DEFINITION: WEB 2.0 is more collaborative, user-generated, and social than the previous version of the World Wide Web.

In the early days, content flowed mainly one way: from websites to users. Web 2.0 enables non-tech users to create content and form communities of content creators. Users don't just consume on the Web, they participate—thanks to simple tools that let them comment, review, rate, rank, tag, publish, and share content, all without web programming skills or HTML knowledge.

Content now flows every which way and back again—it’s a conversation.

WEB 2.0 ENGAGEMENT. According to comScore, a majority of U.S. American adults who were online in 2007 participated in the Web 2.0 conversation by:

Participating in social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik, hi5, and Plaxo. FriendFeed and Skimmer aggregate social net activities into a "lifestream." You can easily create your own social network with Ning (very hot!). Or you can add social networking features to your website using the Google Friend Connect gadget.

Blogging (setting up a blog is easy using free services such as Blogger and WordPress.com; or cheap services with premium features, like TypePad)

Micro-blogging (even easier with Twitter, Tumblr, and fidj.it). See Twitter sidebar in right margin. You can build your own niche micro-blog community with Twingr and Yonkly.

Commenting on other people's blogs, which can generate extended dialog, relationships, and even communities. (Caution: Your comments may be preserved in a database and "syndicated" by services like Disqus.)

Contributing information to Wikipedia; reviewing books on Amazon.com

Using wikis and forums to collaborate with colleagues, clients, or any membership group, thanks to free wiki-building tools like Wikispaces, WetPaint, PBwiki, Google Groups, and Google Sites

Rating, forwarding, sharing, social bookmarking, and tagging digital content with tools such as Digg, Delicious (formerly del.icio.us), BookmarkG, and Yahoo! Buzz.

Publishing original, rich (multi-media) content such as articles, white papers, photos, and videos, on their own websites or blogs; on "citizen journalism" sites such as Newsvine, EyeMobile, iReport (CNN), and UReport (Fox); or on community media sites such as Flickr, Photobucket, and YouTube.

Building their own dynamic websites—with integrated blogging and social networking features—using free, open-source content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.org and Drupal; or free hosted CMS such as Microsoft Office Live. Also, many popular domain registrars (including Network Solutions, BlueHost, and GoDaddy) provide affordable hosting and site-building tools for beginners.

Perspective: we still live offline
Web 2.0 evangelists and buzz-meisters might lead you to believe that traditional media are doomed and you should focus your PR strategy on social media. That may be true someday in some industries, but not yet. Before you invest in a social media campaign, integrate it into your strategic marketing plan.

Engage
You can begin participating in the Web 2.0 conversation by publishing informative content on your website or blog. Don't neglect to use plug-in tools like "digg this" and "share this" so that visitors can "hyper-syndicate" your content for you—that is, spread it virally around to various web-based publishing platforms.

But you don’t need your own website or a blog to participate and have your ideas hyper-syndicated. You can post thoughtful comments on other people’s blogs, forums, online communities, and professional networking sites like LinkedIn. In some cases your comments will be commented on, shared, referred to, discussed, rated, ranked, and virally disseminated. Search engines rank comments as well as other digital content, and news media sometimes use commenters as sources. Providing your e-mail address with your comments offers opportunities for audience members to contact you. Providing your website URL (which some blogs allow) invites people to visit your website and may improve your site’s search-engine ranking.

You don’t have to plunge in head-first to join the Web 2.0 conversation. Start by listening to the conversation, and discover what your clients and customers are talking passionately about. Read a few industry- or profession-related blogs each week (search for blogs on Technorati, Icerocket, or BlogPulse), and look for opportunities to contribute comments. Join a professional networking site like LinkedIn or Plaxo, and participate (don’t just wait for something to happen). Don’t be surprised if you have fun with it and find it necessary to impose limits on the time you spend networking online. Post a widget like one of these on the bio page of your website:

Diplomacy
Monitor what is being said about you and your firm on blogs, and the Wikipedia especially. Use monitoring tools like Google Alerts and Factiva. If you find inaccurate information or defamatory claims, be careful how you respond. Work quickly and diplomatically to correct factual errors, but approach the process as a collaboration, in which you are a participant rather than an enforcer. If you threaten, or try to take control of the conversation, you will be overwhelmed by indignant, irreverent, intentionally disruptive hordes, and your efforts will backfire. Remember, opinions are usually protected by the First Amendment.

Your contributions to the Web 2.0 conversation should be authentic. Don't pretend to be someone you're not, and don't use a surrogate to convey your message for you in an attempt to appear unbiased. Wal-Mart and Whole Foods were pilloried in the blogosphere and business press for publishing disingenuous content (see sidebar at right). Such is the community-intensive nature of Web 2.0 that your attempt to deceive may result in a blogstorm of reproach.