The internet seemingly has an infinite amount of uses. People use it to share their ideas and research the things they find most interesting, thus making the internet the perfect tool to be utilised in a business environment. After all, it’s an endless encyclopaedia and more, and few firms could survive without it today.
But how is the internet changing business in more specific terms? Is it all for the better, or are concerns starting to materialise as more firms depend on the web? Companies like Redcentric can guarantee a robust connection for their clients, but what can it be used for?
Consequently, here’re 3 ways the internet has changed the way business is done.
Data Protection
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been enforced throughout the EU, making the security of data a priority for everyone, including businesses. This makes all corporate data private, as well as cracking down on tracking personal information and ensuring none of it is made public for outsiders to browse. It also stops things like running personalised ads and browser cookies without user awareness and/or consent.
That said, while GDPR was initially orchestrated to serve everyone’s best interests, it also sparks a degree of fear amongst corporations too. Hefty punishments are in place to hold companies accountable if they’re in breach of these relatively new laws. Not even Google can escape GDPR’s wrath, as they were fined a whopping £44 million because they failed to obtain a valid legal basis to process user data. Therefore, it’s impossible to deny that GDPR has had a seismic impact on businesses in the EU.
Advertising and Marketing
These days, everyone is online. You can’t call yourself a modern entrepreneur without access to the internet, because it’s where most of the attention is going to be projected onto a company today. Anyone googling services, products, or certain information needs to be redirected to the company website as soon as possible, and there’s only one way to make sure that; through quality marketing strategies.
This is where technologies like search engine optimisation come in. This uses things like keywords, categories and tags to enable corporate websites to rank higher in search engines, like Google. This is how businesses largely stay relevant and at the fore of public consciousness in modern times.
Of course, there’s also the matter of personalised ads that appear based on user browsing histories too.
Furthermore, social media profiles are created to represent the company, utilising all the hashtags and tags to get their company seen. While it might all seem trivial, business has changed around this enormously, as new roles and entire departments have been built around it all.
Remote Meetings
While extremely useful at certain times, meetings could also be a constant source of irritation in business too. When not strategically used, assembling workers together could be unnecessary, distracting and even outright time wasting. Simple discussions would pull people away from their work and into a boardroom that was less productive, and more a display of which workers had the best rhetoric. No one’s impressed.
However, the internet has enabled meetings to be conducted remotely. A connection is all you need to make a Skype call or send a message via a work-based messaging programme, such as Slack. Meetings can be held at the click of a button instead of travelling multiple office floors or commuting to other towns, cities or countries. In the end, it’s a big a time saver!
