Love this blog post on Penn Olson’s web site which gives some good examples of small businesses using social media. I work a lot with small businesses ranging from hotels, B&B’s, restaurants, activity providers and attractions and although I’m confident to show them the obvious advantages of using social media for their business, it’s usually the big businesses that get the limelight.

Thanks to Sarah Chong I can now also demonstrate how smaller businesses do good on the social media front using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and forums to connect with their customers and “sell” their stories (and products)

Good blog post which I thought I share with you. See full article here.

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However a new article has revealed a further benefit: social networking can help your web site performance on search engines.

A leaked document from Google has confirmed what we have long known: it uses domain names and page names as key indicators of how “useful” a site is. However, take a look at this amazing quote:

“It is not uncommon today for individuals to maintain various types of personal pages on the Web. Home pages, social networking pages and blogs have become increasingly popular. When these pages are maintained by the individual (or an authorized representative of the individual), they are all considered to be vital.”

Not just relevant or useful: vital. So we’re learning that one of the best techniques for search engine optimisation and getting more out of your web site may be to make better use of social networks. Fortunately for us, that’s what 4TM is all about.

We actually proved this for ourselves the other day. Rene Looper, CMO of 4TM Services used the “Twitter” messaging service to let people know about a new blog he has created to demonstrate the power of interacting with customers on the web. David Sim, the company’s CTO, replied using his mobile phone. On the face of it, a one-to-one conversation. However, it was a conversation held in public on a social web site and within hours Google had picked up on the brief discussion and had published it through its news feeds and added it to its search index. Site visits and personal network connections have increased as a result.

Here at 4TM we really push the benefits for a company by having a close relationship with current and future customers. However, it’s good to see there are many other benefits to this work increasing return on investment still further.

Thanks to Todd Friesen. Image by Danny Sullivan.

Related posts:

1. HOW TO: Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Features Another great Mashable article on the power of Twitter...
2. 3 Successful Small Businesses on Social Media Love this blog post on Penn Olson’s web site...
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