How to use the internet when your customers are concentrated within ten square miles.

1. Main Ideas /2009/10/please-welcome- For a chart of the top companies answering
wwwdickdaviescom.html these questions, search Battelle Database
What is the core creative idea that will
of Intentions Chart - Version 2, Updated
engage your audience?  I have two free blogs, Sales Lab Posts
for Commerce.
Platforms are just amplification. http://blog.saleslabdc.com and
Through The Browser, For an even grander view of tools you can
The Internet is a network of computers.
http://throughthebrowser.blogspot.com use, search The CMO’s Guide to: The
The World Wide Web is a network of links.
where I post twice a week. Figure a Social Landscape www.cmo.com/social-
Do you want to control the platform, or good post is 5 paragraphs, ten media/cmos-guide-social-media-landscape
control the conversation? sentences. Started last September, now
I don’t agree with all the choices on either
How you use the internet depends on what more than 85 posts.
graphic, but my needs are not your needs.
you want to do. Whatever you want to do,  I have a free LinkedIn page, They showed me the bigger opportunity.
chances are someone else has already www.linkedin.com/in/dickdavies,
What’s a small business to do?
done it. R&D means Research and
My LinkedIn strategy is explained in Get email. Learn to use it. I favor Gmail as
Duplicate.
Web 2.0 in Three Paragraphs it is excellent quality and free.
My Incoming Education http://throughthebrowser.blogspot.com
Build a website you can fix yourself.
 Search Engine – Take the time to learn /2009/09/web-20-in-three-
Websites get better, not finished. I favor
how to use your chosen search engine. paragraphs.html.
Google Apps Standard Edition as it is free
I subscribe to nine Google blogs to
When I change the status bar on my and requires no programming.
learn how to make the most out of their
LinkedIn page, I notify over 500
tools. Last night I saw Google If you’re a local retail business, become a
LinkedIn contacts and automatically
developers searching on Twitter. Yelp guru. Yelp shows where you are and
notify my Twitter followers.
what your customers think about you. I
 Email – The great communicator. You
Syndication found my barber on Yelp and he’s the best
can quickly reach most of the world
To get my message out to my world, I am barber I have had in a decade.
from your email. I have 6 accounts in
active in 25 LinkedIn Groups and a half
one Gmail window because Gmail has If you have a business-to-business
dozen targeted Ning social networks.
the best spam filter. operation, get a LinkedIn Page, get 500
When I write a blog post, I also post it to contacts and some recommendations.
 Blog Aggregator – Replaced my
some groups. A full post goes to over
newspaper. I use Google Reader, part I have 28 LinkedIn recommendations and I
80,000 people. See “Building Your Social
of Gmail. I subscribe to 67 blogs. That like them so much I copied them to my
Media Platform,” http://bit.ly/dvuDUG
list is posted on Through The Browser. website so people I am not linked to can
What Else Can You Do? see them.
Getting Found
John Battelle, one of the leaders of Web
 I have two free web sites, Join LinkedIn groups and other social
2.0 recently posted an update of his 10 year
www.saleslabdc.com and networks that interest you. Start by
old Database of Intentions. The first
www.dickdavies.com. I am not a reading, then write. Let other people read
concept of DBoI was what people asked
programmer, and I built it in four hours what you write. Good feedback is
search engines. He has expanded that to
from a cold start. It comes with 50 free wonderful.
“What I Want,” “What I Buy,” “Who I
email accounts and other goodies.
Am,” “Who I Know,” “What I’m Doing,”
http://throughthebrowser.blogspot.com
and Where I Am” (or “What’s close?”).

2. Other Thoughts
“Hunh?”
“Hunh, Hell! Do Something!”
The new tools, the most advanced tools,
that let you take advantage of the benefits SALES LAB INCORPORATED
of the Internet are mostly free. WWW.SALESLABDC.COM
These tools are “social,” so tell your
friends what you are doing. Get their help
and opinions.
When you need help to do something, ask
a search engine. The answers are there.
The trick is which figuring out which
question provides the right answer.
When you are building your cyber-empire,
keep a pad of paper handy. for ideas, How Local Businesses
passwords, user names, and questions. Can Take Advantage
When you get frustrated, take a break. The
stress is because you get immediate
Of The Internet
response from a computer. Relax! Rejoice! A Cost-Conscious Workshop
Resolve to have fun, don’t blame anyone
or anything when you don’t understand, For Successful Small Businesses
because you will be ashamed when you
do understand.
In 1995, on my first website, I realized, Arlington Business Council
“Websites don’t get finished. They get
better.” I liked that so much, I put that on April 8, 2010
the website.
In The Mythical Man Month, Rick Brooks DICK DAVIES
writes, “Software is the ultimate art form. SALES LAB INCORPORATED
You can make anything.” DICKDAVIES @SALES LABDC.COM
Learn anything today? Write a comment
telling the best thing you learned, and see
additional links previous comments at
http://bit.ly/saleslab_internet_adv.
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