Types of communication:

Email

You must answer your email or hire someone to do it for you. Email has become a standard form of business communication, especially for short messages that require action. This kind of technology-based communication allows you to take care of a lot of customers, as well as partners and other stakeholders without lengthy conversations. In fact, modern software allows you to send the same email to all interested parties so that you can keep your message, name and products in the forefront of their minds.

Texting

Texting has become the most personal form of business communication. Whereas you might give your email address to many people, your personal text number is reserved for a few close associates. Your communications by text tend to be more urgent than email. If your business is moving too slowly, you should examine whether you are taking full advantage of texting.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging through websites or instant-messaging applications can contribute to the success of your negotiations. Instant messaging tends to be for longer discussions than texting. You can engage someone in another city, state or country in a conversation that can lead to a lucrative business deal. The advantage of this electronic conversation is that you can take time to think before you respond. In face-to-face conversations, it can be difficult to pause long enough to gather your thoughts.

Social Networking

Social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be essential to getting your message out. You will have to adjust your communication style to a more informal approach. You gather “friends” on these sites. These are places to do relationship marketing. Instead of sales pitches, place messages on these sites that sound like you have a good deal for your friends.

Tweeting

The website Twitter allows you to broadcast very short messages called “tweets” to people who have elected to follow your posts. This is not the place for a long treatise. Instead, briefly refer to a new product, message or development your company is excited about. This may not result in immediate sales, but it will result in awareness of your company in the marketplace.

Blogs

The word “blog” is short for “web log.” These sites are often written by amateurs, but getting a blogger to review a product or service can be a good way to spread the word about your small business. Contact bloggers by email, usually listed on their blogs, and ask them to take a look at your product or service. You can spread the word informally and quickly through this technology-based communication. Many companies, from sole proprietorships to large corporations, have established their own blogs as a primary communication channel to the public.

Video Conferencing

You can save travel money by using video-conferencing. If you and another person both have cameras and the right software, you can see each other and talk to each other on your computers. This gives you the face-to-face meeting you need without having to be in the same location. When you want to convey your message with physical gestures and facial expressions, this form of technology can be an effective communication tool. 

E-commerce & Ebay

eBay is the world's online marketplace; a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything.

Here's how eBay works:

Ø  A seller lists an item on eBay, most anything from antiques to cars, books to sporting goods. The seller chooses to accept only bids for the item (an auction-type listing) or to offer the Buy It Now option, which allows buyers to purchase the item right away at a fixed price.

Ø  In an online auction, the bidding opens at a price the seller specifies and remains on eBay for a certain number of days. Buyers then place bids on the item. When the listing ends, the buyer with the highest bid wins.

Ø  In a Buy It Now listing, the first buyer willing to pay the seller's price gets the item.

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is a type of industry where buying and selling of product or service is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing,electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices social media, and telephones as well.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

• E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on websites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall"
• The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts and social media
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
• E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospective and established customers (for example, with newsletters)
• Business-to-business buying and selling
• The security of business transactions