You may have heard the term Internet Strategy thrown around recently. With the rise in popularity of the Internet, businesses have felt the need to get on the Web bandwagon. Most businesses have a website, but many are feeling the need for a more thorough look at how to use the Internet effectively. So, what exactly is an Internet Strategy?
Like any good strategy, an Internet strategy is a process of deciding upon a goal and then figuring out how to work towards that goal. An Internet strategy should be intimately tied to your business strategy. If you don’t have a business strategy, start there and incorporate the Internet into your planning. The goal should be a business goal, not just an Internet business goal. The Internet has matured enough to be able to assist in reaching most business goals.
Once you have your business goal, an Internet strategy is the process of figuring out how the Internet can help you reach that goal. Think about your business website. What functionality and information should be available to your customers to help you reach your goal? What other Internet technologies can help? It helps to think broadly – email, internet advertising, twitter, social networking, blogs – can all help you reach business goals.
To differentiate yourself from your competitors, think about what makes your business different. What are you good at? What is your core competency? How can you apply that to your Internet strategy?
Your customers are the reason why you’re in business. Don’t forget about them. What benefits will you offer them through your products and services? How can you leverage these benefits on the Internet? How can your customers help you reach your goals?
(photo by compujeramey @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: business, internet business, internet strategy, internet marketing, strategy, business strategy, internet business strategy
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A website may have a feed, but it may not be obvious – try subscribing to the website using Google Reader or iGoogle – both will try to find the feed for you.
Having a content strategy is important for businesses because it provides a plan for using their website and the Internet to reach business goals. Most businesses will have goals around increasing sales, improving customer loyalty and brand reputation, and decreasing customer support costs. These can all be accomplished online and on your company’s website and having a good content strategy will help. First step is to consider the questions from yesterday’s post. Once you’re ready to proceed, here’s an example how you might implement a content strategy:
You’ve heard it before – content is king. Well without regularly updated useful content your business website will stagnate. It’s the end of the year and a good time to reflect on how you’re using your website and the Internet to further your business goals. Take a few minutes to think about how you can use content to help your customers and further your goals. The good news is that content strategy can be cheap (in dollars) to implement and can provide excellent returns on investment (helping you reach your goals). Here are some questions to consider in your content strategy:
As a followup to 
Once you’ve decided to use Twitter for your business, using the right tools can make the entire experience much easier and more rewarding. Here are some of the top tools that I use. If you have others, please share them in the comments. Since Twittering is exploding in use, I expect more tools to be developed and to add to this list in the future.
Now you may or may not have dated recently, but we all have had experience with someone who comes on too strongly or is self-centered. Let’s say you are at a bar and someone approaches you with the following:
I look forward to networking with you.
Want to know what’s hot on Twitter right now? 
One of the top requests we get from clients is to help increase traffic to their business website. Our first response is to ask what business goal they are trying to attain. While increasing traffic may be one of many possible solutions, it may not be the right one. Working on increasing traffic on your website without understanding how it will help you reach your goals is like getting triple-bypass heart surgery before you’ve had a doctor’s diagnosis.
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