If you read StartUpBiz a lot or are generally paying attention to the business world you will know that having an online presence is becoming critical to businesses. Strive Masiyiwa has been quoted as saying if your idea isn’t online in the day and age it’s not yet a business. Being online as important as it isn’t a small financial undertaking. While services are not always expensive it’s an area that exposed to both price increases and exchange rates. However, there are ways to get yourself online without spending.

Social Media

This one is a bit obvious but it’s a great place to start. Social Media is becoming the first platform for many things. So having your business on social media is a good start. There are many different platforms that work for many different types of businesses. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many more. The first two on the list are pretty important given the presence of data bundles that cater specifically to those platforms. Understanding each platform and what it brings is important.

Google my business

This is one of the best yet most underrated methods. You can easily upload your business information to Google for free and create your online presence. Google is the king of internet search so it will do you world of good to be known by the king. You can upload your services, address, contact details, business hours and even images to make your business more visible. You will be subject to verification in some cases but the process is entirely free.

Whatsapp for business

Originally a communication platform but very much a social medium WhatsApp is a big deal in Zimbabwe. As highlighted before with Facebook and Twitter, there are internet access packages that have bundles specifically for WhatsApp and that means WhatsApp Business is a great way to be connected. While the project is still in its early stages and allows limited functionality gains such as business information the future for this platform teases many great integrations. In the meanwhile, it is still a viable way to be accessible online.

Classifieds

There are a lot of these and fortunately for you and your business advertising, there is free. While classifieds will not provide you with a pure online presence it’s a fact that people online do look at these classifieds. So creating regular free classified ads about your business and offers will create a de facto online presence for you. Have a look at these ones classifieds.co.zw, zimexapp.co.zw, iharareclassifieds.com and deepleague.co.zw. Regular posting is important as classifieds tend to be listed in chronological order. Create a regular posting schedule.

Aggregators

Aggregators are services that bring together related content in one place. Finding services which aggregate businesses and make them available to online users is another good way to get yourself online presence for free. One such service that’s coming up is Batsira, they aim to aggregate customer service champion businesses in Zimbabwe and make the service available via an app. Registering on Batsira is free.

If you’re finding the cost of getting online prohibitive or you want to boost your online presence those are 5 great ways to do it. It is after all free to do so.