This is the small company Web. Just about every tool you need is available as a hosted service (or soon will be), and if you do a little research, you can find them for free.

It used to be difficult and expensive to work on your own. Who hasn’t been frustrated downloading and fixing software? And the cost, yikes! There have been so many applications out of the price range of the average consultant, artist, or small business owner. Those days are gone.

Ad supported services have made free the new keyword of choice. And the marketing strategy for new Web companies to offer a “beginner” version for free makes collaborating and staying organized easy and cost-effective for even the smallest company.

Following are some services that I’ve tried. There are many, many more — so just do a little searching for the tool that you need.

Highrise (37 Signals) - contacts organizer and action item reminders

Jott - voice to text for reminders, action items, or updates to yourself or your contacts

FreeConference - free teleconferences (US and Canada)

Wetpaint - create a public or private wiki and collaborate with people any where in the world. (I did at MarketingReinvented.com.)

Vyew - web conferencing

You can tell Jeb Blount loves what he does. Like most hyper-energized people, he just can’t sit still. Last year he started a social site dedicated to sales people, and has over 100,000 registered users today. Not bad for someone who’s just doing something he calls fun.

Jeb has taken a smart and strategic approach with SalesGravy.com. He didn’t set out to make it financially successful right away, so the site isn’t crammed with ads. It’s focused on people. When you join and set up a profile (which is generally a way to promote yourself and your skills), your picture is posted on the front page. People quickly find you, and friend you. And you immediately feel a part of this group.

There’s a bookstore, sales resources, podcasts, blogs, member chat, and a dozen additional services provided on the site. Jeb encourages users to write articles that offer helpful information to other readers, making user-generated content a core part of the site. All in all, it’s one of the better social sites with a clear audience, focus, and great services.

Several people have asked me lately if they should implement social Web tools for their sales force. I can think of few organizations that would reap more reward from social media than the sales group.

There are several different ways to look at this. First, it’s difficult for sales reps to have any real-time knowledge about what’s happening in marketing and with the products they’re selling. Second, sales reps provide a treasure trove of information and feedback for marketing and product development but rarely have a good outlet to get their ideas heard.

Internal and secure blogs, wikis, and social networks can help. An internal blog can be used by product marketing to keep sales reps up to date on new features, product delays, and product issues in development or in the field. Commenting allows both organizations to understand each other better and as well as the impact of their decisions.

A product wiki enables sales reps to provide input early on a product or have an impact on the evolution of the product. Good ideas can come from anywhere, and sales reps who spend a great deal of time with their customers just might have some innovative thoughts.

Implementing a Web site with social profiles enables sales reps to determine where expertise exists in the organization so that they can tap into it. It also allows for an easy exchange of ideas of what works and doesn’t work in specific types of accounts. The social conversation can be monitored and mined (using text-analysis) so that themes, issues, and best-in-class ideas can be analyzed and acted on.

Fortune 500 company CEOs automatically have an audience of customers, competitors, shareholders, Wall Street analysts, press and so on. Starting a blog is more about strategy and voice, than about marketing and attracting readers. For small company CEOs it’s a different story. Why blog every day if no one is reading it?

Blogging is a live, ongoing conversation which completely changes the dynamic between a CEO and customers. It’s virtually impossible to interact regularly with every customer, but a blog that enables comments, polling, and blog post ratings, encourages customers and prospects to offer an opinion. These interactions help develop a relationship, and they are filled with interesting data points which often drive CEOs to blog even more.

Blogs inform in a way we can only partially control. A CEO’s personality comes across as they write. And readers comment adding to the conversation. A small company CEO blog is all about building an audience to increase your sphere of influence. So marketing your blog is as important as writing your blog.

Here are some simple ways to market your blog:

1. Make sure your blog is listed in all relevant blog listings, and submitted to blog search sites
2. Add tags that describe your blog so that it pops up in search results
3. Focus your blog on a subject or dynamic that is higher level than your products or services to attract a broader audience
4. Invite guest bloggers or interview interesting personalities to spice up your blog
5. Get a blidget from Widgetbox to syndicate your blog as a widget so others can run it on their website, blog, or desktop
6. Note your blog on your email signature, text message signature, business cards, and on your website
7. Refer to your blog in customer meetings, at conferences, and in speeches
8. When used as a resource by the press, reference you blog along with your title and contact information

Wondering why Microsoft would purchase Yahoo? It isn’t for the technology. I’m sure Microsoft considers their superior. It’s simply for the volume of users.

Even though Google has a significant lead over any other search company, Yahoo is always mentioned second. Microsoft is barely mentioned at all. Steve Ballmer wants this to be a two-man (uh-um, company) race. Volume gets Microsoft there. Now, every article written that talks about Google, whether it’s their commanding lead, their technology, their ad network, will also mention Microsoft. That’s an amazing amount of free branding.

Beyond that, Microsoft must have a huge volume of people using its search engine in order to build an online ad business that can compete. Will purchasing Yahoo narrow the gap with Google? In the short run, no. But in the long run, the increased brand recognition will draw many more users to Microsoft and possibly change the dynamics of the playing field.