Question

The Internet puts small businesses on the same footing as large organizations by providing an inexpensive platform for interacting with customers and selling products and services. With their global reach, social networking sites are a good example of how the Internet can level the playing field. Here are five ways that small businesses can take advantage of these sites:

• Creating local social networks—Small businesses can use sites such as Yelp (www.yelp.com), which help people find local restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, mechanics, and so on. People also use these sites to find out about upcoming events, take advantage of special offers, and talk to other customers.
• Creating a blog or social hub—This allows small businesses to keep customers engaged by creating useful content such as how-to lists or industry insights.
• Using Twitter—This allows small businesses to connect with their consumers in real time.
• Creating a Facebook fan page—This allows small businesses to visualize and build a community that can be customized by adding maps, coupons, and so forth.
• Using a custom wiki—A wiki can be used as a public forum that alerts customers to problems and concerns related to the company’s products and services and resolves issues or answers questions to keep customers engaged.

Answer the following questions in a Microsoft® Word document and save the file on your computer with your last name in the file. (Example: module_07_case1_Jones.doc)

1. How does the Internet put small businesses on the same footing as large organizations?
2. What are two ways social networking sites such as Twitter can help a small business?
3. How can a site such as Yelp help small businesses?

Answer 1

- By providing a platform for communicating with customers and selling their products, promoting their products and providing services at a much cheaper rate, the internet places small businesses on the same footing as large organizations. In order to attract consumers and increase sales, social networking sites also help small companies to promote their products and will instantly alert their consumers of offers and coupons.

- Social networking sites such as Twitter will benefit a small business 1. Social networking sites allow consumers to connect easily. 2. Social networking creates a culture that can easily rescive announcement.

-Yelp may help to recognise small businesses, making customers aware of any offers or events the business may have.