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Social Media for Small Businesses

Another good summary of how Small Businesses can be using elements in the interactive channel, in this case Social Media.

http://www.clickz.com/3635869

Social Media can be applied to many things, from Twitter to YouTube to Facebook. In general, no matter the specific implementations you prefer, Social Media is a low cost, easy to use way to connect directly with your prospective and current customers.

Search Engine Landscape for Small Businesses in 2010

http://www.web.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/seo-landscape-for-small-businesses-in-2010-what-you-need-to-do-now/

Good quick summary of some trends to watch in the coming year and ways to expand your business's online representation using Search Engine and Social Media tools.

Don't Go It Alone

Great column recently in Search Engine Land by Debra Northart ("Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should: Why DIY SEM Isn’t The Answer") addressing the issue of DIY search engine marketing.

Most important quote from the article: "Owners of small businesses usually need to devote all their time to their customers."

Owners of small businesses are used to doing it all themselves, either out of necessity or personality. People go into business for themselves precisely because they want to do it themselves, they want control over their own destinies, to be masters of their own fate. The need to watch the bottom line is also keenly felt, so any outside expense is carefully considered. "Keeping it inside" often seems like the smarter idea.

Northart points out, however, that SEM professionals can often produce immediate improvements in efficiency and effectiveness because of their special knowledge. She describes a case study in which she is able to quickly help an accountant improve his click-through rates, conversions, and "connections" (her term for any form of customer contact) via judicious use of key phrase research, exact match refinement, and more sophisticated tracking and conversion tactics.

Most small business owners do not have the time to educate themselves to the point where they can learn and understand these advanced strategies. The expertise of the SEM expert, particularly one who focuses on local search, will pay for itself when compared to the costs of lost opportunity and wasted clicks.

Getting Started in Local Search

Mary Bowling of ClickZ has a good column today about how businesses can get into local search without even needing a web site.

While it is true that one can create a decent presence online, at least within the search universe, without a full web site, I would argue that the limitations so imposed upon your ability to communicate with customers are more detrimental than the true costs of creating and hosting a web site.

Even the smallest business, say an individual consultancy or a tiny hot dog stand that only serves lunch, should have a web site. Hosting costs have been reduced to almost nothing, benefits of Moore's law and related corollaries, and low-cost providers such as iPower or SquareSpace include robust tools for web site building that make it very easy to create decent sites.

A web site allows you room to fully describe your products and services, and more importantly, allows you to do so to all your difference audiences. This ability to address unique needs and concerns for different target customers (or influencers) is a core strength of the web and can serve as the bedrock on which all further web communication is built. Your directory links, search engine marketing ads, email landing pages, and referred URLs will all direct customers back to your web site.

So please use the advice provided in Mary's column, or engage a professional like Local Acuity, to optimize your local search exposure whether or not you currently have a web site. But please take the step of getting your own site, because that is the foundation of increased sales and improved profits through interactive marketing and customer communication.