The Web 2.0 Strategy for Small Business

1. Don't forget the basics
   1. Optimise your website. Ensure your site is indexed and suitably ranked by search engines for your key phrases
   2. Measure its effectiveness in converting visitors. Ensure that once your visitor arrives there is the best possible chance of turning him into a customer.
   3. Refine and update regularly. Without this your site is a wasting asset. Regular maintenance can bring continued growth.

2. Allocate long term resources

   Web 2.0 provides new opportunities for networking and communication.  This requires human involvement not just software.  To be effective the human must also be an expert in his particular field and able to give help and advice to others.  In a small business this normally means one of the directors must allocate at least 30 minutes every day to building and enhancing their contact network.  If this is not possible, stick with the basic strategy above. Remember that as your contact network grows, more time is required to keep up to date but also the benefits should become measurable.

    

3. You reap what you sow

   If all you do is to sell your own services, you will put others off.  Your strategy must be to take an active part in any forum or network relevant to your field. Show your expertise by helping others.  Respond to, and comment on, information and queries posted by others.  Only make a sales pitch when specifically requested.  Your online objective is to present yourself as such an expert that clients come to you with their enquiries.

    

4. Building your network

1. Find those forums and networks most relevant to your clients.  Concentrate on those most relevant to immediate business not those that have the biggest internet presence. Future sales are more likely to result from close working with one group than spreading yourself less effectively across many.
2. Whenever you post a comment or query, try to leave a signature which includes a link to your website.  This is not always permitted, but when you succeed you have 2 wins: 1) You enable a reader to find out more about you and 2) you improve the link popularity of your website and thus its visibility in search engines.
3. Use your network to improve your market and technical knowledge.  Normally an active network will include the best of your competitors.  By raising issues that are important to you, you can learn how others approach the same problem and gauge your own relative standing. 
4. Once you understand what is happening in your field on the internet, you can decide how far you want to go in building new networks, e.g. by blogging or in FaceBook or LinkedIn.  But consider first how much value you can create for your visitors.  If in reality all you are offering is a variation on a sales pitch, put yourself in your visitors' shoes, would you visit twice?

5. Integrate your Marketing strategy

Networking, online and offline, can be absorbing, time-wasting, profitable or costly.  Always remember your primary objective.  It may be great to be secretary of your industry association or chief guru in your field, but does it produce sales to generate sufficient income for the business or has it become an end in itself?

Talk to you next month

Stephen Orr