WinWeb

Top 5 PR Basics

July 1, 2010

Public Relations (PR) is one of the cheapest ways to market a small business. It involves distributing news about your business to media outlets in the hope that you will receive press coverage. Here is some tips of how to get started with your first press release:

Make a List: Take an hour or so to write down all of the things that you could possibly tell the world about your small businesses. New products and services are good starting points, but try to find something more unique about your company.

Evaluate: Go through your list and eliminate anything that isn’t newsworthy. If it does not refer to anything recent, it is unfortunately not news and the media will probably not be interested. Once you narrow down your options, the topics you should be writing about will become clearer.

Research: Identify the publications that you hope to receive coverage from. You may need to tailor your press release differently for each one to achieve maximum impact. It may help to contact specific journalists and ask what kind of thing they are looking for.

Get Writing: If you have ‘hard news’ about something that is currently happening in your business then you should work on getting those press releases sent out as soon as possible. ‘Soft news’ is something that a publication could slot in at any time, often when they are looking for content to fill space.

Create News: Sometimes you may struggle to find anything to write about. In that case, you need to manufacture a news story yourself. Put on an event or do something for the local community that will generate press interest and goodwill towards your business.

Contact us for further or details, or visit our website to find out more!

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Unusual Bootstrap Marketing Ideas

May 1, 2010

Bootstrap businesses often need to work harder than their competitors to successfully market their products and services. Many firms that use bootstrapping set aside little or no money for marketing purposes. It is therefore important and sometimes necessary for them to incorporate unorthodox methods of promotion into their marketing strategy.

Small businesses should always know their top five customers. If you own a small business and cannot instantly name your five most important customers, you are in trouble. A great bootstrap marketing technique is to take your most valuable clients out to dinner once every year. This will serve as reminder for them of how valuable they are to you and how much you appreciate their custom. However, it also allows you to talk frankly to your customers and learn what they like and dislike about your business. Keeping your existing customers happy is much less expensive than courting new ones.

Another excellent bootstrap method involves networking. You should look for similar local businesses that fulfil the needs of your customer base. For example, if you are a maid then you should form an alliance with a carpet cleaning company. Both businesses can than give mutual referrals to their customer base. This is beneficial for the two companies and will also make the customer happy.

If you are launching new products or services on a bootstrap budget it can be very difficult to spread the word. Often not even your existing customers are ever aware that you have expanded your product range. To solve this problem, you have to get creative. Mention your new products on every form of correspondence you send. This includes fax cover sheets, invoices and product packaging – use anything you can find.

Try to focus your marketing efforts by hi-jacking a particular theme. For example, just before the tax year is up you could offer special deals to encourage customers to spend their tax refunds. You can also run promotions in conjunction with public holidays and celebrations such as Mother’s Day. Some small businesses also run promotions based on current popular films or fashion trends purely to jump on the bandwagon of their success.

Marketing doesn’t have to cost a tremendous amount of time, or money. Building awareness, trust and credibility through your marketing efforts is vital. Always be genuine, sincere and transparent in your efforts, and you’ll be amazed what will pay off!

Shout About Your Small Business

April 28, 2010

Here at WinWeb.com we are passionate about small business, and want to help as many of you as possible to build and grow your business. In our WinWeb newsletter over the past few weeks we have been asking for your small business stories and have been overwhelmed with the response – there are so many small businesses that are looking for publicity, so we’re looking to help as many of you as possible!

We are running a weekly competition that encourages you to pitch your small business idea, product or service on the WinWeb.com Facebook page. Get as many of your friends, family and clients as possible to “like” your pitch. One thing though – it has to be 110 characters maximum, plus a URL linking to your business website. This makes it easier to Tweet about.

If you’ve got more to say that 110 characters will allow why not create a video, even just using your webcam, post the video to You Tube, then link to it on our Facebook page. These videos will then be uploaded to WinWeb TV giving your business more exposure, and valuable links back to your website.

The competition will run from Wednesday to Wednesday each week with the winner being the business that has the most “likes” on the Facebook page. The winner will receive a professionally written blog post featured on the Saturday Business Blog, linking back to their website. You can then use this article to promote your small business, promoting a new product or service.

There’s no catch, free publicity and link backs to your website, all with 110 characters! All we ask is that you do not abuse this; and are aware that any inappropriate links will be removed from the page and the users reported to Facebook.

We look forward to hearing your pitches, and writing about your small businesses!

The WinWeb Facebook page can be found here – you really have got nothing to lose!

Small Business Blogging Tips

April 19, 2010

If you own a small business website, one of your main priorities is likely to be driving more traffic towards it. There are various ways of doing this, with the most popular being SEO (search engine optimisation). This involves changing your website so that search engines are better equipped to send the right people to pay you a visit.

SEO is vital if you want to see a big increase in the amount of traffic you receive. However, without regular updates and interesting content you will not receive any repeat visitors to your website. This means you will only get one chance to sell to them, compared to multiple opportunities if they become a frequent reader

If you plan on doing SEO, it is advisable to also start a blog for your business. A blog can help increase your traffic in a number of ways. Not only will people find your website more easily because of the topics that you are talking about, they can also comment on them with their own observations or link to your post using trackbacks. They can subscribe to your blog via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) so that they know when you update it, or they might choose to share a link to your content on social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter.

Despite the attraction of improved search engine visibility, the potential of reaching new customers and the ability to engage with your existing customer base, very few small businesses actually choose to do any blogging. The most common excuse is a reluctance to write content because of a lack of writing experience or insufficient time.

The truth is that maintaining a blog for your small business is not very time consuming. Try to spare an hour or so per week adding content to your website and you will soon start to see results. If you are having trouble writing posts, come up with a title first and build the article around it. Make bullet point lists of what you want to cover in the article so that you don’t lose track. Above all, try to show off the human face of your business.

How we can help…

WinWeb.com knows that driving traffic to your small business website can be difficult. This is why we provide the following services:

SEO Service – WinWeb.com offer an SEO service to help your small business website reach as many potential customers as possible. Let us to help your business reach as many people as possible.

Online PR – Get people online talking about your business. We will release, or even write, press releases specifically targeted to your small business demographic and then submit them across the web. Increase your online visibility and get people talking about your business.

If you need further information about any of our products or services, or would like to find out more about how blogging can help you small business, just contact us today with no obligation.

Build A Brand For Your Small Business

March 27, 2010

Building a brand for your small business is vital. Whether it is online through website building, online marketing and a blog, or offline through networking and advertisements having a consistent brand is vital.

Having a brand doesn’t necessarily just mean having a logo or a website; building a brand is about much more than that. Yes, it is great to have a recognizable logo, catchy business name and a slogan, but establishing a brand means much more than just that.

When considering building your brand brainstorm all areas of your small business: your motivation, drive, products, marketing avenues, assets and strengths. Develop a coherent strategy across all avenues to develop your brand.

When your small business begins marketing having a coherent brand becomes more important than ever. It is vital for consistency and reliability that your small business is putting the same message across to potential customers, regardless of whether the message is sent in a blog post, a tweet or an a forum.

The obvious elements to building a brand are colours, fonts and slogans. Beyond that your small business needs a voice, a tone and intonation that is recognisable within your sector. Decide if you should be friendly, authoritative or assertive, and makes sure everyone within your company is aware of this element of the branding.

Most of all, have fun. Building a brand is your chance to decide what you want your small business to stand for, make the most of it!

How we can help…

WinWeb.com know the importance of building a good, strong brand. We have a range of products that can help you do this.

Website Builder – WinWeb’s website builder means you can put your small business on the web, and create a website specifically branded for your small business.

Brand Design – WinWeb Business Services offers brand design, meaning all you have to do is come up with the ideas and allow us to do the rest.

Business Planning – WinWeb’s Business Planning tools mean that you can easily and quickly set goals and analyse your small businesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

To find out more about building your business brand contact us, or sign up for a free trial, today.

Tell The World About Your New Product

March 18, 2010

It can be frustrating launching a new product because it often feels like no-one is listening to you. You genuinely believe that you have invented something that there is a market for, but you simply cannot reach the people who would be interested in it. This is not a problem for a big company as they will simply hire a PR firm and throw money at them. Small businesses have to be a bit more creative when it comes to spreading the word.

Firstly, make sure your new product is completely ready before you start marketing it. Don’t promise things that you are unable to provide. If you still have glitches to work out, ensure they are sorted before you go to market.

It is worthwhile to pay for professional photos to use in your promotional material. You could probably take decent pictures by yourself, but an expert can make your product look spectacular. Print high quality business cards and brochures and remember to hand them out at every opportunity.

Pricing is an extremely important aspect of your promotion. You need to consult with distributors and manufacturers to get a completely accurate set of costs. Knowing costs will allow you to determine how much profit you will make. The sale price of your product will also be affected by what market you are targeting and whether or not it is a luxury item.

Get out of the office and start demonstrating your product to the local media. Local television and radio stations are often looking for content to fill up airtime. If your product is unusual or interesting they will likely be interested. Couple this with written press releases sent to local and national press.

How we can help….

WinWeb strive to help small businesses, so here are some suggestions of how we can help your small business make a big impression.

WinWeb WebBuilder – Increase your small businesses web presence with WinWeb

WinWeb Hosting – Our hosting service is secure and reliable, meaning you’re always there when your customers need you.

WinWeb Business Services – WinWeb offer PR & Marketing services on an ad-hoc basis, meaning you can get the publicity and marketing you want, just when you need it.

There should be nothing stopping your small business from having a show-stopping website. Contact us or sign up for a free trial, today.

Stretch Your Marketing Budget Further With A Website

March 3, 2010

Advertising is an expensive necessity for small businesses. When faced with financial hardship, the advertising budget is often the first cut that a small business owner will make. The main problem with this method of saving money is that it will really hurt them in the long run because they will be unable to attract new customers.

If you must reduce advertising expenditure, make sure that you work harder to increase your overall marketing activity. If you usually spend money advertising in the Yellow Pages or local newspapers, the best low-cost alternative to this is owning and maintaining a website for your business. This is actually preferable to traditional advertising in many ways because it gives your business a global audience and can help you expand further.

It will also mean that customers will have less trouble trying to reach you and can even contact you outside of working hours. A great website will also ‘pre-sell’ your product or service to customers so that by the time you actually speak to them on the phone or they come into your store, they will have often already made the decision to purchase from you.

Keeping your website updated with regular special offers and promotions will ensure that visitors have an incentive to keep returning. An inactive website is useless as a marketing tool, so make sure you are always updating it in some way.

If you still do not have a website for your small business, take a look at the Web Builder offered by WinWeb on our website.

Client Conservation Tips For Small Business Owners

February 9, 2010

It is no secret that working to retain your existing customer base delivers far greater rates of success than attempting to attract new clients. As a small business owner, statistically around 80% of sales will come from just 20% of the existing customer base. Despite this, the majority of business promotions are aimed at attracting new customers and exclude the people who have purchased from them before.

There are a number of ways in which you can encourage your customers to make repeat purchases. If you are having little success at attracting new customers, consider switching your marketing focus towards previous clients. Let them know that you still exist by sending them a regular newsletter – but make sure you provide interesting content or share useful resources instead of just delivering a weekly sales pitch. Try to keep your brand at the front of their mind.

Consider a loyalty scheme to reward your best customers. Even if it is just a small discount, it will give them less incentive to try a competitor. Sending Christmas cards to your customers is always a nice gesture too, especially if you include a price reduction!

Try to have greater interaction with your existing customers. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have made it easier than ever for small businesses to reach out to clients and connect with them on a personal level. Encourage feedback from customers as this will make them feel valued and hopefully provide you with an opportunity to learn from their input.

WinWeb BusinessServices provide a number of marketing services for small businesses – find out more by visiting our website.

Is Small The New Big?

January 24, 2010

Big has always seemed better. Big ideas create big change and big exposure and in the end (hopefully) big revenues. However, I read an article recently about a new trend, which I extol wholeheartedly: the biggest idea might be learning to think small.

It seems logical. The ideas that are most likely to come to life are the ones where you are able to create an actionable list of steps that you can accomplish within a reasonable timeframe.

For example, I read recently of a Junk Removal company based in North America. With only 3% brand awareness they knew they had a huge opportunity to grow (despite the economy!). However even if they were able to pull together a multi-million dollar marketing campaign they knew they could not make an impact across their entire service area of 200 million people.

Instead they adopted the strategy “Own the Neighbourhood”. They focused their sales and marketing efforts on the neighbourhoods where they already did well, thereby leveraging word of mouth, lawn signage and the like among their existing customer base to generate more business. Simple. Manageable. Executable.

For easy to use software to enable you to implement your simple, executable and manageable plans for your small business visit the WinWeb website.

The Importance of Networking for Small Businesses

January 23, 2010

The importance of networking must not be underestimated when you are starting your small business and this holds true whether you are opening a restaurant or an online shop. But what is networking?

Entrepreneurs often hear, and even use, the term ‘networking’ but in order to network effectively it is important to understand the principles of networking and that it isn’t just a case of merely having a chat will the right person; what you say, how you say it, and how you follow up the conversation are all vital.

Networking, in the traditional term, is attending an event or presentation on a matter relevant to your business where influential or like-minded people will be present. So, you are at an event where there are people who are all interested in small business, but where do you go from there?

Top five networking tips:

• Make sure you do your homework- be knowledgeable about your industry and those attending the event.

• Exude confidence in both yourself and your business, without seeming arrogant!

• Memorise a 60-second marketing pitch for your company. Try and be able to explain what you do in a few sentences, making it engaging and interesting. Sell yourself!

• Give your business card to everyone you speak to, and ask for theirs. Be sure to ask what other people do, too.

• Send an email to the people who you felt could help you, preferably within a week of the event, being sure to say how much you enjoyed meeting them.

Most of all enjoy it, be passionate about your business and have fun!

Making Headlines: No One Can Pitch Your Small Business Better Than You

January 13, 2010

Positive free press is the greatest marketing tool available to any small business.

It’s a third-party endorsement of your company which really speaks volumes and can be quite powerful. However, like most small business owners, chances are you have little or no PR experience or training so would likely consider outsourcing this function (assuming you had the capital!). This might work for some companies but consider this idea: no one can pitch your business better than you and your staff!

PR is about bringing your story to life to engage outsiders. At WinWeb we’ve learned from our own experiences when communicating to the press about our culture, our growth or even our challenges that nobody does it better than us. We’re living the story. We’re able to capture the passion and truly communicate its spirit.

So, consider your story. Where did your business begin? How did you come up with the name? What makes you different? What’s an example of what makes you different? Of course, in-house PR has a learning curve, but with practice you’ll learn what makes a story and who you want to tell it to.

Get help publishing your story @ WinWeb BusinessServices

Building Long-Term Customer Relationships for your Small Business

January 8, 2010

To compete in this aggressive environment, small businesses must shift their focus away from pushing their products and services onto customers and instead focus on long term customer relationships. What do we mean by this? Today’s marketing ‘manager’ needs to engage customers in two-way communications:

Seek feedback on your product or service from your customers and be prepared to follow-through. This can be done in a number of ways:

• In Person. Ask outright. “Do you have any suggestions on how this can be improved to better meet your needs?”
• Survey – either paper based or via a free online option that can be emailed to your customers (survey monkey is one that comes to mind). The advantage to this is it can be anonymous.
• Website – provide a feedback form or perhaps use this space to create a simple survey

Ensure you use your contact database to keep track of what customers tell you even with a simple note. If Laura from XYZ suggested a colour change, then be sure to follow-up with Laura to tell her that her suggestion is being implemented or why it’s not feasible at the moment but something you are working on for the future.

Demonstrating that you are listening to your client and value their feedback by implementing what is reasonable and feasible will go a long way in solidifying a relationship with your client and increasing their loyalty. It’s these loyal and long term relationships that will pay you back in dividends. Loyal customers are more likely to tell someone else about your service/product and this is the best marketing possible!

Get help building customer relations @ WinWeb BusinessServices

Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

November 25, 2009

David Paget, owner of UKSMF Ltd – a free sales and marketing advice site, has put together 5 top tips to consider with your business marketing:

1. Know your customer – The first mistake many businesses make is not knowing their customers. Define your target market carefully through reserach and segmentation, then position yourself as different and as superior to your competitors.

2. Get your message right – A great way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis of your business. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – Write it all out on a piece of paper and you’ll be surprised at how focused this will make you in writing your message to your potential customers.

3. Features and Benefits – A feature is a great thing but it always needs to be backed up by the benefits of the feature. I.E. – “The stereo has a 500 watt output giving you great quality of sound”. The benefits will drive the customer’s impulse to buy against your competitors.

4. Always follow up – You’ve just done all of the hard work and attracted the customer to your product or service, spoken to the potential customer and engaged their interest….. So what do you do next? You need to schedule a follow up and make sure that you do it. Conversion rates can be dramatically improved just by following up properly. Even if you lose that potential it is still wise to follow up 3 months later – maybe they still need the offering that you have.

5. Keep your marketing efforts going – Even if your first efforts bring you 5 customers at once, if you stop marketing your business will become very quiet again. Even 10 minutes a day will benefit your business.

Try different marketing messages as some will work better than others, when you find one that works, stick with it. Running a business is about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration – stick with this motto and you should not go too wrong.

For more free marketing advice, visit their friendly community @ salesandmarketingforums.co.uk

Benefits of a Business Website Hosted By WinWeb

October 20, 2009

Even today over 70 % of SMEs don’t have a business website. At the same time over 60 % of all high street purchases are researched online. If you don’t have a website and a ‘potential’ local customer, looking for your service or product, will not be able to find you.

You don’t need the best and greatest website, but your business should be on the web, so you can be found. WinWeb OnlineOffice has a very simple to use web-builder that works like your word-processor – you could have a website in under one hour. We have even included some sample text for you, and you can select one of hundreds of design combinations.

Lets talk about some of the benefits your business will experience by having a WinWeb business website:

• Your customers can find you online and contact you
• It is cheaper than having paper leaflets for your products and services
• Your information is available 24 hours everyday
• You can change the information on your website in minutes
• Global reach for your business
• It is very convenient for your customers to ‘online-shop’ vs. window shop
• Improve credibility of your small business
• Keep your customers engaged and updated
• Helps you to run an eco-friendly business
• Allows you to market your business even when you have no leaflets with you, just ask them to go online

Whatever your business, products or services, your business should have a website, more than that, your business needs a website. If you are still worried about setting up your own website, our support staff will help you to do it in a free One2One tuition session.

Read more or try 30 days for free @ WinWeb OnlineOffice Website

Email Basics For Every Small Business

Email is the most powerful business branding tool in your online marketing arsenal, providing you get the basics right.

Everyday we receive them and send them, within the last 10 to 15 years it has become the primary communication tool for any business. Especially in a time when we in the UK are faced with another wave of industrial action by the Post Office. We send messages, files, pictures, product information and much more.

In many instances we have become so used to email, that we often underestimate the importance of email for online marketing and business branding. Getting the basics right will insure your business gets the maximum benefit from using this business tool, WinWeb OnlineOffice Mail will help you to do so:

• Host your own domain name
• Allow you to access your mail on the web world wide
• Allows for multiple email accounts in one place
• Works with Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and many other email clients
• Automatically keeps back-ups of not deleted emails
• Allows you to receive your fax messages by email
• Allows you to receive your voicemail by email
• Allows you to receive new orders from your online shop by email
• Incorporate different signature files for better business branding
• Sorts all correspondence inside WinWeb OnlineOffice Contacts with a built in document management function automatically
• Send out email newsletters to your customers using Groups inside the address book

Sending emails is always an opportunity for a new ’sales & marketing conversation’ – you can’t afford to miss.

Find out more or trial for free @ WinWeb OnlineOffice Mail

Online Marketing Starts With A Domain Name.

October 19, 2009

More and more money is being spent on online advertising. But before you start with any online marketing activity you need to get the basics right – you need your own domain name.

Your own domain name will give you a unique name for your business on the internet. Everything you will do online will be associated with your domain name:

• Email – every-time you send an email, your domain name will be seen and remembered, don’t use third party domain names for your business like googlemail, yahoo, etc, you will be advertising other peoples brands.
• Website – this is the obvious one – we all know the google.com or apple.com websites. Having you own website without your own domain is almost an oximoron.
• Online Shop – selling online continues to become more popular, doing it with your own domain name helps build your brand.
• Business Card – have your own domain used on your business card when you give out your email and website. This will reinforce the brand awareness of your potential customers.
• References – if your business is being referenced on other web-sites or even in print, your brand will be seen by many readers and should only have your own name associated with it.

Whatever your online marketing activities, your own domain name will help you to get maximum exposure from any of these activities. That is why we include a FREE domain name with all our WinWeb OnlineOffice subscriptions, so we can help you to build your brand online.

Read more @ WinWeb OnlineOffice Web Services.

Business Branding For Your Small Business

October 16, 2009

A brand is a valuable asset to any business. It provides something important when dealing with the marketplace; that is identification.

Whilst there are many attributes and facets to a brand, two of particular importance are Points Of Parity, and Points Of Difference.

Points Of Parity (POP): These are attributes not necessarily unique to your brand. These may be industry identifiers or standards. The presence of which would not be a reason for choosing a particular brand, but the absence of which may be a reason for the potential consumer to remove the brand from their consideration list.

For example an accountant, qualified with their CA. The presence of a CA identifies them as an accountant, and as such part of the financial services industry. This qualification does not however give them a drawcard over their competition. Rather, the qualification positions them higher on a potential clients consideration list, over those without their CA.

Points Of Difference (POD): These are attributes unique or strongly associated with your brand. These may be elements such as service standards, pricing regimes and expertise. These are the reasons why the customer chooses you out of the plethora that is your competition.

To return to our accounting example. A POD may be that a client’s job is always handled by the same accountant, and the client can contact them directly.

From here on in, it may be wise to consider your POPs and PODs:

Maintain the POPs and cultivate the PODs.

Addition Resources & Reading @

• entrepreneurs-journey.com - Business Branding – It’s Not “We”, It’s “Me”
• psychotactics.com - Collection of branding tatics.
• searchengineland.com - The Power Of Branding For Small Business

Back Link Sites – Search Engine Optimisation The Bootstrapper Way

September 8, 2009

Once you have set up your website, using WinWeb’s OnlineOffice Web & Online Shop Builder, Microsoft FrontPage, Apple’s iWeb or other tools, you are looking for back links to your site.

Below you will find a list of sites that will link back to your site if you link back to them – the list below will grow all the time, so come back for more back links from time to time.

These directories are free of charge and in no specific order:

1. TurnPike.net
2. Mavicanet.com

These directories are free of charge, but need a link-back and in no specific order:

1. linksroom.com
2. NaseerWeb Free Link Directory (NWLinkDir)
3. 0MG! Web Directory
4. 000 Directory
5. 123 Hit Links Web Directory
6. 1Directory4All
7. 21Directory.com
8. 2AddLink.info
9. 2getlisted.com
10. freeindex.co.uk
11. lifestyle.co.uk
12. splut.com
13. vendora.com
14. Computer & PC Software Directory – Computer software providers and companies.
15. Directory World

These directories charge a registration/maintenance fee and are not in any specific orde

1. haabaa.co.uk

Have fun building your back-links and your business.

Your WinWeb Team

Finding New Customers

August 29, 2009

Finding new customers for your business involves marketing, a concept that many new small business owners are unsure of. Marketing can be a full time job in itself and for this reason can seem overwhelming to someone with little or no experience. We’ve provided another brief guide of where to start your marketing campaign to help find new customers for your business, re-activate old customers and retain your current customer’s business.

Maintaining the business bootstrapping mentality, small businesses need to find new customers without spending a large amount of money on flyers, mail-shots and radio adverts. While these all have their place, they are not immediately necessary.

Start with your website. Assuming it is already set up (if not it should be!) your website will help gather an international audience for your products and services. It gives you space to explain with high quality images why your customer should buy your products or services and provide references of other satisfied customers.

Include your website in the free search engine directories. Optimize your website using ‘Metatags’ so that search engines can find you and your business. The more optimizing you do, the higher your site will appear in the search engines results for your customers to see. Exchange web links with other web sites in your business space to improve your Google ranking.

Advertise in other places online. Write short blogs posts about your business, your new services or news stories affecting your area of work. Your customers can use your blogs as a way to keep in touch with you and send you their comments or ideas. Listen to your customer’s ideas, they will play a large part in the success or failure of your business!

Use Twitter, LinkenIn, Facebook or discussion forums to help build your brand online. Using Social Media such as these can help elevate your small business brand quickly and easily and provide you with another medium to interact with your customers.

The Tweets you send out on Twitter may have a short shelf-life in terms on how long they will be displayed on your customers pages but they will enable your customers to interact with you daily rather than browsing your site once a week/month or however often they need a new product. Not only can Twitter be used to advertise a new offer, you can share useful articles with your customers, listen to their feedback on your service and that of your competitors.

As you would expect from all the advice in the ’small business, big ideas’ series, the ideas above are all free of charge as well! If you’re unsure, use Google to find (free) techniques to help improve your use of Social Media, or just use our WinWeb Support Team to help you. Social Media can be time consuming so you should remember to focus and potentially outsource it if it starts to become a burden on your working day.