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I know you are probably ready for a new topic other than social media for small business but I want to give you an important quick heads-up and link (hat tip to Ramon Ray over at smallBiztechnology.com for linking to this). I thought of just adding this as an addendum to my last video Podcast on social media but it’s too important to be that easily missed. What’s special about this article is its broad perspective. It gives you a picture of social media and blogs over the last two years, making it a worthy primer on the topic.

One of the points I made in my series is that aspects of social media (like blogs) have been over hyped. That’s resulted in people tuning them out – especially companies that look to more proven and mainstream ways to advertise and market their business.

Here’s an excerpt

“Monday 9:30 a.m. It’s time for a frank talk. And no, it can’t wait. We know, we know: Most of you are sick to death of blogs. Don’t even want to hear about these millions of online journals that link together into a vast network. And yes, there’s plenty out there not to like. Self-obsession, politics of hate, and the same hunger for fame that has people lining up to trade punches on The Jerry Springer Show. Name just about anything that’s sick in our society today, and it’s on parade in the blogs. On lots of them, even the writing stinks.

Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business—including yours.”

Here’s the full article called “Social Media Will Change Your Business“

Julian Seery Gude
editor, Local Na8ion
Where you are is where it’s at

QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

Introduction

In part three of our series on social media for the small business and local marketer (run time 9:46) we conclude by discussing two more practical tools or applications of social media.

Hint: I will introduce you to online word-of-mouth marketing and next generation online public relations.

Show Links for Word of mouth Marketing

WOMMA.org – The Word-of-Mouth-Marketing Association.

Make sure to by read Learn WOM 101.

Next, check out the story about how nimble small businesses are especially well positioned to take advantage of word-of-mouth-marketing. Of course you already know this, you may just need to make the transition to using your existing WOM skills in a new online venue.

Show Links for next generation Public Relations (PR)

Fellow Internet OldTimer, plus Twitter Bud and Facebook Friend, the amazing adventurist PR God Peter Shankman.

Then there’s the magnificent, the magnanimous, the one, the only PR 2.0 Guru Brian Solis and yes, another Twitter Socialite like Peter and yours truly – Jinfinite8.

Enjoy and let me know what questions and comments you have – it would be downright social of you.

Julian Seery Gude
editor, Local Na8ion
Where you are is where it’s at

QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

If you are like most people you do not like hype and that may well have kept you from exploring social media as a tool to bring you new business. After all, the fervor and hype surrounding things like Blogs, Facebook, Second Life and the cool kid applications like Twitter are enough to make you puke.

Here’s the thing though – there are also really practical applications of social media that represent big opportunities for small businesses to market yourselves for free.

In the next two sessions I’ll try to dispel some of the hype about social media and show you three to four practical social media tools that almost any business or local marketer can use today to win new local customers. I hope you will give social media a try and come to realize what I have – that social media is beyond hype – it’s revolutionary.

In this episode (runtime 9:58) I’ll explore some pitfalls of social media and also outline a simple definition of social media. I’ll finish by discussing two great social media tools that you should focus on today. My next session will cap things off with my final two social media recommendations for businesses that want to attract new local customers from their town or city.

I mention during the podcast that I would link to a previous post on how small business people can quickly create blog content for use in their blog marketing campaigns. Here’s the post I wrote back in January called The best kept secret for quickly creating new content for your blog and web site.

Julian Seery Gude
editor Local Na8ion
Where you are is where it’s at