Social and search and… suds? (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – July 1, 2011)

Between the 4th of July here in the States and Canada Day to my north (give you three guesses where), we’ve got a long holiday weekend ahead of us here in North America. And why would you use that time to go outside, soak up some sun or spend time with friends and family when you could be safely ensconced on the couch with a laptop, a lager and load of links about search and social?

I mean, seriously, wouldn’t you rather be inside instead of enjoying surf and sun and… ah, who am I kidding? Here’s the thing, though. I hope you have a great holiday weekend. But, when you get a chance, check out these great links from our friends around the web, too:

• Who doesn’t want more traffic? And while we’re all looking at Facebook and Google, Darren Rowse on ProBlogger offers 5 ways to use LinkedIn to drive traffic. Nice.
• Mashable has a great look at how to manage your online reputation using SEO.
• Speaking of managing your reputation, American Express just launched a free tool called YourBuzz for monitoring your brand’s online presence. Pretty cool.
• Brian Massey’s latest column for Search Engine Land examines 5 ways to jump ahead in your industry.
• Nate Elliott at Forrester asks whether Google+ will kill Facebook. (Spoiler alert: He says “no”).
• Ironically, I asked whether Google+ will kill SEO just the other day. (Spoiler alert: I says “no”. But read the whole post to see why).
• Speaking of Google+ (and I expect we will be for some time to come), Robert Scoble explains why your mom won’t use Google+. FWIW, I can’t agree. “Too geeky for normal people” is not a selling point for a social network. No matter who makes it. Google will need to cater to a wider audience eventually or lose in the social space. Again. But, in fairness to Robert, read his post and see what you think.
• From the shameless plug department, whether you’re in the travel industry or just want to learn more about how to use integrated marketing, check out the white paper, “Engaging Online Travel Shoppers Through Integrated Marketing” that I wrote for HSMAI sponsored by Vizergy.

And, finally, if all those links weren’t enough, Matt McGee rounds up his favorite search/marketing posts of June. Great list. I think I have some reading ahead of me this weekend, too. Of course, when I’m not reading, I expect you’ll find me at one of my favorite little brew pubs, with good friends and a German Valley Amber (or should it be a Lazy Jake Porter?) In any case, enjoy the long weekend and we’ll see you right back here next week.

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