News from the local and social front (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest)

This week, thinks has taken a look at the overall size of the social web, how many adults use the social web, how the Marines use social media to boost recruitment and how to use local search to boost your business. To wrap up, we’re going to look at what the rest of the world is saying about the social, mobile, local web. Without further ado, here’s this week’s list of link goodness:

• Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land looks at how local shopping is coming to a mobile phone near you. Greg points out “…this is all near-term stuff. Indeed, the era of product and shopping search on mobile devices is already here.” Sound familiar?
• Laura Ramos at the Forrester Interactive Marketing Blog looks at a recent study of social media among B2B marketers. One of the big takeaways was concern about the lack of tracking. Fortunately, Aaron Uhrmacher at Mashable takes a look at “How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business.” It’s a good look at the topic and worth a read.
• Also at Mashable, security policy adviser Dr. Mark Drapeau looks at how social media may benefit national security. When “Serious People in Washington” and the Marines start taking social media, well, seriously, maybe you should, too.
• Most folks assume involvement in social media means you’ve got to start blogging, Twittering and updating Facebook yourself. While you can, one very effective way to get value from social media is to engage with bloggers and let them talk about you. Toby Bloomberg at the Diva Marketing blog offers an excellent – if long – survey analysis as part of her Blogger Relations Series: A Successful Blogger Relations Strategy. It might take some time to read. But you will get an excellent return on that investment.
• Finally, we’ll close out the week with Matt McGee at Search Engine Land providing another Small Business Marketing Success Story, featuring K9cuisine.com.

Well, before this week goes any further to the dogs, we’ll call it a day. Enjoy your weekend, everyone. And we’ll be back with more goodness next week.

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