With more internet users spending more time online than ever before, and small businesses being hit by hard times, it’s time to rethink how we connect with our audience. Here are six ways to make sure that your small business can weather the transition and thrive in the aftermath.
Know your niche,
The metaverse — the concept of connecting people to tech and vice versa using virtual and augmented reality — isn’t new. While Zuckerberg and his all-seeing company touts it as the next big thing, the idea has been around for decades, at varying levels of execution. Technically, the first online message boards back in the late eighties and early nineties could be seen as the precursor to today’s metaverse push, since it was all about connecting people virtually.
It can be hard to find a consensus on when the metaverse idea was originally floated, just as it’s challenging to find an agreed-upon definition of what it means to us now. So the first key to making sure that your small business is ready for the new era of digital transformation is to have a clear idea of what you want for your brand and how you can leverage tech to achieve it.
This means different things for each company. For one startup, it’s a matter of developing better AI to address customer questions on-site. For another, it’s creating an entire VR world that enables potential buyers to examine products as though they were really there with them.
Only you can determine what you want the metaverse to do for your business — and that’s the vital first step to riding the digital wave.
Consider rebranding,
With new tech initiatives and social platforms come new branding opportunities. This is the perfect time to take a long, hard look at your visual brand.
One of my favorite things about the idea of the metaverse is the focus on connectivity. In researching potential startups in the new digital age, that’s one thing I would have at the top of the list for visuals: messaging that makes clear how important communication is to my venture. It’s one of the founding values behind the metaverse, and it belongs front and center in my branding, too.
This is an excellent time to consider rebranding to reflect that value. Whether you just need to update your existing visuals or create a logo with software entirely from scratch, I heartily recommend using a brand identity guide for your company logo before we get any further in the metaverse initiative.
Take advantage of initiatives by big companies.
Speaking of initiatives, have you heard about Amazon and small businesses?
No, I don’t mean the much-debated idea that Amazon is putting small businesses out of, well, business. Amazon Web Services is actually launching a pilot program to help small businesses enter the realm of e-commerce with a minimum of fuss— and allow customers to search the small business database and connect with companies that share values, offer the desired products, and other searchable factors.
That’s a surprising, and very welcome, step for the ecommerce giant to take. And it isn’t the only one. For example, much ado is made of Facebook’s switch to becoming Meta, but along with the name change comes some other upgrades, especially for business accounts seeking out new ways to communicate and connect with their target audience.
It’s likely that more and more of these opportunities and resources will come up as we progress, so the key is to be aware of them — and take advantage of them, too. Big companies may not historically be the best friends to small businesses, but there’s room for giving and taking in the metaverse.
Claim and update your business on search engines,
This is a key that you’re likely doing anyhow — at least, you should be — but there’s actually a pretty good chance that you need to address it. Webfx.com reports that more than half of business owners don’t claim their company on tools like Google My Business, AKA Google Business Profile.
Claiming and maintaining your online presence is absolutely crucial for a small business in our time. Without it, you miss out on opportunities to drive traffic to your site or the business itself, as well as risk frustrating customers who can’t find the information that they need. And keeping the information up to date is just as important — ask anyone who went looking for an open restaurant over the holidays and who drove to five different locations because their Google profile claimed they were open (and by “anyone,” I mean me)
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