Business broadband customers must make best use of social computing if they are to maximise their marketing power of the internet, experts have warned.

While in the past it may have been enough simply to have a website with static content and contact details, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, businesses must use the net to interact with their customer base.

"Content is no longer king, contact with the customer is king," said Rebecca Jennings, senior analyst with Forrester at London's Internet World conference.

"The medium is not the message, the customer response is the message and it is not what you say that is important, it is what the customers say to you."

The growth of business blogging is one example of companies interacting with their customers and staff on a frank and transparent basis.

Sun Microsystems' CEO Jonathan Schwartz has been routinely praised for his down to earth and informative writing style but other companies, such as Wal Mart and Sony, have been caught out, albeit unknowingly, trying to promote their products through fake blogs.

Glenn Drury, the UK Managing Director of Yahoo! Europe quantified the scale of growth of social computing: "There are currently one billion internet users in the world – in a couple of years it will be 40 per cent of the world's population.

He added: "You do not communicate with people now; you have to have a conversation."




Friday, 4th May 2007

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