The Top 4 Ways to Use the Internet for Small Business

It’s easy to get lost when trying to figure out how to use the internet for small business.

Sometimes it really helps to take a step back and look at a complex tool from a strategic distance before diving into the inner-workings at a tactical level.

That’s because, as with most highly effective and powerful tools, there are just so many different ways to use the web that choosing the among the best solutions and approaches can be pretty overwhelming.

So in this post, I’m gonna’ focus on giving you the big picture. That’s right, we’re going to soar up to 50,000 feet and take a look at the top 4 ways to use the internet for small business.

This isn’t rocket science here but sometimes it really helps to take a step back and look at a complex tool from a strategic distance before diving into the inner-workings at a tactical level.

This “high-level” view is especially important when it comes time to select strategies and tactics that will actually help you achieve your business goals.

So strap your seat belts, sit back and enjoy the tour!

The Top 4 Ways to Use the Internet for Small Business

Market Your Business

Though it’s not a physical place, millions of people visit the web every day to research, shop, work, manage, learn, meet, play and much, much more.

With all that “foot-traffic”, it’s no wonder that businesses of every type and size have been marketing online since the web opened its doors.

With all that “foot-traffic”, it’s no wonder that businesses of every type and size have been marketing online since the web opened its doors. It’s also no surprise that folks have been trying to sell cookie-cutter approaches to marketing online for almost as long.

Many of these cookie-cutter approaches could work just fine for your business. The key however, is to select the ones that will help you achieve your business goals. Therefore, in order to create an effective online marketing strategy, you need to know how you can market your business online.

To help get you started here are some helpful links:

Sell Your Products and Services

Each year, more and more people use the web to find, research and buy products and services.

The ability to sell your offerings, either on your own site or at one or more of the many online marketplaces, has become more critical to small business success.

Thanks to this trend, the ability to sell your offerings, either on your own site or at one or more of the many online marketplaces, has become more critical to small business success.

In addition, the internet allows you to expand your offerings in ways that were previously not feasible – think e-books, online courses and other such information products.

Of course, in order to sell effectively online, you need to know how and where you can offer you products and services. Here are some helpful links to get you started:

Run Your Business

It’s hard to turn around these days without hearing about “The Cloud” and it’s little sister, “Software-as-a-Service (SAAS)”.

Unfortunately, these are two “techie” terms around which you need to wrap your head.

The advantages to using the cloud and SAAS to run your small business are huge!

Fortunately, the small business advantages offered by both concepts are so huge, once you do understand them both you are going to be glad that you took the time to do so.

Here are some helpful links to help you understand what the cloud and SAAS as well as the advantages of using the them both to run your small business:

Manage Your Business Relationships

Building and maintaining relationships is key to small business success.

Whether it’s your customers, suppliers or peers, building and maintaining relationships is key to small business success.

The web provides a perfect platform for reaching out to all three of those audiences in many ways – a powerful tool no matter how introverted or outgoing you are, or your business allows you to be.

Here are some helpful links to get you started:

Weekly Link Roundup

Each week, I collect the 10 best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.

These posts focus on web-based solutions, online resources and up-to-date news for small businesses.

Enjoy!

Obama Signs Bill Focused on Crowdsourced Investments: Great news for small businesses looking to raise funds!

Content Marketing Overtakes SEO as Google’s Quest to Be “Human” Continues: A great look at why writing for humans, not search engines, will lead to search engine marketing success.

In Amish Country, A Lesson in Niche Marketing: This case study demonstrates how niche marketing (i.e. focus) can often be an important key to success.

How B2B Marketers Can do Social Media Lead Generation the Smart Way: Some interesting insights into B2B marketing using social media.

19 Tools for Pinterest Pros: A whole bunch of tools for managing your Pinterest activity.

26 Elements of a Gamification Marketing Strategy: I love “Gamification” (using game elements to make everyday thing engaging and fun) and this post is chock-full of excellent information for beginner and expert alike!

5 Social Media Metrics That Matter Now: Measuring social media ROI is key – here are 5 ways to do just that.

11 Ways to Maximize Sales With LinkedIn: Solid and actionable tips for making the most of your efforts on LinkedIn.

3 Ways Events Can Enhance Your Brand’s Online Presence: Here are a few creative ideas to inspire your marketing efforts.

Five useful new tools for Twitter’s power users: Some productivity-boosting tools for Twitter.