Yesterday on the Sysomos blog, my colleague Mark Evans wrote a great post about what's in it for consumers if they "like" or follow your brand in social media? Some people will do that out of a real love for a specific brand, but most brands are trying to get anyone and everyone to also "like" them. But what are brands doing to earn that? Some aren't doing anything besides just asking you to "like" and follow them. This idea ties in perfectly with a picture I took this weekend.

This weekend I went out for a friend's birthday to a bar I've never been to before in the Toronto area (the name isn't important). What was interesting about this bar was that up on the wall was a giant poster, which I took a picture of because I thought it was semi humorous and I'd never seen a poster quite like this one before. This is the poster that was in the bar:

I thought it was semi clever of the bar to have a big reminder to check-in on Foursquare, Gowalla or Yelp. I would have checked in anyways (I need the points so I can beat my friends), but perhaps some people wouldn't have thought about it until they saw this sign. So, I checked in and... and nothing. That was the end of it.

I've seen posters and signs in places before reminding people to check-in, but usually it's because there's a deal to be had with that check-in or at least something for the mayor of that specific place. In this case though there was nothing beyond merely checking in. I thought that a bit strange.

What does my check-in do for that bar besides possibly a tiny bit of publicity to those that check where I've been on Foursquare (as I don't push my check-ins to Twitter or Facebook or anything). You would think that since they were clearly asking the pubic for a favour, by asking them to check-in, there would be some sort of "reward" or something to go along with that check-in, but there wasn't.

This goes back to my original question; what did this brand do to earn me checking in? I'm not really a fan of the bar in question, so I didn't do it out of my love for them. There was no deal for anyone who checks-in, mayor or otherwise. So what's in it for the average consumer to actual check-in? In this case nothing and I learned my lesson.

This also goes back to the Sysomos post from yesterday. Brands need to offer something to get people really engaged with them. It doesn't have to be a free something-or-other or even a discount, but there should be something to make us want to engage with these brands. Otherwise they're just asking us all to do some free advertising for them with absolutely nothing in return. That's not really a way to keep people engaged with your brand, that's a way to try to get people to advertise for you for free whether they really want to or not.

So here's my question I'm going to ask and you can answer in the comment section; What are you offering your audience in return for them taking time to engage with you? Content? Discounts? Engaging conversation? Anything?

Or, am I just being petty?

I know that I said this blog would look at how communication professionals are using web 2.0, but before I really start posting on the hows, I thought I'd start with a post about the why. Meaning, how important this new version of the internet is.

I actually decided to do this post before another one I had planned because of two interesting pieces of information I had passed along to me this week revolving around the importance of social media in the current world and to communication professionals. Both of these items take the "buzz" about web 2.0 and turn it into factual numbers.

First is a video called "The Social Media Revolution". This video has been making it's way around the internet this week and is extremely interesting. The video uses real numbers to show just how quickly web 2.0 has been adopted by people world-wide and how integrated it has become in our lives.

Check it out:

The second thing I saw this week was a study that a friend and (sort of) colleague passed my way that shows how US companies are adapting to the rise of web 2.0. This study shows that companies are starting to realize the potential that web 2.0 has at reaching their audiences and consumers.

Some of the interesting findings are:

• Social networking is currently the second most employed tactic by companies after email marketing - especially in smaller sized companies
• A majority of companies prioritize social networking higher than their own website content management
• Social networking, blogging, podcasting, RSS and microblogging skills and knowledge are looked at as high priority items for job applicants to have in the communications field
• Most aspects of web strategies are handled by public relations professionals

However, the study also points out that while web 2.0 and social medias have become very important, there is still a large problem with being able to actually evaluate the ROI (return on investment) that these mediums are yielding.

Feel free to view the entire study (it's not that long, I promise) here:

2009 Digital Readiness Report: Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills

Now that you can hopefully see how important web 2.0 is to a current day communications professional, the subsequent entries in this blog will look at how they are currently using it.