Company Internet Marketing 1

Lately, my inbox has been inundated with invitations to join new online social networking sites. Unlike early entrants to the social networking market like MySpace and Friendster, these new services are more focused on helping people do business. The largest and seemingly most popular business network is named Linkedin. A little over four years old, it boasts over 17 million members.

New social nets seem to be popping up daily.Many just duplicate features and functions of the leaders. They simply offer a network of people from many different walks of life the opportunity to connect with each other. However, one recent entrant is making waves by focusing the power of social networking software into a marketplace that has always

been insulated and inefficient - the entertainment industry.

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Just how different are the products/services you sell contrasted with your competitor? If you are a banker - or in any aspect of the lend lease continuum - is your money any greener? There’s no difference in auto policies sold by contending insurers. Can you tell the difference among copies printed on various brand name machines? Whether voice, internet, fax, or wireless, can we discern true disparity between communications services from one provider to another?

Can your customers genuinely perceive a distinction between what you provide and that of your rivals? If you find yourself quietly admitting to little or no difference, you are probably selling a commodity. Commodities are usually sold on a price basis, by he who

has the lowest price; often determined by he who has the lowest cost. This is the successful strategy of the nation’s largest retailer.

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A recent report from Associated Press reported this startling news: Women adore the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers. A survey conducted by Scarborough Sports Marketing in each NFL city found that 35 percent of women living in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area describe themselves as loyal football fans - tops in the league.

Now, of course, if you’ve ever watched an NFL broadcast, the last thing you’d think is that more than third of the women in any team’s hometown would be fans. In fact, you’d think all their fans are beer drinking, cheese-in-the-crust-eating, truck-driving big guys who do the occasional investing.

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You can t get good Mexican food anywhere north of Texas.

So averred my good buddy Tony when I suggested a Mexican meal on his recent visit. Now, I m a good deal north of Texas, being in the Heart of Massachusetts, but that s the kind of challenge that I can t pass up. Three hours later, he was rubbing his stuffed belly as we left Tortilla Sam s, voted Worchester s Best Mexican Restaurant for the third year in a row. Being voted Best Mexican Restaurant in a little northeastern city may not seem like much till you stand in front of the window at Tortilla Sam s and watch the tortillas

freshly mixed and cut by hand roll through the steam press and catch a whiff of the mole. Then you realize that this is real Mexican food. And if the Mexican food in Worcester is good enough to impress Texas-born-and-raised Tony, we ve got to figure that there are great Mexican restaurants in other unexpected places, right?

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What used to be a trend is now a recognized business necessity as more
and more companies take advantage of the Internet because they see how web-based solutions can streamline their business while helping them save time and money. Today, Internet technology helps small companies compete with Fortune 500 companies as they build eBusiness Infrastructure.

Companies no longer need to invest in in-house IT infrastructure to support packaged software and hardware to install and maintain. With just Internet access and a web browser, web-based solutions can offer integrated business tools like Document Management, Content Management, Customer Relations Management, Sales & Marketing Management, Enterprise Phone systems that automate business operations no matter what that business is. One example of a

small company utilizing the power of the Internet successfully is Olympic Moving and Storage. The company has two locations. One is in MA and another in VA. The company has realized significant increases in business by adopting an Internet-based business infrastructure. Before implementing web-based solutions, the company s two locations were completely separated with no direct connection between the two. The company first implemented a VPN (virtual private network). Basically a VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. With the VPN installed, Olympic Moving now has the ability to maintain fast, secure and reliable communications between the two locations. Implementing the VPN has essentially put the MA and VA offices under one roof.

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