Read the Full Article…

If your business has not taken these initial steps by now,

You will see the impact on your Web generated leads and sales within 30 days.

He then explains:

Many of them however, offer automatically approved listings - meaning that all you have to do is submit your site and it will get listed. Which means anyone else can do the same thing. Which means that there is a good chance that your site will end up among a slew of spammy and just plain poor-quality sites.

I must agree that human-edited directories will provide much more relevant links. This means that there is a person or group of people checking (sometimes editing) every link that is submitted thus controlling the quality of the listings that get in.

“When listings are human approved, there is a much better chance that the internal pages of that directory will list sites that are truly relevant to each other “, Chris adds.

Quality content and relevant links have NO Substitute to the search engines today. Strength in numbers maybe somewhat apply but good content and relevancy will always rule.

Read the Full Article at smallbusinessnewz.com

The article outlines the extremely informative presentation Stewart and Espinosa delivered and touches on the billions that will be spent on Local Search Advertising,
creating press releases and paying for listings/trustmarks from BBB, city directories and category-specific sites. They also discuss the importance of utilizing local business ads (geo-targeted) to capture broader phrases in PPC campaigns. Lewis then includes “Espinosa also highly recommends utilizing social media sites like Digg and MySpace. He recommends encouraging customers to rate and review on social media sites”. Espinoza also outlined a local video strategy. Read the Full Article …

This tremendous growth is fueled almost entirely by teens and young adults around the world and companies want to appeal to this huge market using social media marketing techniques. Just think of the number of IPods, Play Stations, Wii and X-Box consoles that were sold last year. Discussions and reviews of such products within these social groups creates a buzz that almost invariably sparks demand. Let’s face it, Nintendo pushed marketing boundaries by grooming children to become consumers by the age of four or five, especially in Japan and the United States. Sony and Microsoft have shifted that gaming industry to teens and young adults. This concept applies to many other types of products and services that can now be marketed effectively online through social networks. The “Post-Nintendo” era, social media site members are a market segment that is simply too large to ignore.

Creating brand awareness in such a big arena can reap big rewards for businesses. A careful touch is required, however. Shameless plugs and blatant product placement can be a huge turn-off for this fickle audience. While many of these short attention spans may ignore ads or click elsewhere, carefully targeted advertisements in tasteful, bite-sized portions just might be eaten up. On the other hand, there are some people who enjoy bashing brands, badmouthing products and fabricating elaborate conspiracy theories. This is not the type of press a company wants spreading virally throughout a 230 million member community. Therefore, many companies are conflicted on the use of social network advertising and its effects on their business. The term Super Advocate has been coined. It refers to someone who has achieved huge web traffic from RSS subscriptions, a YouTube video, FaceBook contacts, etc. and amassed a large audience. There is tremendous advertising potential in these numbers. One must also consider the affect of a Super Advocate becoming disenchanted with a company or product.

It is my opinion that if a subtle approach is used in this relatively recent concept of social media marketing, it would have a significant impact on one’s web traffic and the web presence of a business. When used as part of a well balanced internet marketing plan, taking advantage of social networking is a worthwhile approach to reach many potential customers. The most effective means of ensuring continued marketing success in this venue is through social media optimization. This is achieved by utilization of tagging and social bookmarking. Also by increasing backlinks and linkability to your social media site helping content and advertising travel throughout the internet.

Social network marketing is not a fad or a “SEO method of the day”… it is here to stay. Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Conversation Participation with links from and pointing to those conversations is the key to being a successful Web 2.0 Marketer. Tread lightly but persevere.