Moving your small scale business online part 2 by ericwelke

Articles from EricWelke.com Moving your Small Scale Business Online Part 2 by Eric Welke

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve discussed the importance of being online for small scale businesses on my last post. The widespread penetration of the internet in daily life requires business establishments to have a presence online. You need to be online not only to establish your presence but to improve the growth of your small scale business. First, you need to choose what type of presence you want to focus on. You might want to prioritize your website, your social media page or maybe your blog. You can also opt to synchronize your presence among the different online channels, but expect this to require more time and effort. Sometimes if thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an existing web presence, you can choose to build up from that. Just make sure the platform gives you room to grow. A good example of this is a Facebook places page. You need to claim this for your business as Facebook users will have likely checked in on this page. These users can become your initial base of subscribers for your primary page. Online directories and mobile pages may seem only mildly useful, but it is still a good idea to claim any existing entries so you have control of them. You should do this especially for any online map entries. Blogs and webpages are more suited to businesses that handle more specialized products. A social media page works well for restaurants since they want as many users as they can get to drive activity and engagement. Shops that sell more high value products and specialized services may want the focus more on a professionally designed custom website. After deciding on which online channel you want to focus on, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to choose the proper platform. If you choose to be more active on social media then you should concentrate on engaging with customers on Facebook or Twitter. You also need to at least publish content regularly on the other popular social networking sites like Instagram or Pinterest.

If you choose to build a website, then you have a huge amount of choices available to you. The design you want is only limited by your imagination and the ability of the web designer you hire. Make sure to get your own website and email domain. Blogs are different from websites as they tend to update regularly and provide a more direct way to interact with customers on the site. Websites usually depend on email contact while blogs have their own comment system on the site. Its takes a bit more effort to maintain a blog but it has proven advantages over a static website. There are several platforms available but WordPress is the more popular option currently for blogs.

Enhancing your Online Presence Once you’ve launched your website, blog or social media profile, you need to advertise and enhance its online presence. There’s a different strategy for each platform and the effort required varies. The end goal is the same, becoming the most favored site for information about a subject that’s relevant to your business. This can be measured by the amount of activity and traffic your site receives and your placement on the various Search Engine Results page. For blogs, you need to consistently post quality content that’s relevant to your market or potential customers. Blogs have an advantage of being SEO friendly because of the activity and traffic good quality content can generate. If people in your target niche find your posts useful and relevant they will usually come back and even share your site to other people. Since your business is tied up with the blog, the additional attention it gets will help you drive more business to your establishment. Social Media sites grow and thrive on the activity its fan base generates. If you use this as your primary presence online, you need to make sure that you regularly interact with your customers and post content that will keep them interested and coming back to your page. Do it well enough and they may even recommend your page to their friends. You can then post offers, promotions or invitations on your social media page. Websites have a more indirect way of increasing their profile. Aside from the on page optimizations, you only have advertising and mentions on other sites to rely on to get more traffic. Since mentions and backlinks are what drives your website’s

ranking, amassing a significant amount is important. These can come from sources like; other sites that write about your business, mentions on social media and press releases. You need to make sure you only get backlinks from sites with good reputations otherwise youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll end up getting your page penalized. Mobile sites are another important channel to consider. Your website should have an equivalent site that is viewable on smaller mobile gadgets. Social media platforms have an advantage in this aspect since they already have existing mobile versions.

Building up your Brand Setting up your small scale businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; online presence is an important step. The next step is to grow your followers/fan base further and strengthen your relationship with them. This step is crucial because your loyal customers who are online can become the catalyst for the further growth of your business. They are basically an army of people who will market your business for you based on their trust in your brand.