While the feature, called “Friends” is not yet widely available, it’s a big hint in the direction of future web news. Google News began featuring a “News For You” section a few months ago, in which users could select particular preferences. Also, Google has started to feature location specific searches. As these changes suggest: there is so much information on the Internet that searching is going to have to become more customizable. One way it’s going to happen? Twitter updates.

Actually, this Twitter tab is one of the many “layers’” of social networking features that Google intends to release over the next year. Rather than compete by releasing a “new Facebook”, Google is going to integrate social media features into their searching capabilities. Google is beginning to enter the social media game, which means that all small business entrepreneurs should be on board with social networks.

This is just another way that small business entrepreneurs can take advantage of the 16 billion searches that happen a month in this country on Google alone!  Search is the low-hanging fruit for finding new leads online!

The new feature will also help small business entrepreneurs who connect with clients through social media. If people click the Like button on your company Facebook page, their friends are more likely to see you on Bing when they’re searching for your kind of company or services.

What’s next? Bing and Facebook plan on displaying data from friends with every search result. Also, if you happen to be an expert in a particular subject, you will be featured in the results. Facebook thinks that the partnership will give Bing a boost, and it’s possible that, when opinions would be helpful, this so-called “decision engine” could attract more users. In any case, Bing isn’t the only company making search social: as we mentioned in the previous post, Google is working with Twitter to integrate social media as well.

In other words: social media is going to become a central part of mainstream search engines. Small business entrepreneurs would be wise to get cozy with social media, because it’s obviously here to stay. The future isn’t as much about keywords, as it is about “friends”.

In July, Facebook surpassed Yahoo in popularity, and in August, it surpassed Google. Last month, web surfers spent a total of 10% of their time online on Facebook, adding up to 41.1 million minutes. On Google’s sites (including Google.com and YouTube), people spent a total of 37.7 million minutes, which was about 9% of total time online.

Growth in the last year has been exponential. In August of last year, users only spent 5% of Internet time on Facebook; that means usage has nearly doubled. There are now more than 500 million active users on Facebook, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts it will keep growing. He says it may even reach one billion. Really? Well, considering that most users are US based (as are the statistics in this recent comScore study),  it’s possible that Facebook could expand internationally with outrageous success.

Also, in 2012, Facebook will likely go forward with an IPO, offering the first sale of stock to the public. The company is currently valued at $25 billion, and expects to see sales of about $1.4 billion this year. Facebook has become a HUGE platform for marketing and social media.

So, in the meantime, what does it mean for you? It means that social networking  is more important than ever. Many of your potential clients probably have a Facebook page, and they likely spend a lot of time perusing Facebook. In other words: small business entrepreneurs should join the trend and spend some time on Facebook, too.  As long as your are ready for the commitment in time!

The answer is: NOW.

The quicker you can establish yourself, virtually, the wider your market will be.  Putting your business into Yelp’s database alone will drastically affect not only your company’s reputation (via user reviews  – check out our report here), but by involving your company in social media, you are increasing the number of search results any time someone searches for you, your business, or your industry.

- I hear a lot about social media, but don’t now where to begin.  Plus, I’m pretty busy.  I’ll think about using social media to grow my business when I have more time.

Considering the investment is just a little bit of your time, I would strongly advise against this! Taking the time to set up your social media accounts, and getting your company’s name out onto the internet will not only increase the rate at which your business grows, but also the reach, giving you more customers and keeping more people informed about your brand.

A recent study shows that 79% of Twitter users are more likely to purchase from brands that they follow. If that’s not incentive enough, another 60% showed that they were more likely to purchase from a brand they were a fan of on Facebook. These are sales that you might otherwise be missing without the aid of social media.  B2C companies (business to consumer) who use Twitter are 88% more likely to receive leads than companies who don’t. And small business growth strategies in 2010 place a greater online presence as their top priority.  Social Media is not a limited or niche strategy anymore!

Occasionally, there is a misconception that social media’s learning curve is so steep for beginners that it might not be worth looking into. Another misconception is regarding the amount of time it takes to set up, manipulate, and engage your social media strategy. While setting up a new business definitely takes time, and can be tedious in moments, social media can be one of the more productive ways to market your company with  proven return on investment for your business.

Another important note about engaging your social media strategy as soon as possible – it’s free. Blogging, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Facebook… They’re all free. What could cost thousands in consultant fees, materials, and placement won’t cost you a dime with social media. As the industry grows, it will only become more prevalent as a marketing tool – jumping in now will not only improve your business, but allow you to stay on top of new ideas and forward steps in social media marketing.

To learn more about how to get involved in social media marketing for your business, visit http://practicalsocialmedia.com for your business.

With the new service, you can get alerts on your phone when new users join or leave, when a theme changes, or when privacy settings are updated. These services are free. However, the upgrade, which allows you to receive and respond to comments, costs $20 a year.

Of course, if you have a smartphone, you probably don’t need to pay the additional money to manage your comments. Many mobile apps allow you to access and edit your blog online. Also, you can use a free service (such as Ping.fm) if you’re not worried about security, and use SMS to post comments on your blog. Still, if you don’t have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone, it may be well worth it for you to go ahead and buy the upgraded feature. Social media is now a mobile phenomenon.

Here are some additional results:

• According to the survey, content marketing spending comprises 33% of the total marketing budget (up 11% from 2008)
• Smaller companies spend more than 2x that of larger companies on content marketing
• Only 7% of marketers are spending less on content in 2010
• 59% of marketers surveyed plan to increase content marketing spending in 2010, compared with 56% in 2009 and 42% in 2008.

Why the focus on content?  Content is how we share our expertise.  And we all know that people like to buy from people that know what they are talking about.  It is our way to share something of value.  A way to start new relationships.  A way to embed the right keywords and be found online.  Content is the currency that makes social media work, and much less expensive than other forms of marketing.

With the right content and long-tail (more words in a search phrase) keyword strategy, anyone can start to get exposure to large, but high quality niche audiences online.  And you can get started with just a computer and an internet connection.

As a company’s content strategy grows over time, there are many applications.  The chart below shows the most popular among all respondents from the survey.

So often we stand behind our expertise as though it was a delicacy to be shared with just a chosen few.  We should be finding more and more ways to let our expertise be discovered in as many places by as many of the right people as possible.  That is the promise of social media.  More small businesses need to understand that content these days is a mission critical part of marketing their business.

Cast a Wide Net but Don’t Spread Yourself too Thin

While these may seem like two conflicting principles, it is important to know how far to reach to attain that customer or client you seek. It is also important, however, not to alienate a specialized audience by broadening your horizons too much. A good way to do this is to look at your competition (as mentioned below), and make parameters and goals for the audience you wish to attract. Sometimes starting broad is a good thing as you can learn as you go, becoming more specialized as you gain more knowledge about who you really are attracting and how you can capitalize on that segment.

Use the Market Research Tools at your Disposal to Identify and Segment Your Audience

Analyzing your Facebook fans, Google analytics, and Twitter followers to assess where your base is, and where you have room to expand is a must for utilizing social media. Focus on the reality of your business demographics and your target demographics and make sure they line up in terms of what your hopes are for future connections/friends/fans or followers. If there is a disconnect between the two, try to take a step back and really look at why you are attracting your current audience and what you can do to expand that base.

Have Competitive Intelligence

It will never hurt to see what your competition is offering and who they are attracting. This can be more valuable than you know. Facebook is especially helpful in this way. Is your competitor drawing more people from a specific demographic? Younger? Older? What can you do to mimic their success, and have an edge on the competition? There’s nothing wrong with a little snooping for marketing research purposes.

Be the Relatable Personality, Not the Faceless Business

The beauty of social media, is that is allows you to be more personal and thus create more meaningful and loyal relationships. If you come across as that faceless, heartless business with no real motivation other than clients, customers and money, it will show, and it is more than likely that people will go elsewhere. With such unique opportunities to ‘get personal’, it is in your best interest to show the more human side to your business, and to make those connections that last.

Ongoing Presence is Key

If your business is registered with Twitter but your last update was on December 2008, consider it non-existent. Even worse, consider it a free and easy tool you are neglecting for no good reason! Without an ongoing presence, you might as well be dead to the social media community. Think of that loyal blog reader that visits their favorite author’s page everyday. If suddenly, that author stops posting regularly, the viewer looses interest quick. Pretty soon, that daily check up on his or her favorite blog ceases to exist, as it becomes a waste of time to invest in a lack of content or no content at all. The more consistent you are, the more consistent your results will be. Stay involved, and your connections will stay involved with you.

The Ability to Embed Videos

With the improved version of Twitter, you can tweet videos (without having to download any third party apps).  Twitter has developed partnerships with Dailybooth, DeviantArt, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, USTREAM, Vimeo, Yfrog, and YouTube, and so it’s easy to embed media content. Multimedia is a key way to connect with those potential customers (and their short attention spans!).

A Quick Way to Peruse Related Content

With the new Twitter, you can click on a single tweet and see an expanded version with all the info you need. You can see the embedded media and all users mentioned, as well as their bios and related content. This will make it easier to gauge the value and significance of a tweet, without any need to take a long detour.

Easy, Accessible Info With the Help of Mini Profiles

You can now check out a potential customer without having to open a new page. By clicking on their name,  you will see all the important info, including their location, bio and recent tweets.

Move Quickly With Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts might take a few minutes to learn, but in the end, they will make your life much, much easier. You can hit “f” to favorite, “m” to direct message, “n” for a new tweet and so forth. With the shortcuts, you will find you can navigate through Twitter much more efficiently. When you forget which shortcuts are which, all you have to do is hit “?” and a nice little menu will be displayed for you.

Simpler Searching With Auto-Complete Usernames

Shortcuts will make everything faster, and so will the new username search. You can simply type an @ and the first few letters of the username, and next thing you know, the username will pop up. So, the last 500 users you’ve followed are only a few keys away.

Infinite Options With the Infinite Scroll

There is no longer an end to the list of tweets you see, or any need to click the “more” button. There are infinite tweets to scroll, and endless potential clients to connect to through (the new) Twitter.

The company, Las Vegas Nutrition Facts, recently uploaded an article to ArticlesBase.com. Now a keyword search for “las vegas nutrition facts” currently shows the article in the number one spot in Google, and the company’s website right below it.  Submitting the content to ArticlesBase.com helped this site rise to the top of the search engine for those keywords, and also gave Las Vegas Nutrition Facts a noteworthy link.

Article submissions can also help you become a known expert in your field. If people read information that you’ve written and researched in a public place, they will begin to perceive you as a trusted source. Of course, the key is to make sure people are finding your website, and if you put an article in the directory you can easily point them in the right direction with a link to your own site.

If you’re interested in learning how to take advantage of article submission (which is a lot like free advertising), check out the Webinar: More Great Search Engine Ranking & Online Reputation Strategies.

photo credit: Urban