Without a doubt you've been hearing about how Web 2.0 is changing how people use the Internet. You may be wondering, "What does that mean for my business?".  What is a Blog?  What's an RSS Feed?  Why should I care about a Photo Gallery?  These are all questions many business have been asking themselves.  

Fortunately, now is the perfect time to be asking these questions.  By learning about these new technologies, and harnessing them for you're own business, you can still be on the leading edge of online business technology.

Blogs

When you think of a Blog, you're probably thinking of you're daughter's online diary where she talks about how much she hates homework.  Blog is short for Web Log, and started as a way to keep an online journal that everyone else can see.  However, many businesses are discovering that this can be a useful tool to keep in touch with their customers.  Instead of posting about the funny thing that happened in science class today, you can post News about your business, or product updates.  

A common problem with providing this type of information to your customers, is making sure they get it when they need it.  It's likely that your customers don't check your website everyday, just incase there is some news.  This brings us to the next topic, RSS Feeds.

RSS Feeds

RSS is very simple, in fact it stands for Really Simple Syndication.  An RSS feed is a way of providing your content in a format that is readable by other applications.  For example, you can have an RSS feed for you Blog that can be read by a news reader.  Many people use these news readers to automatically gather information from various sources.  This is much easier than manually checking each site. It's more likely that a customer will subscribe to your feed, than bookmark your site and check it every day.

If you're not using RSS for your own business, you should at least be using it to keep up yourself.  Try out Google Reader, and then check to see if your favorite sites have feeds.

Forums

You've probably come across an online forum when searching for information.  They are great for building communities around a particular topic, and letting strangers with similar interests find each other.  Forums can also be a great way to keep in touch with your customers.  Creating a forum for your business gives your customers a place they can ask questions, and help each other.  Many times you'll have a particular customer that is very enthusiastic about your product, and will volunteer their time to participate in the forum discussions.  The hidden benefit is that all of the discussions are kept for as long as you like, and you get FAQ's for free.

Forums can also have RSS feeds so you and your customers can see new activity.

Photo Galleries

Photo Galleries are not just for uploading pictures of your last vacation.  People want to see your product, so why not show it to them?  Real Estate Agents can upload house pictures, store owners can show off their goods, artists can upload their works, and restaurants can display their dishes.  There are so many possibilities, but the bottom line is people just like to look at pictures.

Products like Doodlekit can bring all these features together and create a living breathing website, which is one of the primary attributes of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. 

These tools keep you closer to your customer, and welcome their feedback.  Not only will you improve your online presence, but you'll have a lot of fun in the process.