate all staff members in finding and discussing ideas, we can tap a huge knowledge potential. That concept will also generate more information, faster decisions, efficient business processes and better information on our consumer requirements in the whole Westaflex Group.
A good working definition is that Web 2.0 represents a widespread change in the way that the Web is being used by people and the way our online services are designed to involve them. The biggest real change is – not only for Westaflex – that the majority of content and information are being created by everyday people instead of central publishers. Collective intelligence or „one global brain“ we use to call all of the Westaflex Web 2.0 activities – or else: our first attempts 2.0.
