ou can’t go very far these days without reading or hearing about Web 2.0 and RSS, Web analytics, blogging, social networking and the like. For small businesses it might all seem to be chaotic and confusing and make little to no sense at all. But while these new tools aren’t the end all and be all, they do present a great opportunity for small businesses to connect and engage with their customers to sell their products and services.

Let’s start with the basics. First, Web 2.0 is less about the tools. It’s about the programming languages behind the scenes that allow these different tools to be shared and connected together. It’s what allows a person to have a blog and automatically list their blog updates on their Web site. It’s what allows a person who is reading an article from The Burlington Free Press to “share” it with their friends via e-mail, or by posting it on their Facebook page or adding it to their blog.

The big shakeup is less about the tools themselves and more about what people (you and your customers) can do with those tools. It is empowering your customer, creating engagement opportunities and entering into a partnership with your customers to share your brand. It’s a big switch from creating an advertisement to run on your local TV or in your local newspaper and hoping that is enough to drive people to your business.

How can these tools help you? Let’s look at a few and run down how they can help your bottom line.

Web Analytics: There are many analytics programs out there that provide usage data from a Web site. If you aren’t monitoring that data to know where users came from, what your “bounce rate” is (the rate at which users come to your homepage and then leave immediately), and how long they stay on your site, you are missing an opportunity to improve your site (which is your best 24/7 employee. Doesn’t need sleep, no benefit cost and always says what you want!).

-- Really Simple Syndication is a two-way street that provides your customers with a way to subscribe to yourinformation updates from your Web site or your blog without cluttering up their e-mail inbox. At the same time it provides you witha way to measure the engagement of the customer with your information: the more subscriptions you havethe better.It also allows the business professional a faster and easier way to gather their information without cluttering up their in box!

-- Blogging: A blog is a simple way for a business to communicate with itstheir customers. While the company Web site is the standard bearer for the company brand and general information, the blog is the human face of the organization. It’s the ideal place to showcase expertise — not to sell product, but rather to highlight why the business is good at what it does (the people behind the brand, of course). A good local example of this is the blog run by Seventh Generation President and CEO Jeffrey Hollender.

-- Social Networking: Sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook all provide differentways to connect to customers and clients. Start with where your customers are, and then use the appropriate sites to build your fan base, provide special incentives, or create a buzz.Many of these sites are free, so while a time investment is needed, it is not financially burdensome.

-- Monitoring the Social Web: Use online tools, such as Google Alerts, to find out what people are “saying“ about your business. One of the simplest ways to connect is to know when your company is mentioned online so that you can respond through a posting or an e-mail to let your customers know they have been heard.

The best advice for any small business tois that they pick one thing to start with and give it a try. Keeping the target market and company brand image in mind, setting clear goals for the tool, and monitoring the progress will allow any small business to effectively evaluate what online marketing tools will work best for them.

From: burlingtonfreepress.com by Elaine Young