06/ 01/ 2005
Would you like a low-cost online communications channel with your customers, but are put off by the time you imagine it will take to maintain a Weblog or a frequently updated Web site or e-newsletter?
For the time-challenged (and who’s not?) small business, here are three point-and-click communication tools that you can manage with little effort beyond what you already spend reading online news or e-mail.
The key to all of these approaches is the way in which they offer your customers instant updates of your content via the increasingly popular syndication methods like “RSS” (really simple syndication) that are used in such services as My Yahoo and Bloglines. After you set up any of these services, be sure to give your audience both the primary URL of the service, and also the URL of its RSS feed.
1. Start a link blog. If you feel you don’t have the time or talent to write “posts” on a Weblog, set up a link blog that allows you to, in effect, display a page of stories you think would be helpful for your customers. A free service like Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) is easy to set up and maintain. Whenever you run across an online article or information that might interest your customers, a one-click bookmark will allow you to add a link to the story on your link blog. Within a few seconds, anyone who subscribes to your RSS feed will see your must-read suggestion.
2. Start sharing photos with your customers. Set up a flickr (http://www.flickr.com) account to provide your customers with helpful (or fun) photos shot with a digital camera or cell-phone camera. Got a new product to announce? Add a photo to your flickr site. Attending an industry conference? Post photos of new products or presentation slides you think might interest your customers. Within seconds, your photos can be viewed by the world.
3. Start an announcement and comment blog. There’s no reason you can’t use the inexpensive (and often completely free) blogging services like Live Journal (http://www.livejournal.com) to provide you with a place online to let your customers know about special offers, sales or the most up-to-date information. If setting up a blog seems intimidating or time consuming, try Live Journal for a few weeks to get the hang of posting short comments.
