It is not a good idea to ignore the Internet. This is accurate, even if you have been profitably operating your business offline for multiple decades. As a society, the Internet has become a vital piece in how we do business (personally and professionally), so forget any thoughts you may have had about it being a whimsical idea. If you think the Internet is just a craze, you would be wrong because it is now an essential part of how our world works. These days, if you don’t have a presence online, you can pretty much guarantee that you won’t see any new business. So what do you do? How do you go about ensuring that your business will be seen by Internet addicts?
Get yourself a Google Businesses Listing. This is a tool offered by Google to make sure that your business gets placed on its Maps when people do searches for local businesses. You can put as many (or as few) details as you want on the business listing. Minimally, you should provide your contact info, address and hours of operation. You might also want to upload a picture of your storefront so that people know what to look for when they visit your location. Some people will do “search nearby” searches on the Internet for their neighborhood and you would be amazed by the number of people who stumble upon your business that way. Set up a LinkedIn profile for yourself. The profile doesn’t need to be set up specifically for your business. However, as the business owner, you need to ensure that your profile is on this network. Yes, this is a network that mostly focuses on uploading of resumes and networking. This is why you must get it. Making contacts with other business owners is one way that you can utilize it. You can exploit it for connecting with other business owners. This will bring about several different opportunities for networking. In addition, you can utilize the forums on the system for displaying your knowledge.
Adding more company to a niche centric business directory is also something you can do. Are you selling a certain product? Do you target a specific type of niche? The best way to get people to find you is to put yourself into directories where your product or service will be seen by those looking for what you have to sell. Don’t just go out there and list your business in every single directory you find – that’s the same thing as spamming and Google will slap you for it big time. It is important, though, to have your company or products listed in a directory related to what you have to sell. By simply searching for others in your niche, and using directories you are you know about, you can start this process.
There are all sorts of things that you can do to build a presence for your business on the web. You can go faster, or slower, with this type of business.
By setting up something online, people can find you, and you can let people know that you are there. Keep working and eventually you’ll get the hang of things.