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

Episode 9b: Social Media for Small Business and Local Marketers Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

We will give you three simple-to-implement tips that can rocket your site to the top of Google’s local search results. In episode 8 of Local Na8ion’s video podcast (run time 12 min) we detail how we used these exact methods to move Linda’s Cleaning Service – a house cleaning service in Wellington Florida – from page four of Google Local search results to page one. This didn’t take months, it took days.

We discuss

1. Using your city name in your URL (your web site address)
2. Putting your location information on your web site
3. Adding your business to Google’s Local Business Directory

Yes, you can do all of these things in 28 minutes, even if you’re not a techie!

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Corrections: apologies on our typo on slide 6 of the presentation (your NOT you’re – Yes we know the difference!). Would have taken 2 hours in video processing time to fix. Also, Linda has been in business since 2002 – not the two years I reported. Damn, I’m getting old.

Background: Linda’s Cleaning Service is my mother-in-law Linda’s local small business in Wellington Florida. Since Linda’s daughter Shannon (my beautiful wife and partner in crime here at Local Na8ion) and I are both web marketers it’s no surprise that we work on her site for free – and yes – Linda sends her cleaners to our house once in a while for free as well. Will market for cleaning!

Julian, editor Local Na8ion – where you are is where it’s at

Episode 8: 28 minutes to better Google Local search results Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -

Please note that this article was written prior to Local Na8ion’s re-launch and as such the content may not be relevant for today’s audience of local marketers.

I read an informative article over on MarketingSherpa yesterday titled Running Ads in Google Local vs. Main Google Search — Disappointing Results (So Far) about Google Local Search. The story casts a spotlight on the central issue that local search does have which is a) traffic b) the right kind of traffic.

The Traffic Question:

“Partly this was due to the fact that although Google Local ads may get high clicks, there just isn’t much traffic there to begin with. According to Hitwise data (see link to chart below), less than 1% of total Google traffic goes to Local. However, Krutick assured MarketingSherpa that his Local ads got more than enough clicks to the coupon page that there should have been redemptions if the conversion pattern even remotely matched the main Google.com lead redemption.”

The right kind of traffic:

“So why didn’t Local clicks convert? No one knows for sure as no survey was conducted. But, the head of Krutick’s search team did share this speculation, “Marketers are thinking Google Local is going to be used like the yellow pages. You know, you look there when you’re ready to buy something and you want to know about local merchants.

“In reality it didn’t turn out that way for us. Our theory is at Google.com, people are buyers and they are looking for a local store that sells mattresses. However at Google Local, the most searched for term tends to be store name, not category. It’s possible people are only going to Local if they are actually searching for the store itself.”"
And these aren’t easy problems to solve.  The search engines are forging new territory and unlike general search or the Print Yellow Pages that have a proven usage pattern and clear value proposition to users it looks like it’s going to be a trial and error learning process.

Local search goes looking for users…and buyers Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL -