Early in my career, I worked for a company that provided broadcast faxing (yes, those annoying travel and restaurant deals that scrolled through your machine every morning). As communications technology evolved, email, instant messaging, and texting were about to relegate fax machines to the proverbial burn pit. We found ourselves looking over the edge of the obsolescence cliff—and we had no idea what to do.

Instead of adapting, our management team clung with a death grip to our outdated, antiquated business model. We refused to believe the fax would fade, and we became an old rusted-out family sedan sputtering along the business superhighway.

Fast-forward to 2007. Post dotcom boom, bust, and rebirth. Welcome to the world of Web 2.0, where I’m finding plenty of opportunity to apply the lessons learned from the fax past.

Most corporations have barely dipped a toe in the marketing pool that is Web 2.0, but enlightened entrepreneurs are diving in head first. David Gumpert of BusinessWeek reported that a recent panel discussion at the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest reaffirmed that utilizing Web 2.0 technologies must be done with a combination of business savvy and just plain common sense.

For the average entrepreneur there is much less risk in the world of business and social networking sites than for a corporation. With the risk of looking like a 30-year-old at prom, a corporation must analyze a multitude of factors when looking to swim in the Web 2.0 marketing pool. One piece of critical advice from the MIT panelist—for corporation and entrepreneur alike—is to make sure you create a two-way dialogue with your consumer audience.

Consumers don’t want to hear preaching about a product or service without being able to share their voices in return. Gumpert added that globally there has been an increase in early-stage business use of the Web 2.0 marketing machine—but experts remain divided on its rewards.

That sounds like the adoptive evolution of any business innovation. The question is, do you want to side with cynical, change-resistant experts, or do you want to shape the use and impact of revolutionary marketing approach?

In other words, do you want to ride along in that rusty old sedan, or test-drive a high-performance prototype?