“We think of these social media tools as being in the realm of the sophisticated, multiplatform marketers like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, but a lot of these supersmall businesses are gravitating toward them because they are accessible, free and very simple,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst who studies the Internet’s influence on shopping and local businesses.

The Boston Globe recently featured restaurants that are taking advantage of Twitter, using it to post daily specials and offer freebies:

“You could be a pizza guy at a greasy spoon sending text messages from a three-year-old cellphone,’’ [Aaron] Cohen said. “You don’t need technology to be spreading your message on Twitter. It’s very utilitarian.’’

Twitter is even offering its own guide to help businesses figure out how to best use Twitter.

While some of these articles claim Twitter is easier than setting up a website (it can be), they also claim you don’t need a website. That’s one point we disagree with. A website is your online home, offering clarity, longevity and search engine traffic.

Once upon a time an angry customer could raise their voice and slam the door on the way out. You could try to make amends, but if it didn’t work you could just shrug your shoulders. At worst they might tell their friends, but it would usually die down.

Complaints Go Online
Now those angry customers can go online. They can spread their grievances to anyone who will listen (and even some who won’t). There are countless sites that post user comments, giving voice to the frustrated, whether their complaints are justified or not. Those complaints don’t just disappear, they stick around. And trying to control those complaints is like herding cats. Good luck: You’ll need it. A jilted customer could even take it much farther than an angry comment and post an entire site slamming your business.

Complaints could even take a political tone as customers critique your company on a variety of issues, from unfair labor practices to animal cruelty to environmental damage.

Your Own Voice
So how do you respond? The beauty of the freedom all these complainers have online is that you have the same opportunity to speak. It’s a good idea to respond to some of these negative comments and reviews that show up on other sites, though you have to remember that you’re dealing with disgruntled customers who may not ever be assuaged. But in many cases humbly addressing an issue and offering an apology can do wonders.

But perhaps the best thing you can do is counter those complaints with your own site. Your own site doesn’t have to be the Wild West—you can control the conversation. It may not be wise to completely ignore complaints, but you can use your site to fairly address concerns and focus on the positives: emphasize how you resolved complaints and shine some light on rave reviews and happy customers. Above all be honest and transparent.

Having your own website gives you the platform to counter these complaints and the ability to have some control over the conversation. Without a website you’re ceding the conversation to someone else.

That’s one of the benefits of a website: It’s trackable. You’ll never know how many people saw your billboard or how many people actually looked at your postcard before chucking it in the trash, but even the most basic web stats service will tell you how many people visited your website.

More robust stat services (like Google Analytics) will tell you loads more information, like where your visitors live, what search terms brought them to your site, what other sites are linking to you and more.

All that information is power. You can quickly see if your investment in your website is paying off or not. You’ll know if you need to tweak your efforts, pull the plug or sit back in smile. More than any other marketing method, websites can be held accountable.

A website is your online base of operations. It’s a place to follow-up, to give more information, to say what you didn’t have the space or time to say in your brochure, phone book ad, billboard or radio spot. As such, a website pairs nicely with just about any advertising medium you’re considering.

Offer the Next Step
The next step is always crucial with any marketing: How do people respond? In many cases a marketing method won’t be able to give a full pitch. There’s only so much space. Which is why a website is so perfect. Point people to your website as a low-pressure place to get more information and take the next step. Just make sure the next step is clear on your website—order online, call for an appointment, etc.

Be Specific
Make your marketing more effective by pointing to specifics. Advertising your business in general may be fine, but it might work better to pitch a specific deal or a unique service. If your marketing is specific, make sure the follow up on your site matches. Either point people to a specific page that directly responds to the marketing (maybe it’s a unique url like yourbiz.com/deal) or make sure it’s easy to find on the homepage.

Answer Questions
One of the crucial ways a website can partner with your other marketing efforts is by answering questions. A billboard is just too small and a radio ad is just too short to answer every potential question. Take advantage of a website’s unlimited space by answering questions.

Give Credibility
Your website is a way to show your credibility. If your other marketing efforts got people to your website, they’re at least interested. Now it’s time to show that you’ve got what it takes. Back up your claims. Be professional. Give potential customers a reason to trust you. Here is the place to pull out your professional associations, your training, your glowing recommendations or whatever you have that will lend your business credibility.

In short, a website has your marketing’s back.

When that happens your potential customers lose their potential.

But a website offers a major advantage—reclaiming lost potential. If they forget your url a quick spin on a search engine could bring them back. If you play your SEO cards right they might not even need to remember the name of your business. All your advertising can be backed up and reinforced by a consistent web presence.

Circumstances will conspire against your business from time to time, which is why you need conspire against the circumstances. Be prepared with a website and make sure you’re easy to find. Then when people forget the details—and let’s face it, people will forget—it’s easier to be found again.

That’s no problem at WebDesign.com. We make updating your site easy:

Content Management System
Every one of our packages includes a powerful content management system to run your site. This fancy system effectively gives you the keys to your site. You don’t need to know HTML or javascript to update your site. If you can send e-mail and save a Word document you can figure out our online editing tools.

We’ll Plug In Your Content For You
If that’s not easy enough, we’ll do it for you. Every Web Design Package includes our Elite Web Hosting, which features 30 minutes of content management assistance per month. Now when you ask, “Can’t someone else do it?”, the answer is yes.

Free Online Seminars
Finally, we offer free online seminars to help you get the most out of your site. We’ll cover helpful topics like website marketing, leveraging social media tools, maintaining your site and more.

The bottom line is that once you launch a site with WebDesign.com we don’t leave you on your own. We’ve enabled you to update your site, we’ll teach you how to do it yourself and we’ll even do it for you. Keeping your site current couldn’t be easier.

Advertising is usually a one-way street. It’s one-way communication from you to potential customers. Think about the standard forms of advertising—radio or TV commercials, billboards, print ads, even the guy on the corner holding a sign. They’re all one-way communication with little regard for the customer’s interests, preferences, time or general sanity. As such, advertising gets ignored. Even worse, it can be dismissed as annoying.

While advertising can be effective, it has many pitfalls and is often on the outs today. Unless you’ve got multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads, nobody asks to see your advertising. Customers don’t want to be yelled at or interrupted.

Customers want a conversation.

That’s what a website can offer. It’s more than advertising. It’s communication. It’s connection. It’s interaction. Assuming, of course, that you take the effort to do that (see Do More with Your Website).

People visit your website because they want something. It’s not an interruption—they’re seeking you out. So give the people what they want. Give them the basic info they’re looking for. But a yellow pages ad does that, so do more. Answer questions they didn’t know they had. Offer updates and discounts and insider info. Make it dynamic. Make it change. Let’s see a yellow pages ad do that (see Flexible Marketing for Your Business).

A website is ultimately about communication, so make sure you’re communicating.

That isn’t the case with other marketing options where an extra page or an extra minute might double the price. Try doubling the size of your yellow pages ad or adding an extra few pages to your brochure without increasing the cost. The cost of megabytes and pixels for your website is negligible, so it doesn’t really matter if your site has five pages or 50.

The difficult part is that only the truly committed (and maybe your mom) will want to wade through 50 pages about your business. The key to taking advantage of all that space is twofold:

1. Valuable
There’s no point to having 50 pages of extra content if it’s not worth something to somebody. The key is to offer extra content that won’t fit in your brochure that’s still valuable:

• For a restaurant it might be a more detailed menu with a history of the favorite dishes or even recipes (the ones you’re willing to share).
• For a plumber it might be detailed descriptions of common problems and solutions (save your customer money on a tiny problem and they’ll be more likely to call you for a major problem).
• For a photographer it might be gallery after gallery of work samples (if your work speaks for itself, why limit yourself to just a few samples?).
• For a nonprofit it could be a constantly growing list of accomplishments, something that starts as news but turns into an archive of success you can point potential donors to.

2. Organized
Having a lot of content is no problem if it’s well organized. But if it’s a jumbled mess? That’s going to hurt you more than help you. Make sure your information is categorized, labeled and tagged so it’s easy to browse, easy to search and easy to find. Break up long chunks of text with headers, bulleted or numbered lists, and bold text. Consider highlighting gems on your homepage to draw people into your detailed content and showcase the breadth of information available. If you’re going to put a lot of content out there, you have to make sure people know it’s there.

A website can be a major boost to your business, especially when you take advantage of the nearly limitless real estate. Just be sure to keep it valuable and keep it organized.

Which means your business website is a personality delivery vehicle. It’s a chance to put your personality on display. It’s a chance for potential customers to get a feel for your business and see if they like what they see.

• Maybe you’re an accountant with a laid back, relaxed personality. You put people at ease. That’s clearly an asset, but only if potential customers realize it. Your website is a place to show it, highlighting your location next to a peaceful park and probably not a countdown calendar to April 15. Maybe instead of a contact form you have an invitation to drop by the office—whenever, no appointment necessary.
• Maybe you’re a local mechanic with a long history in the community and a trustworthy personality. You’re clearly differentiated from the chain shops, but you desperately need to connect with busy people accustomed to drive through oil changes. Your website can tell your story, focusing on your deep local roots, your involvement in the community and the scores of longtime customers who trust their car with only you. You could build trust by sharing car care tips on a blog and diagnosing car trouble online with a free in-shop follow-up estimate.
• Maybe you’re a real estate agent with an all-business, no chit-chat, efficiency-is-everything personality. That will appeal to certain people (and turn off others). It can come out in your website with an attention to detail, highlights touting your recent sales and length of time on the market, and even an application to get started that weeds out the merely curious from the truly committed.

Every business has a personality, the only question is whether or not yours is working for you. And a personality can’t work for you if it’s not coming through in a black and white print ad or a simple postcard. A website gives you the space, the freedom, the interaction and the technology to let your personality shine. Let a website introduce you to potential customers.