Some 54% of enterprise-size organizations use Web 2.0 technologies, as do 74% of companies with fewer than 500 employees, according to a study Web 2.0 technology adoption and the future of social-media initiatives in enterprises.
Among the highlights of the study, “Trends in Adopting Web 2.0 for the Enterprise in 2007,” released by Awareness (via FASTforward):
- Blogs are the most-used Web 2.0 technology (87% of respondents), followed by communities, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking.
- The most successful are blogs (44% of respondents), communities (42%) and wikis (39%).
- 96% say all Web 2.0 technologies they’ve used have been successful; 83% reporting no clear failures.
- The greatest obstacle to Web 2.0 deployment is limited internal resources.
- Some 64% of those using Web 2.0 technologies rely on a combination of internal- and external-facing media/tools.
Among the benefits of external-facing social media, according to the study:
- Increased customer engagement: 68%
- Increased brand awareness & loyalty: 64%
- Effective market research: 58%
Among the benefits of internal-facing social-media technologies, according to the study:
- Improved communication, collaboration: 91%
- Locating experts within the company: 81%
- Improving knowledge management: 78%
“The Awareness research found that…28% of organizations with over 500 employees have budgets greater than $50,000 for web 2.0 tools or social media. The top tools planned are blogs and wikis (56%) but many are also planning to deploy online communities,” writes FASTforward’s Bill Ives.
