Small business link digest – February 8, 2008

Learn from the best minds in marketing every week by reading the best of the Web. Here’s this week’s list:

• You can find at least two ways to succeed: The way everyone does it, or by forging your own path. Pam at Escape From Cubicle Nation argues it’s better to be authentic to who you are than simply following like sheep. Kudos to Seth Godin (damn him in his superior finding!) for pointing it out.
• One way to avoid herd mentality: Follow Grok Dot Com’s advice and give your customers something unexpected.
• Being unique is great and all, but if folks can’t find your business, you’ve got troubles. Mike Blumenthal explains how Google is bundling Maps into its core interface. Ensure your business gets represented the right way as Google changes.
• And finally this week, Mike Moran explains the times when you don’t want to use paid search. I’m a big fan of Mike, but I think he missed a key distinction with his first reason: “if you sound a lot like your competitors, it’s less likely you’ll do well.” As the first links of this week’s list show, that’s probably true for your business overall, too.

Enjoy the weekend. See you all on Monday.