The web-world of small business has a handful of very valuable solutions for businesses and consumers alike. The internet has provided many opportunities for local businesses of all types to enhance their business through use of the internet. Businesses of all types us the internet to find customers and make them happy. This article is designed to research some of the ways that small businesses may use existing applications on the internet to enhance their business.
Old fashioned local business directories, or Yellow Pages, were the first websites designed to utilize the internet to improve local business. The internet provided a platform for these local business directories to improve their local search with a keyword search feature, faster search times, and easier directions than traditional paper directories. Since the web has grown, a handful of new websites have emerged that improve the way that people and small businesses interact online.
This article will briefly explore some sites that provide a new-valuable way for local businesses and their customers to interact. Various yellow page websites are the most popular way to find local businesses online; however, this article is designed to explore other websites that people are using to find and support local business.
1. Craigslist – The general public has fallen in love with this free classifieds website. Craigslist provides a great medium for buying, selling, finding jobs, and even finding dates in a local geographic communities. Craigslist receives millions of visits every day and provides its service free of charge, other than posts for employer job openings. A section on Cragslist is dedicated to ‘Services’ and many small and home based businesses use this to promote their business. Users are allowed to post information promoting their business once every 48 hours, although many businesses find ways to repost within this timeframe. The postings will stay online for up to 7 days, but they get the most attention when they are at the top of the list or right after they are posted. The main benefit of Craigslist is how quickly people can reach a number of interested consumers in their area. Some shortcomings of Craigslist are that business listings expire, and to reach customers businesses must re-list several times a day to generate more sales leads. Also, there is no quality assurance with Craigslist. There is no easy way to check the legitimacy or quality of the businesses that are listed on Craigslist.