January 10, 2010

At yesterday’s session at the OPENForum booth at CES I presented a rather long list of sites and tools that I recommend for local businesses trying to use social media in their town.

Here is the list of sites.

For starting a local group

Ning
Facebook
LinkedIn
Groupon
Twitter Lists
Slideshare
Wishlist Member

Finding local bloggers

Placeblogger
Twellow
Bloglines 

Creating local meetings

Eventbrite
MeetUp
Biznik

To mine local leads

Search.twitter
Twellowhood
Tweepsearch
LocalTweeps
Bing Maps Twitter App
Universal Business Listing
Yelp!
Insider Pages
Citysearch

Look for video and slides from this presentation here on OPENForum

Image credit: Villian Media, LLC

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing. 

Join the conversation ( 6 )

• David Ewing 1 year 1 months and 24 days ago

  

  You'll appreciate this Twitter analysis we've been running on page rank and individual profiles. Read our acclaimed report here:
  http://www.ewingenterprise.com/

• GREGORY STROMBERG 2 years 0 months and 23 days ago

  

  John is such a wealth of knowledge. Every tip or link has a ROI of 1000%
  
  You are definitely a "Linchpin"
  
  Loyal follower & student
  
  Greg Stromberg
  www.cannedwater4kids.org

• John Jantsch 2 years 0 months and 27 days ago

  

  Ryan - very sound tip - I've been pushing Twitter lists for lots of stuff like this - why not one for suppliers, advisors, competitors!

• Ryan Hanley 2 years 0 months and 27 days ago

  

  A great idea that I recently implemented was to create a Twitter List of my Clients. I keep the list private, you could have it public if you wanted depending on your business. This allows me to constantly stay up to date on what my clients are interested in, what they're selling, or what their problems are. I recommend professionals in industries other than insurance (www.ryanhanley.com) that I trust in an effort to provide my clients with more value. They will also send me referrals through twitter... Crazy right?
  
  The Real-Time access to your clients is valuable beyond any dollar amount.
  
  http://twitter.com/albanyinsurance
  
  Ryan H.

• PAMELA MILES 2 years 0 months and 28 days ago

  

  To run meetings and webinars online GoToMeeting .com

• Rick Falls 2 years 0 months and 30 days ago

  

  Great tips John.
  
  This is proof that there are a LOT of things that small businesses can do to gain visibility and presence in the new media.