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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.

In this three two-part series I discuss using social media to connect with local customers (run time 8 minutes).

First up, I’ll relate a personal story about a great new site called Alltop.com, and how using social media got Local Nation listed on the small business section of Alltop.

In my follow-up vlog session I’ll give you three practical uses for social media that can help you build traffic for your site and win new business from your local marketplace.

Saving loads of money on marketing expense highlights a fundamental value of social media marketing – that is, you can connect with customers online without spending a dime. The visitors I’ve already received from Alltop would easily have cost me thousands of dollars to acquire if I were to have used traditional online media like banner ads or offline media like Yellow Pages or Newspapers. Do I have your attention yet? Great!

Yes, using social media in your marketing mix will save you tons of money, but that’s not the only reason you should consider it. There’s also a very good chance that social media will connect you with new customers who aren’t using traditional advertising to find local products and services. This number is already large and grows bigger each day. Sure, some of them are younger and you may or may not care about this market (yet) but I can assure you that some social media tools connect with every age, race and demographic group. In other words, there are social media tools that you can’t afford to ignore.

I’ll end with a BIG THANK YOU to Guy Kawasaki, Kathryn Henkens, and Will Mayall who run Nononina the company that produces both Alltop and other sites like Truemors.

And now for a story about Julian (that’s me) and a guy named Guy.

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

Watch part II in our series on social media for small business and local marketers.