Joshua Kahn's List: Social Tech stats and trends

In 2007, we began surveying companies on their use of Web 2.0 technologies. When we compare the results over these three years, we have seen a steady increase in the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies by employees for internal collaboration and for communicating with customers. Interestingly, the percentage of companies using these technologies for connecting with business partners and suppliers has remained relatively constant over the three years. (Click here for the findings from our latest survey.)

Across all categories, the use of Web 2.0 technologies by employees for internal purposes has increased from 53% in 2007 to 65% of respondents in 2009. The largest components of growth have come from using Web 2.0 to develop new products / services internally, to manage internal knowledge and to reinforce the company culture via tools such as internal social networking applications. The companies who have embedded these tools in their day-to-day activities and processes have seen the largest impact by improving communication across silos to reduce duplicate work and leverage experts in other areas.

Improving customer interactions has been another goal of Web 2.0 tools, with growth from 48% in 2007 to 58% of respondents this year. The growth in this area came from improving customer service and marketing engagement. There are some differences across sectors here, with technical fields (e.g., computer hardware providers) having the most mature customer communities, which do a number of things, from providing product support, testing new product ideas and improving targeted marketing. However, given their broad applicability, we are seeing these uses migrate across industries, especially toward consumer packaged goods and services. Companies have repeatedly found that using Web 2.0 technologies is an effective way to cheaply reach a broad set of customers. While many adopters are concerned about unfavorable opinions expressed in these semi-public forums, this risk seems to be easily mitigated via part-time modera