This is my last blog post for a while and therefore I would like to give an overview of interactivity in Web 2.0. Interacting with your public is your number one job if you are a corporate communicator or public relations specialist. New social media and Web 2.0 help create avenues of reaching these publics. Interactivity relies on a dialogue working between the corporation and the consumers/stakeholders. There are two types of interactivity as defined by the book Public Relations Online by Tom Kelleher:
- Functional Interactivity: focuses on the features and tools for interacting with your public. Examples] surveys, forums, blogs, RSS feeds, wikis
- Contingency Interactivity: describes the process where the sender and receiver in the line of communication have defined roles that are interchangeable. This means that once a message is sent by a company to a consumer, the consumer can send a message back to the company– developing a dialogue.
By interacting with consumers and stakeholders, corporations create and build lasting relationships that hopefully give their company a good reputation and word-of-mouth. With the amount of information that is posted on the Internet, both official and unofficial, it is important that companies know what is being said about their services and products so that they can respond intelligently.
The most important thing to remember about corporate interactivity is that behind all the innovations and gadgetry, at the core the most important thing for a business is their message and that it is being communicated through all mediums they are using. Just because a company can create a blog, wiki, interactive videos, or a social networking account doesn’t mean that it is the best idea. Every company’s social media usage should be determined by a case-by-case basis that emphasizes the corporate business strategy and message.
If you would like to continue learning about new trends in social media and about interactivity, look into Web 2.0 expo’s. The 2009 Expo just took place. Here is a link to the Expo’s blog.
I would love to hear your ideas and closing remarks as to what you think will be in the upcoming future in corporate Web 2.0 interactivity.
