Running a business, any business, is all-consuming, and you still need to chisel out time for family, friends and yourself. The world races by us and then all of a sudden we are asked to get on the train ourselves. This is how I feel this week when one of our guest webloggers, PGreenblog, went off on an article by a fellow named Nicholas Carr about the new web, something that the intelligentsia acknowledge as Web 2.0. I have kept up on some of the writing about Web 2.0 and the new Social Customer because frankly our clients do business over the Internet and I am in the business of on-demand software, software as a service some call it, with the NetSuite implementation practice. Software as a Service is one of the linchpins of Web 2.0, often cited because it has a revenue model, while many of the new applications do not, yet. I am also, obviously, part of the blogging world, and online media is a big part of Web 2.0. But how about our clients? Small and Medium sized businesses in all sorts of different businesses from financial services to wholesale/distribution, from educational services to engineering, how are they affected by Web 2.0? What's next for them? I think that we can break it down a couple of different ways. First, do we need to participate? What are the upsides/downsides of being involved? Second, what opportunities exist for us? Are we catching all of the transactions that we should be catching? Have we maximized our business opportunities on the net? Let's try to answer some of these questions in the following areas: Content - The content of the web is changing and small and medium sized businesses have to understand this. I am not trying to sound an alarm but all companies must now start to think about new ways of engaging their customers on the web. Brochure ware was a start. We essentially took the company brochure and placed it on the Internet in the 90s, or perhaps even more recently. With Web 2.0 the content type, quality and frequency changes. Perhaps most important will be the need to continuously add content, because this will be a challenge for many SMBs. Content can come in many styles, but in order to be heard by your audience you will need to engage it with more than a few simple paragraphs on the mission statement. You will need to talk about your business and what's happening and where. Are you adding a new product line? Have you added an agent in China? But more than press releases you need to let customers know how your business helps them and you'll need to restate the message many times over, in many different ways. If you're running a lumberyard and have a line of custom kitchen cabinets then you'll need to work it over, describe customer jobs completed, challenges overcome, customer testimonials, job site remedies, value and quality points, in your online marketing. Homeowners are pretty savvy and they are not going to buy just because you're selling. The key point about content is that you need to make the market see and understand that you are experts in your field, that you have something to offer in experience and expertise that correlates to the 38 years you've been in business. You need to be a thought leader. Participation - Another step will be a significant increase in participation. There are lots of tools available to a business at a fairly reasonable cost. You can add, for example, a customer service dialog box to the web site to answer one off questions from prospects and customers about your company, its products and services. Of course if you add content through a blog, like this one, you'll have plenty of comments to answer. Key point: The audience wants to hear you speak and they want you to stop and listen, also. Participation also extends to the SMB itself. There will be new social/business networks on their way, no question about it. I have written about this before and I am amazed that the Chamber of Commerce has not started to make a move in this direction. Social networking applications have made a big splash in other areas of our society and they will continue to change the way we do meet, mingle, collaborate and, of course, do business. College students are all over a new application called FaceBook. Simple software with big ramifications. Revenue Opportunities - After you succeed with content and participation you'll have found a good audience for what you do and what you have to say about what you do. There was once a thought that the internet would diminish the role of the intermediary by linking producers directly with consumers. But actually the opposite has occurred and the folks who are making the big money today on the web, Google, Yahoo and E-bay, have figured out the key to being the new intermediary. How about the SMB? Look around your marketplace and ask if there are other business transactions that you can mediate through your online presence? If you're selling Kitchen Cabinets there may be one or more Cabinet Installers, Interior Designers or Kitchen Remodelers whose business could receive a boost by participating in your site - for a fee. Some business people avoid these situations because they fear alienating one or more of the affiliate companies, but I predict that this will become fairly commonplace in the near future, prodded on by the ubiquitous Google Adwords phenomenon. My take on the whole Web 2.0, or Web 3.0 or whatever they want to call it is that it will eventually come to mimic what people do and have always done; socialize, do business, make arrangements, communicate, collaborate. And this is exactly why Small and Medium Businesses need to be aware of the changes taking place in the web, the marketplace and the customer's expectations. | 
