Web 2.0 and the 4 Cs

by: Idris Mootee

Web 2.0 is a loaded term that is unarguably subject to enormous amount of hype but now also a lot of serious corporate interest. Different people define Web 2.0 in different ways, which are often confusing and is understandable (same as branding, strategy and many other words). I have written a lot the last few weeks on Web 2.0 and Media 2.0.

However, the very fact that Web 2.0 is touted as being so many things underlines its strategic importance and implications for business. Web 2.0 encapsulates everything Media 2.0, Marketing 2.0 and Brand 2.0, which is best approached by breaking it down into the 4Cs: connectivity, community, conversations and most important of all co-creation.

We will be running a Web 2.0 boot camp for our clients in the next couple of weeks and these are the key themes which I will share each of them here:

• Web 2.0 means many things, but all anchor upon the 4Cs.
• Understanding the Web 2.0 customer value chain
• Introducing the concepts of "social utilities", "social shopping" and "socialcasting"
• Opportunities and pitfalls of leveraging social networks
• The evolution of ecommerce and the four scenarios
• Transmedia storytelling and the new role of branding     

The last one is the most interesting one as I will be showing videos and films that bring out ethnographic insights that illuminate many of our thinking. We have one strong commonality in that we all have our stories to tell, there were barriers to put these stories in a verbal manner and can be stored and shared, not to mention the efforts to find people who are willing to listen. The two most popular ways in the past is 1/go to the pub (old English tradition) and have a few beers and start telling strangers your life stories or 2/ pay $250 an hour for someone whether he/she is a psychiatrist or an escort (a Geisa as in old Japanese tradition) to listen to you talking. The exciting part is with Web 2.0 it is now becoming a rituals in our everyday lives. Exploring new ways to tell them and actually taking the time out to "listen" can bring happiness by recognizing relationships and likenesses on a human level, across continents. Today we have so many new opportunities to using a mix of media to tell, explore, reveal, and aggregate stories in such ways that make us feel connected even if you’re alone. The concept of "long tail" makes a lot of sense here. 

This whole transmedia digital storytelling are changing the ways our societal behavior too, it is becoming a "social tool". People have the ability to build interpretive movies very simply and to lay sound tracks around the content and mesh them up. They can easily condition or "sculpture" the context around the content. The serious interplay between context and content is key to what film – and rich media in general – are about. Consumers can now create an emotional scaffolding around a story so that it connects first to the gut and then to the head? That’s why we are seeing this continuous growth in social networks. The question is what is the role of brands here? (Illustrations by John Wall for Idea Couture Inc.)

World-wide visitors to social-networking sites in September, in thousands, and change from a year earlier

Source: comScore World Metrix 2007

Original post: http://mootee.typepad.com/innovation playground/2007/10/web-2o-and-the-.html