The WorkLight Blog

You may have seen Harvard Business School’s latest research into whether social networking affects purchasing behavior.

The article  analyzes the behavior of 208 users of a social network and quantizes social purchasing behavior with varying results -

[The] social effect is zero for 48 percent of the users, negative for 12 percent of the users, and positive for 40 percent of the users.

Yet, the study also found that those users that have a “moderate” presence in the social media world try to keep up with their friends’ latest shopping spree. The net result for retailers is 5 percent increase in revenues from these individuals, according to the research.

This raises the very important question - why aren’t more people buying products and services prompted by friends’ behavior via popular social media? These media are viral in nature so what is the missing piece?

The answer IMHO lies in the critical moment of truth - when you put your wallet where your mouse is. Many of these social platforms do not allow retailers to offer consumers a direct way to purchase products on the social network, personal homepage, blog network, etc.

If a social network user is prompted by a friend’s recent purchase, s/he can only act on it with a redirect to the retailer’s website. As any retailer will swear it - this is the moment where you lose the majority of your prospects.

Companies looking to generate revenue by offering a social purchasing experience, must be able to embed that “BUY” button in a secure widget on Facebook, Twitter, iGoogle, iPhone, Vista widgets, blogs, and other popular social media.

For some tips and recommendations for retailers on how to capitalize on social purchasing power, check out our latest report on Secure Widgets in the online retail world. You can download for free and read up on trends, industry stats and what the analysts are thinking.

And if you work for an online retail, I invite you to answer a quick 4-question survey on what your company is doing with widgets and social media. We’ll use your input in a future release.

Now, let me tell you about a great deal I found online …

This a shameless plug, but I just couldn’t resist the pun in the title.

We have just won the AlwaysOn 100 Award, for the second year in a row! Read all about it.

That is all

In today’s environment, companies need to find new ways to get to their customers. There is simply way too much information out there on the web, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult for companies to engage customers.

The banking world is no different. A successful bank knows how to be there when the customers are at a point-of-decision, or have some pressing needs. If you’re not there at that moment, you quickly drop down the priority ladder and lose business.

You may have seen the latest figures on the growth of e-Banking from Finextra – half of US adults who are online use the Internet to manage their finances. If you’re reading this blog post on your iPhone RSS reader, or got here through my twitter (@yonster), these figures may seem low. But consider that the figure stood at about %27 early 2007. Simply put there is a growing need of people who are online to get things done on their own terms.

This is where social media comes in full throttle, with 230 million users on Facebook, over 1 billion smartphones and iPhones expected in 2010, 100 million AIR installations (and the list goes on). This is where people are spending their time online. They are sharing information and connecting to friends and colleagues. They are connecting to brand names and making purchasing decisions. This is where the bank needs to be, front and center.

How do you do it? How can banks create a unique presence on all these social media and Web 2.0 services? Who’s leading the pack on this front?

To answer some of these tough questions, we’re pulling in Forrester Research’s Emmet Higdon and WorkLight’s David Lavenda. If you’ve got some time off SXSW, I invite you to attend the webinar, taking place tomorrow Tuesday MAR 17 @ 11AM ET.

Higdon and Lavenda will talk about the business benefits of using social media as an e-banking channel, address the challenges that organizations must tackle to rollout a Web 2.0 presence, and lay down some practical steps and guidelines for financial institutions.

And here’s a freebie from Netbanker – list of banks currently on Twitter. Citi, Bank of America, Wachovia and others have made the Twitterdome their alternate customer assistance line. Isn’t it time for social media to become their new online business channel?

I recently read a new article on harnessing social pressure for business use, published in the Harvard Business Review.

Interestingly enough, the main conclusion of the article is not that friends’ recommendations makes for more powerful marketing (which another HBR article addresses). Instead the article goes deeper and confirms that peer pressure has up-sell/cross-sell potential.

In other words, you are more likely to purchase or make a payment or even download content or an application, if you are made aware that others have done so before you. Now, if you identify yourself with these ‘others’, then you are even more likely to do so.

What does this have to do with Web 2.0 banking?

Well, as Bank of America’s 2 million strong mobile users will be glad to point out - “If You Build It, They Will Come, and So will Their Friends”. Not only has mobile banking usage increased dramatically at Bank of America, but it also delivered on driving innovative technology - over 40% of mobile users at BoA use the iPhone or iTouch.

If you think about it, just putting the news about this successful campaign out there has likely contributed to more mobile banking adoption among its customers.

These days, when companies have tighter budgets, the buying power for such emerging technologies ends up in the hands of IT departments. Yet, do these executives truly know how to mobilize social pressure to increase adoption of their retail offerings?

Perhaps some do, but the marketing know-how still resides within the marketing, retail and e-commerce departments. Clearly, it is time for marketing and ecommerce executives to step up and prioritize those Web 2.0 techonologies that have the greatest potential for Social Pressure Marketing - widgets, desktop gadgets, mobile apps, social networks,  and more.

After a long hiatus, our blog is back in action. As many of you know, the day-to-day business seems to take a its toll. And yes, we’ve fallen prey to believing the business is more important than the “proverbial conversation”. Silly us.

So nothing better than to rekindle our blog with the coming of the new year, and the launch of a new study we’ve put together. This time we’ve focused on trends, statistics and recommendations to businesses on using widgets and social networks for business. We’ve examined the following trends and compiled a pretty hefty load of statistics and Web 2.0 usage data -

Consumer use of Web 2.0 technologies, including gadgets and widgets, social networking sites, and user-generated content, continues to skyrocket.

Initially designed for purely-consumer purposes like online social interaction, Web 2.0 tools and services are now extending into the business world as well. This is to be expected, since companies understand they can do more business with customers in the places that customers are already spending their time.

As consumers spend increasingly more time on the Internet, they are finding more utility in what is easily available to them online. Accordingly the proliferation of business gadgets is growing at a rapid pace.

Security remains the number one challenge to adoption of gadgets and widgets for business.

Download the new study here.

Stay tuned for more blogging action from this point on.

Oh and I thought you’d like to know that Network World has selected WorkLight as one of the 10 top startups to watch in 2009. Nice.

What does your bank have in common with Facebook? Nothing spectacular just yet, but if the latest analyst report from Celent is right on the money, then you will soon be able to pay that credit card bill or get a loan while chatting things up with your Facebook friends or checking out sports news on iGoogle.

That’s right, Web 2.0 is coming to your local bank, which makes a lot of sense for both banks and customers. Ever since the explosion of online retail banking, the market has been saturated with similar limited-capabilities websites. So much so, that there is really not much differentiation between the different websites out there.

Meanwhile, customers want full control of their personal finances - to be able to access account information when, how and wherever they want to.

And so, as banks try to find meaningful ways to engage customers, tools such as an iGoogle or MyYahoo personal banking gadget will soon be available at your fingertips.

In fact, financial research firm Celent has recently issued a report on the state of Banking with Web 2.0, reaching some very interesting conclusions -

• 12-18 months before Web 2.0 Banking is reality - banks are already trying to figure out the right technology to offer these tools to consumers, though there is still much work to be done especially as the banking industry continues to experience a downturn.
• Security is critical - an absolute prerogative for any financial institution implementing a new technology, which often brings with it emerging security issues. One industry forum that’s tackling this problem is the Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum.
• Advanced banking web 2.0 tools to hit the market in late 2008 - which means that some vendors have already had a head start (shameless self-promotion).

(Get the full report here.)

So if Web 2.0 has anything to do with it, you’ll likely be reaching for your mouse, instead of your wallet, sooner than you know it.

IT and business executives are looking for the real business value behind Web 2.0.  In fact, a recently released Forrester survey of 262 enterprise IT professionals reveals that 63 % expect to see Web 2.0 technologies have a moderate or substantial impact on the business.

So what do tools such as Facebook, iGoogle, secure RSS, desktop gadgets, social bookmarking and tagging and other Web 2.0 services bring to the corporate table?

Simply put, they provide companies with the ability to engage customers, channels and partners where they spend their time online. Customers can manage accounts and transactions on their own personal online turf, customized as they see fit. Business channels and distributors can keep track of upcoming marketing activities and business opportunities by easily and securely tapping into corporate databases. Likewise, partners can exchange business-critical info through secure social networks that are intuitive and rife with new ideas and connections.

The Financial Times just published an interesting piece about the business potential in this approach, penned by WorkLight’s very own David Lavenda. -

Think about it this way – enterprise applications contain information that runs the business, while Web 2.0 tools provide the “looking glass” to see the information that is timely, relevant, and critical for business. The key lies in connecting these two worlds to drive more business, securely.

Read more here.

Just came back from the wonderful city of Varese, Italy, where the International Forum on Enterprise 2.0 tackled some of the major issues in the space.

It was great to see an interesting collection of people from across the world at the show - Thomas Vander Wal, Stewart Mader, Laurence Lock Lee, Luis Suarez, Norman Lewis, Ran Shribman and David Terrar. You can catch some of the tweets and off-beat discussion on Summize.

Even more interesting was the high turnout of top business professionals looking to learn how to utilize Web 2.0 tools for business benefit. The Italian business ecosystem is normally characterized by a traditional business culture. Yet, interestingly enough, at the event, the first of its kind in Italy, there were representatives of top companies across a range of industries (auto, pharma, etc). These are companies that typically have a very closed-conservative corporate culture, not your typical early-adopter types.

This may very well be a sign of good things to come.

If you are contemplating incorporating Web 2.0 into your workflow or corporate environment, you should have been yesterday at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston . In one of the more exciting sessions of the day, Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School, tackled Web 2.0 issues in the enterprise together with people who have “been there, done it and doing it tomorrow”.

Besides driving home the general message behind the new technology, and how it is affecting business, each one of the panel members provided a simple tip to keep in mind, following their own successful implentation of Web 2.0 tools and solutions in the organization:

• “Follow the JFDI methodology - Just Fricking Do It. If you try Web 2.0 you’ll realize it’s not that scary after all” - Simon Revell, Manager of Enterprise 2.0 Technology Development, Pfizer Ltd.
• “Go big and audacious in Web 2.0 deployments beyond small targeted deployments of specific tools” - Pete Fields, Senior Vice President, eCommerce Division, Wachovia
• “Get the right people to develop the Web 2.0 tools you are planning on using” - Ned Lerner, Director of Tools and Technology, Sony Computer Entertainment
• “The hardest thing to do is give up control, but you should fight for your life against closed spaces” - Don Burke, Intellipedia Doyen, CIA
• “Social me first - pick up Web 2.0 tools to try on your own and then gradually people in the organization will start to see the light” - Sean Dennehy, Intellipedia Evangelist, CIA

Read more about the dialogue that ensued between these Web 2.0 mavericks in this InformationWeek article.

I just read a(nother) great post on ReadWriteWeb, where Sarah Perez says business adoption of web 2.0 is happening right now. Her conclusion echoes Forrester’s message - any business which has failed to get in line, will lose out.

Interestingly enough she points to a recent 60 Minutes story that focuses on how Millennials are changing the corporate culture –

It’s fascinating to watch, and bit quirky to see how “old media” tries to cover a “new-media” phenomenon. In my opinion, the report slightly exaggerates when describing parents’ involvement in their kids’ professional world. But the underlining message is spot-on – the Millennials are coming!

It’s great to finally see that businesses are coming to the same conclusion – in order to retain and attract the incoming tech savvy workforce, and encourage collaboration and increased productivity, Web 2.0 should be shown through the coveted corporate front doors.

In fact, Gartner has just announced the top ten disruptive technologies to affect business over the next five years, and guess what? Social software and social networking, which are just a couple of elements in Enterprise 2.0 toolbox, are on the list.

Like it or not, it’s primetime for Enterprise 2.0