In an effort to bring brick-and-mortar firms into the digital age, the Small Business Administration is partnering with Google to offer a roadmap navigating the array of free and low-cost Web tools that can boost a business's online presence.
The partnership builds on the SBA's ongoing broadband initiative, through which the agency is encouraging the companies it assists to embrace the Internet as a marketing and commerce channel.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and the SBA have developed an online resource page offering a tutorial on many aspects of online marketing that would seem intuitive to large firms or Internet-oriented businesses, such as
stacking a Web site with search-friendly keywords.But to the proprietors of the local bakery or dry cleaner, the Internet can still seem a foreign place.
"We want to make sure that every small business has a chance and gets all the help that they need," SBA Administrator Karen Mills said Wednesday morning at an event discussing the partnership with Google.
Mills estimated that around 90 percent of businesses have taken the first step of setting up a website, but that only about a quarter are equipped to handle any form of e-commerce.
For the SBA, promoting e-commerce serves the larger administration goal of boosting exports to chip away at the trade deficit. For Google, a company whose business and policy agendas carry the overarching goal of expanding Internet access and usage, the partnership with the SBA offers obvious benefits. More Web-savvy business owners, after all, would inevitably result in increased spending on promotional tools like search advertising.
John Hanke, Google's vice president of product management, counseled small businesses to fine-tune their information onGoogle Places, the company's commercial listing service that appends information like an address and links to reviews to a business' profile on a search results page.
"It's just like a business card or a sign or a storefront -- people are going to form an opinion about you online," Hanke said at this morning's event.
And it's not just Google. Hanke advised small businesses to enhance their profile on numerous other sites offering similar opportunities, such as Yelp, Citysearch and social sites like Facebook.
For businesses of all sizes, the social Web continues to pose a challenge. Should readers be permitted to leave comments on official blogs? What should a corporate Facebook profile look like? How should a marketing team approach a communication platform like Twitter?
Questions such as these have given rise to the class of professionals known as social media consultants. Definitive answers remain elusive, and companies continue to experiment, often taking widely varying approaches. But for any business, Google and the SBA are urging entrepreneurs not to ignore the discussion.
"There's this whole dialogue happening by your customers about you," Hanke said. "If you're not paying attention, you're not hearing what people are saying about you when you're not around."
At least one small-business owner agreed.
"Sometimes it's painful," said Susan Holt, co-owner of a D.C. cooking school called CulinAerie, who was on hand this morning to offer a testimonial about the power of the Web for small businesses. "But it's important to know, because otherwise you find yourself living in a bubble."
Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
