TIPS&TOOLS

Innovation and Invention - The Internet as a Business Enabler

Part two of a three-part series

The broad scope and reach of the Internet allows it to fulfill multiple business roles. It can be used to raise your visibility among existing customers and to expand the geographic area from which to draw new ones. It can be a direct and indirect source of revenue from online sales and lead generation. And it can become an integral part of your business operations.

With the Internet, you no longer have to rely solely on traditional marketing options that limit your message to certain areas or to specific times. Your information can be available around the clock to just about anyone, anywhere.

For example, using car-based GPS and Web-enabled mobile devices, people on the road routinely search online for where they can shop at that moment, opening up lucrative possibilities for businesses with a strong online presence.

With an online sales component, or at least a well-designed Web site with easy to find information and a compelling value proposition, you can even establish a foothold in national or international sales.

From your own Web site to e-mail, from RSS feeds to social media like Facebook and Flickr, numerous opportunities exist to always be in front of people and to engage them as potential customers and as ambassadors for your products and services.

Establish yourself as a knowledgeable source by posting to industry-related blogs. Create and nurture your own online communities to give your fans a way to communicate with one another, which can also provide you with feedback that can translate into free real-time market research, while also serving as word-of-mouth advertising.

Internet-based technologies can improve communications and collaboration with staff and vendors and enhance supply chain management, record keeping and archiving, and disaster management and recovery.

Online meeting tools and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone systems can cut your travel and call expenses and make it easier to establish business relationships with people across town or around the world, opening up more business opportunities.

Like the computer, phone, and automobile before it, the Internet enables changes to every facet of business. Identify where Internet tools can improve your sales and operations and work on making them a part of your core infrastructure.

Beyond integrating these technologies into your business, use them to expand your product offerings--or create entirely new ones that no one else has. I'll cover this topic next month.

Submitted by Ricardo Harvin of USChamber.com.