Small Business Marketing

In a post today on the Hubspot blog, Shannon Sweetser looks at the opportunities presented by using Internet marketing tools and social media. It’s clear that yesterday’s search marketing (aka yellow pages directories) and traditional “mass media” advertising is rapidly being overcome by tools that small businesspeople can easily adopt (and are in growing numbers).  The future of marketing is happening before our eyes and it is Search Engine Marketing, Google and Bing local listings, Facebook pages and Twitter. Go to the post

A recent blog post by Jay Hamilton-Roth of ManyGoodIdeas.com made me sit back and take a good look at my own business.  I realized that I have a passion for helping small businesses and entrepreneurs succeed through applying the knowledge and experience I’ve collected in 30+ years of marketing.

This video is about a small organic farmer from Northern California, Johann Smit of Hidden Star Farms but if you listen closely, there is a lot to learn (and maybe rediscover) about the passion each of us feels for our own small business.

Matt McGee, who writes the Small Business Search Marketing blog posted a great article on clever ways small businesses used Twitter to promote their business in 2009. This is a tool that our Okanagan small businesses haven’t really discovered. There seem to be a few that use it, but I haven’t come across any that are particularly innovative and would build their business. I think my favourites are the bakery that posted Tweets about fresh baked goodies that had just come out of the oven or the pizza shop that Tweeted Twitter-only specials.

How could your business take advantage of the immediacy of this tool? If you have made creative use of Twitter let us know.