The first few companies who asked you to be their friends on Facebook or stalk them on Twitter should be credited with having a great deal of marketing insight for recognizing the professional applications of the two Web 2.0 stalwarts.

Unfortunately, it seems that too many companies with social media tool icons cluttering their “Contact Us” pages are simply doing what they think needs to be done to remain relevant—trend watching merely for the sake of it.

In today’s hyper-sensitive world of Web users, inauthentic attempts to be “in-vogue” can be flushed out in megabytes per second. Thus, it’s critical for companies to understand that embracing Web 2.0 doesn’t mean creating an online profile; it means adopting a rapidly expanding and virtually lawless communication philosophy. Today’s Internet is the Wild Wild West of information. To safely settle down there, you better have a quick draw.

Did someone say “Dot-com bubble?”

A search for Web 2.0 on Google will return close to 10 million mentions. It’s a term a few years old already and for so many corporate marketers, is inaccurately translated into a Web site strategy that centers on the mantra, “We need to be on YouTube!” (or some such derivative).

It’s just not that simple.

It was not too long ago that some Web site service firms, in what even then came across as an overly contrived and wholly ineffective soft-sell approach, would reply to an inquisitive prospect by asking, “Does your company really need a Web site?” Now, think of that same account manager hanging up the phone and moments later steering a Euclid through your lobby with your domain name emblazoned on the hood next to a pin-up model. That’s a little of what Web 2.0 is about.

But it’s even bigger than that.

Web 2.0 is an ideology that at its root is based on the acceptance of the Internet as a living, breathing &emdash; and amorphous &emdash; part of our lives. It’s not only important for businesses to be active online, it’s mandatory. Web 2.0 is the Internet having finally learned to walk. And like everything else that just gets on its feet, it wants to run. And like a well-juiced track star, boy can it haul.

Gone are the Pets.com stigmas and other dot bomb euphemisms used to describe web-based entrepreneurism. In their stead smugly stands a veritable all-pro lineup of b-school case studies. The difference today is that the business cards aren’t exchanged at shallow martini soirees or venture capitalist open houses, they’re traded in virtual form online as discussions and feedback. Then, they’re written about, podcasted and broadcasted across a seemingly endless array of web-based communities, portals and mash-ups. Simple introductions become Internet handshakes and in mere moments, new professional networks are created.

Today, no one raises their eyebrows like a patronizing overachiever when one mentions they’re part of a Web start-up. It’s a great place to be—today’s Internet, and the Web 2.0 movement is going to make sure it stays that way.

What’s the big idea?

Web 2.0 is not simply the presence of a tangible, developed technology. It’s the spirit of interconnectivity, the collaboration of ideas and the power of content. Are Facebook and YouTube a part of it? Absolutely. As are Twitter, BitTorrent, Reddit, Digg and Delicious. But these tools are simply the vehicles for thoughts and philosophies that can be globally aggregated like never before. The world is now open source; and it’s an information free-for-all that will soon be challenging copyright law, usage rights and authorship on an immeasurable scale.

Web 2.0 is the understanding of how easy it is today to create a message and engage an audience for it. For example, blogs are designed to illicit conversation. So if you initiate one but soon let it erode into twice-monthly “I’m still here—just busy” and “Can you help with hosting costs?” posts, there isn’t a second fraction minute enough to measure the speed at which your message will disappear. The current is too fast to simply wade in.

Like a blog, your Web site content is not intended to be static either. It’s intended to be commented upon, edited and re-shaped by its users. Readers are becoming our editors and they have bottomless vats of red ink and more collective expertise than we ever imagined. Today’s web experience is participatory, so you better find a way to include those who stop by your site.

For example, maybe a user thinks your site’s font is too small. Better let them increase it. And you should let them decide when to push play on your product demonstration video. If they like what you have to say don’t make them copy and paste a link or “e-mail this page,” allow them to bookmark it with StumbleUpon or FURL.

Even though its tools should not define the new World Wide Web, one better know how to use them. Social media sites, once considered a giant, Web-based slumber party where middle-school girls went to virtually freeze each other’s training bras, are now mandatory networking tools for active professionals. Once transported online, the sphere of influence we once commanded under the dusty plastic lid of a Rolodex can become a blindingly fast virtual six-degrees-of-separation game. Messages from people who you haven’t spoken to in years can land in your inbox in moments. LinkedIn indeed.

If you can manage your sphere and understand how to control its girth using the tools we have today, then you can successfully embrace the Internet’s second generation and leverage it to unimaginable benefit.

Office 2.0

For companies truly looking to engage Web 2.0, understand there is no going back. Being out there in today’s Internet means almost instantaneous and hard to track global brand streaming.

Know that in a single afternoon, your communication director’s daily blog post could trigger the Technorati feed of a disgruntled customer in Peoria who just had a really bad day and before you can say Godaddy.com, www.yourcompanysucks.com has been registered and your logo with a red cross through it is the automatically updated Avatar above that person’s message board posts and blog replies worldwide. In the time it takes to punch F5 on the keyboard, your brand has just felt the wrath of Web 2.0.

In that same vein, remember to consider the social networks of your employees and what they bring to your company. In some cases, you may not be hiring just one person. Oh sure, the new guy in HR needs only one phone extension, but his social bandwidth might just need its own department. And that power deserves to be embraced.

David Armano, in a recent blog post on AdAge.com, called employees with recognized personal blog personas “brandividuals.” Essentially, it refers to the impact a singular person’s online impact can have on their company. A popular blogger and Web 2.0 disciple, Armano believes that brandividuality is rapidly increasing and that companies will start finding new ways to leverage it.

It’s important then, for corporate marketers to stand firm on brand policy when rolling out social initiatives and that they be prepared for everything that’s in store. You can’t tread lightly. Like the infrequent blog post or scant Facebook profile, weak online roots will only make your initiative wither and die. You can’t just build it and assume they’ll come. Like any marketing effort, your approach to Web 2.0 needs a valid mission. Again, today’s Web is participatory; engage an audience, and reward them with compelling, original content.

While users demand an authentic voice, management can become challenged. Specifically, just how far off their bloggers should the corporate thumb be lifted? It’s a delicate balance.

Still, corporate adoption of Web 2.0 does not call for or promote a mindset so liberal as to suggest employees should get away with public brand tainting. It’s more about the simple freedom of staff being able to sustain their online presence while maintaining the now extremely coveted status of “employed.”

Also, companies need to keep in mind the business value of their Web 2.0 initiatives, especially in terms of marketing.

Who is your audience? What do they wear, spend money on, listen to and read? Today’s marketing approach demands that when you find that out, you advertise on their favorite designer’s e-mail newsletter, sponsor Web searches of their keywords and become a fan of their favorite band on Facebook.

Customers are sharing personal data like never before. We don’t need survey takers outside JC Penney or dinnertime phone calls. Traditional data gathering is becoming easier because we don’t have to ask anymore. Web 2.0 is giving it all to us quicker than we can make use of it.

The power of online conversation is not only relegated to personal and external company content &emdash; it can also be used to improve internal operations.

Today’s web-based collaboration and information aggregators can enable personnel to swap and comment on company documents in seconds and track who has edited what, and when. These are powerful office tools that were once granted the market leeway to cost thousands of dollars for monthly licenses and clunky user interfaces. Today’s online software is sleek, light and surprisingly reliable. Google Docs, Writeboard, Zoho, WuFoo and Backpack are just a few examples among a plethora of very competent document and project management applications available for free on the Internet.

There are certainly skeptics out there, professing that all this video and personal information online will lead to nothing but the continued demise of our social consciousness and a utter void of empathy for the well being of others. Businesses will forget how to properly serve customers and the “business with a handshake” mentality will only be recollected in Andy Griffith re-runs.

Well, they said the same thing about Elvis, Larry Flynt and casual Fridays. Somehow, the world survived.

Understandably, like every social lurch forward, things can be a little jarring at first. However, the Internet has demonstrated itself to be the most viable platform for business innovation since the assembly line. And much like Mr. Ford’s contraption, the Internet is simply the means by which we’ll make the assembly of ideas so much more efficient. But this stream of parts doesn’t just flow from one end of a factory to another; it stretches across latitudes, spans longitudes and accommodates the input of hundreds of millions of motivated experts working around the clock. It is after all, the World Wide Web, Part Two.