What is the best way to market my small business using the internet?

[ezzza]

I want to try marketing using websites, is facebook a right way promote the business.

[johnnight20]

Facebook also can. You can try http://www.alibaba.com

[A J]

Yes, use Facebook. Make a page for your business and send invitations to your target market. I've received invitations to a business page on facebook before and let me tell you, I actually did take the time to look.

[ebizserv]

Social Media Marketing is next boom - let me give you some real example

1. If you retweet using twitter - your retweet will come in google on first page - as now a days google updates all retweet to its search engine

2. In case of facebook - you got to update it on regular basis - look at DELL and HP on Facebook, they maintain it very well and most importantly they have a link on their website to facebook, so when users land to their main website s/he subscribe or become fan to their facebook page.

3. Think about inventory - you got to plan to have atleast 50 fans, followers or interested member to your social inventory every year, this means if you signup and maintain 10 social sites, you will have 500 potential customers.

4. Now talking about how to market - so here are some tips

1.Show you social sites links on your website
2.Create mini sites like hubpages, stumbleupon and more that will market your social sites
3. In your email, brochure, everywhere put your social contact info
4. Update your social places with pictures, offers, groups and more and people will get more and more interested to visit on regular basis

Hire some consultant from web media marketing or ebizsubmit to work on your project.

[Jihn]

Social media optimization is best way to promote your business

[Sasha]

create your website and advertize it, and your business will go while you'll be sitting at home....

Today websites are INDISPENSABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

go here to check ready templates: http://www.websitetemplates.bz/website-t...lates.html

hope, it helps

[Sweet]

Yes, you can create a Facebook fan page to promote your business.
You can also write about your business on websites dedicated to that and get worldwide readers interested in your promotions, like on http://tiny.cc/aXO2T.

[Mayan master]

Facebook is a great tool to use as money maker, but the biggest problem with that is people expect that simply updating one facebook account occasionally will double or triple sales. Sorry to say, that won't cut it.

First off, Facebook alone cannot and should not be your only online marketing strategy. Although facebook may help you connect with visitors and increase loyalty, it won't make you any better or worse in google's eyes. You need websites that will give you link juice. Find your competitors and set up a link exchange. Link to their website, and ask them to link to yours. You being linked to by them will increase your reputation in google's eyes, and them being linked to by you will increase their reputation in google's eyes. But again, you can't rely only on those two.

A combination of shopping directories, other social media websites, and blogs is a good way to go. Below are some examples:

Aboutus.org is a wiki to websites, allowing you to write an article about your website. If you write a professional sounding article, you can email them and get the "nofollow" tags removed, allowing Google to see you're linked to from them. http://www.aboutus.org/ProFollow

Joeant.com is a directory of websites, primarily shopping related. You can choose exactly the right section for your website to be added to, and get targeted visitors. Adding your url is only $40, or, if you choose, you can volunteer to become an editor of a category, and attempt to add your website for free. Doing it the free way doesn't guarantee acceptance, and delays the date of your website being added.

Shop.com is a pay per click website, in which you upload part of your website's inventory, and pay for each click of your item(s). Clicking takes the user directly to your website.

Stumbleupon.com, digg.com, mixx.com, and delicious.com are all social bookmarking websites in which you can submit websites for others to comment on, and vote on.

Conduit.com is a website in which you can build your own, downloadable toolbar. If you have very loyal customers, you can use this to keep reminding them about your website, and increase sales.

Twitter.com is a website that should be used in addition to facebook. Also, blogging is an important part of social media.

Secondly, what you write about on facebook is important too. Remember, people are more interested in your topical website, rather than your individual business. For example, if I ran an art brokerage, I'd post quotes from Monet, or post about famous pieces of art being added to an a museum.
Only link to your business every fifth or sixth message max. The same goes for twittering, except that you will need to condense your messages.

The reason you should use both is that some people only have one or the other. Targeting both Twitter and Facebook allows you to target more people, and increase more of your audience's loyalty.

I hope this helps. If it does, please vote for this answer.

[Anushka]

You can try social media websites such as facebook, twitter, orkut, delicious, digg, reddit and many others. It helps.