Computers, software, network systems, and the Internet are essential parts of every business today. Technology is both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to grow your business. Technology forms the infrastructure of most every business and, via the Internet, is a major tool for attracting and retaining customers.
Technology is used by businesses to:
– Reach more potential customers with your brand message and value proposition.
- – Streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste, and devote talent to core business activities.
- – Provide better service to customers, partners and suppliers.
How much should you spend on technology for your business? The answer is, “It depends.” Assess how each digital investment will benefit your business. Will it bring in larger profits? Make your operation more efficient, thereby reducing costs? Mitigate your risks in one way or another?
Your Online Presence
How do your customers prefer to shop and buy? The Internet makes comparison shopping quick and easy. If your website doesn’t grab them, doesn’t speak in language that resonates with them, or doesn’t give them all the information they need to make a buy decision, they’ll click away to take a look at your competitors.
Social Media
70 years ago, the must-have technology for business was a telephone. 20 years ago, it was a website. Today, it’s social media. Depending on the nature of your business, you need to be interacting with customers and prospects on some subset of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It can be overwhelming, so pick and choose carefully. It’s much more effective to use one or two platforms well than to deploy many poorly.
Get the most from social media by tracking metrics within your social media accounts. These are the statistics you should be tracking:
- – Impressions and reach – An impression is a view of your post. Reach measures how many people saw your posts.
- – Mentions – How often your business is mentioned on social media.
- – Follower growth – The number of followers on your social media accounts and how much they grow over time.
- – Sentiment – The number of “likes” or other reactions your posts are getting.
- – Shares – How many of your followers share your content with others.
- – Location – Where are your followers geographically? If your brick-and-mortar store has few local followers, you may be wasting your efforts.
- – Conversions – Use Google Analytics to set up Goals to track visitors from different social networks. Conversions might include clicking on a link in a social post, filling out a contact form, or subscribing to a blog. Facebook’s advertising platform also offers sophisticated conversion tracking all its own. With a little bit of technical know-how, any website owner can harness these powerful tools.
Social media helps to create a community of customers and prospects who see you as more than just a business entity. They’ll view your business as trustworthy, and people buy from those they trust.
Mobile
In the United States, there are currently over 200 million smartphone users. It’s highly likely that the business prospects you want to reach use a smartphone not just for conversations, but for texting, accessing the Internet, and viewing your website.
A site that displays well on a desktop computer must also be configured to render well on a tablet or smartphone. Google, knowing how many of its users view the web via smartphone, penalizes sites that haven’t been updated. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly are punished with lower search engine rankings, making mobile-readiness a critical success factor. Luckily, websites can be designed or adapted for mobile viewing fairly easily by knowledgeable web developers.
Security Issues
When it comes to a security breach, it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when.”
While breaches at big corporations make the headlines, small businesses are also targets for hackers. Small businesses have more digital assets to target than individuals, but less security than large corporations.
Take the security of your digital assets seriously. If cyber-security is not your area of expertise, hire someone who is an expert.
Today, all businesses are tech businesses!
At Blink;Tech, we synthesize cutting-edge web development with creative Internet marketing strategies to help businesses of all sizes and industries succeed on the web. Talk to us today about how we can help you make your mark on the web with your business, project, or idea.
