Although I don’t currently have a Facebook profile I do realize that it’s extremely popular and used by a lot of people within my own personal network of family and friends.  What I’m hearing from the folks who do have profiles is that Facebook is a great way to display an overview of yourself; your personality, likes/dislikes, and is a tremendous source for connecting with friends, both personal and professional, old as well as new.  And now, according to a Kelsey Group blog post I stumbled upon, it’s gotten even better! 

With its October partnership with Microsoft, Facebook will now provide search capabilities while staying within the Facebook platform.  Check out the comment from the Facebook blog:

“By integrating web search into Facebook, you can increase the information available to share with your friends, family and coworkers on the site.  For example, your friend may invite you to an event at a new restaurant. Without leaving Facebook, you can check out the details of the restaurant on the web.”

So it’s my understanding that this capability will serve up tremendous opportunities for small and large businesses alike, as it involves local search and utilization of the ad platforms within the site.  How cool is it that you can connect with friends and family within Facebook, research and even book an event while in the site?  Convenient, right?  So, if you’re in business trying to target this large, viable audience with your products or services, why not consider adding Facebook to your marketing mix.

And talk about a timely subject matter!  We’re always looking for new and innovate ways to market ourselves and our company and Patti Spirko and I were just discussing the advantages/disadvantages of creating a Facebook and/or MySpace profile for our company or recommending it to our clients.  This topic was discussed during a blogging workshop Patti attended at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Columbus last month.  The question was thrown out to the group, “has any one gotten any new business from your Facebook account.”  No one in the group could say for sure that they had.  Facebook, it seems (at least to that particular group) is a great way to connect with friends but for professionals truly looking to gain valuable business leads, LinkedIn may be the better option.

I’m still undecided about a Facebook profile.  I do, however, rely heavily on LinkedIn for generating new business leads and keeping professional contacts in one place.  So I’ll pose this question to you folks that may have a Facebook and LinkedIn profile.  From a business standpoint, which of the two sites do you find more beneficial?

Attending the annual Yellow Pages Association Conference is always a good opportunity for networking and extremely informative.  However, this year, we were in for an added treat.  Three to four days prior to day one of the Conference, we received an email inviting us to observe the ADM Interactive Roundtable meeting.  This is a special group of Certified Marketing Representatives (CMRs) that work together as a collective group to address key issues in the industry.  Participating in this meeting meant that we’d hear, first hand, about all the cool changes, enhancements, and future initiatives from some of the major players in the search space.

Presenters included representatives from Superpages.com, Yellowpages.com, Local.com, Citysearch.com, UniversalBusinessListing.org, Yellowpages.ca (Canada) and Yellowbook.com.  The main thought that I took away from this break-out session was change, change, change! It appears each of these players appreciate the need to continuously modify content whether it’s user reviews, blogs, photos, profile pages, or video, thus enhancing the user experience.  These companies appreciate the need to invest in technology for better applications.  Distribution partners constantly change with each of these platforms which ultimately delivers extended reach for their advertisers.  That creates so much more value to your online marketing.  The more views, the greater chance of converting that user into a customer, right?

Well, don’t forget to include the “online” piece of the pie in your directory marketing strategy.  If’s clear that there’s definitely an audience for print and online and you want to be sure to get your piece of pie!

It’s all about the partnerships!  The web is a conglomeration of partnerships and networks.  This is what makes some sites so successful.  Not all sites generate their own content or their own advertisements, they partner with other sites to provide it for them.  Local Search thrives on these agreements because it allows them to reach a larger audience for their advertisers and drives more traffic to their sites.  But not all partnerships are created equal and may cause more harm than good.  Just check out this recent article about Local Search Partnerships:

ComScore: Partnerships in local search spark growth

Ellen Keohane

March 21, 2008

Nationally, Internet yellow pages (IYP) have seen significant increases in search traffic, due in part to new strategic partnerships between companies, according to a recent study by ComScore.

Within the past year, the Yellowpages.com Network established partnerships with Areaguides.net and 411.com, and saw its IYP search market share grow from 14.7% to 20.2% from Q4 2006 to Q4 of 2007, according to comScore. As a result of this growth, Yellowpages.com is now the market leader – overtaking Superpages.com by a slim margin – in the IYP search space.

In 2007, Superpages.com established a new partnership with Local.com and acquired Infospace FindIt/Switchboard.com, but also discontinued its relationships with 411.com and MSN Yellowpages. According to ComScore, Superpages.com’s market share dropped from 20.9% to 20.0% from Q4 2006 to Q4 2007.

Yellow Book and R.H. Donnelley also saw traffic more than double from December of 2006 to December of 2007, according to ComScore. Part of this growth may be attributed to Yellow Book’s partnerships with Infospace and Addresses.com and R.H. Donnelley’s acquisition of Business.com, ComScore said.

At a session at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York on Monday, a panel consisting of representatives from various local search companies stressed the importance of partnerships in an area where there is no clear market leader.

Content is “absolutely critical” in the local search world, said Justin Sanger, founder and president of LocalLaunch, a local search engine marketing and search optimization firm owned by R.H. Donnelly. As a result, local search companies have had to “embrace” what has historically been their competitors.

“We can’t build walls around our inventory,” Sanger said. “Distribution is critical.”

Nobody’s the gorilla in this market,” said Bruce Crair, COO of Local.com, who also spoke at Monday’s panel. “The more we network with our cooperation partners – the better off the advertiser and consumer is,” he said.

Bruce Crair’s comment is a great ending to this article.  Networking has proven to be a key component to this industry.  The ultimate goal of any strategic partnership should be to provide a benefit to the advertiser and consumer.  More agreements are eminent in this arena and we’ll be keeping an eye on them as they develop.

We’re all familiar with conducting a general search query on Google or Yahoo! for a certain product or brand name.  Once you’ve narrowed down what is important, the search terms get more specific and so does the geographic area in which you’re looking.  That’s when Local Search comes into play.  In fact, research shows web users are conducting approximately 1 Billion local searches per month. (ComScore)  Whether looking for a new car, a dentist or just want to order a pizza, eventually you need a phone number and location. 

Local involves any search which specifies a geographic area along with a product name, a brand, or company name.  Some sites that focus on Local content are Internet Yellow Page sites (i.e.: Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com), Yahoo! Local, Google Local, Local.com and Citysearch.com.  All of these sites accept local content or partner with another company to provide the content to help refine local searches.  This data can specify brands, products, services, certifications, location information, associations or anything else related to a business to help it stand out. 

Right now, only about 40% of businesses are taking advantage of the vast opportunities Local Search provides.  That number should definitely be higher.  In fact, there are companies that offer a service to provide all of your business information to a large group of local search engines and portals for a very reasonable price, such as Localeze.  This saves time spent going to every single site where local content is accepted and updating it yourself and also ensures accuracy of your data.  Most importantly…your info is there when your customers are ready to buy!!

Featured panelists at the upcoming Yellow Pages Association Conference in Las Vegas will include Local.com’s VP of business development and sales.  The panel will discuss their various perspectives on the opportunities (and challenges) of local search tools such as mobile and video advertising.

We’re excited to hear the panelists’ predictions for the next big thing in local search and will share our findings with you.  Stay tuned…