Hyperlocal Heats Up – SEM Synergy Extras

It’s a busy time within the social communities of the Web. Developments and services that either allow user comments or provide businesses with tools to monitor such comments are cropping up at break-neck speeds.

For instance, just today:

• Google launched Sidewiki, letting users share their two cents on any Web site.
• Branding and marketing guru Seth Godin was called out for his new service that may amount to brand hijacking.
• And Microsoft unveiled a business tool that will not only help businesses listen in on online conversations regarding their brand, but will also analyze the sentiment of the convos and provide a portal for participation.

Are you listening to the conversation?

While it’s happening across the Web, among organizations both large and small, one of the fastest-growing verticals in the social media realm is that of the hyperlocal.

On today’s SEM Synergy podcast, two hyperlocal marketing experts joined the rest of the crew to chat about hyperlocal marketing opportunities online.

Ben Saren, CEO of the recommendation and review site CitySquares, and Internet marketer Martin Canchola, explained the challenge small businesses face when managing their social networking presence. Most importantly, though, they tackled ways to approach social media participation so that limited resources and efforts don’t go to waste. Tune in to the podcast to hear more.

Meanwhile, there are some exciting stories being told about social media marketing and commercial successes. On the 10e20 blog today, Rebecca Kelley reported on a recently released survey of marketers, aimed at gauging the industry’s perceived effectiveness of social networks for marketing purposes.

According to the survey, three quarters of the participants said they’ll be increasing their social media marketing efforts next year. When rating the effectiveness of several social networks, LinkedIn was reported to be the most effective, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.

One local coffee shop in Texas started accepting drink and food orders via Twitter direct messages and almost instantly, the media coverage and business that came from Twitter spiked to unforeseen levels. An innovation that the business owner more-or-less stumbled upon has been a driving force for new business and satisfying customers.

Even if you’re not sure where to start, get in there and test the waters. Feel out where your target markets are. Then start talking. Evaluate your efforts, and see where you can go from there.

As Ben Saren explained on the podcast, the Internet’s local space and social space are converging. While it may still be too soon to see where it’s going, you can see that it is. And when you push yourself to figure out innovative ways to interact with your community, the pay back is returned in spades.

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.