Jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, blindly

It can't be easy operating a business these days. Not only do CXOs have to worry about overheads, CAPEX, OPEX and profit margins, they also have to keep up with the latest tech developments to ensure their organization continues to be seen and heard where it matters.

Take Facebook and MySpace, for example. These social networking sites were built to allow communities to hang out, share photos and gossip about their daily lives.

These sites are not quite the usual platform where stuffy executives and serious enterprises network with each other, but various businesses have hooked up in cyberspace. Some do so to allow their own employees to use online communities as a collaboration platform, and to communicate with their business partners.

But there are others who park themselves on Facebook or MySpace to ensure their businesses have a presence in a community that's increasingly popular and crowded with consumers and potential clients.

I wonder, though, if these companies realize the true implications of doing so. It's not enough to label yourself an active participant simply because you've established a nicely-designed corporate profile page in a social networking site.

It takes a lot more than that.

Many organizations haven't put enough thought into what else they need to do to reap any real benefits from tapping Web 2.0 tools.

It's not quite enough to say you have a corporate blog, or that your company has floor space in Second Life, when your corporate bloggers have a new post only once every month and your virtual office or shop only has a virtual signboard on showcase.

In the business world, virtual or otherwise, why do anything at all if you're not going to allocate the necessary resources to do it well or take the time to understand what the venture really entails?