A view of the Internet

I read lots of stuff about the Internet. Everyone is using the it and everyone is using it more than they did. The world and his dog has a website (quite literally), whether its their own site, or a blog, or YouTube, or myspace, or bebo. Half of the users are on broadband. Most of them are eShoppers, browsing and buying from a huge variety of site.

And on the financial side it's still the place to be. Company valuations are extraordinary - one minute Murdoch is insanely spending £450bn on the latest fad, Myspace, the next he's being paid £900bn by Google in a search / advertising deal. But where is the value? I've heard a rumour that myspace is passe already - so where will that leave News Corp / Google?

My view of the Internet is of its potential as a marketing channel. The statisticians tell us that online advertising is growing faster than any other medium. The press tell us about all the exciting activity the big brands are undertaking, from new multi-million pound e-commerce sites to the latest mobile campaign.

So there's lots going on. And it seems to effect everyone one way or another. But what does it mean for SMEs. They should be in on the act for sure, but what should they be doing? There was a time when it was held that the Internet allowed the small player to compete with the multinational, but not many people believe that any more.

There are opportunities. And there are threats. Nothing unusual there. But working out what those opportunities and threats are for a small business can be a hard task.

In this blog I will putting down my thoughts on what the Internet means for SMEs and how it can be used as an effective marketing tool. It's probably only for my personal use, a way for me to help to organise my thoughts and to leave a trail so that I can see how they develop and change over time. But if you do happen to read something interesting, please, please leave a comment behind.