Bill Seaver with MicroExplosion.com, recently “pitched” a new concept: Social Media Batting Practice. Will You Play?

First up: How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business?

Here are 3 quick tips for this small business:

1. ‘Fly Fishing Tips’ Blog
   Creating an instructional blog is a great way to target specific customers. Don’t worry about revealing too much. You want to do just the opposite. This is a great opportunity to show your expertise in fly fishing.

   As an instructional blog, it has a clear focus. Many blogs are all over the place and have no consistency. Creating a clear, precise blog is a great way to target customers. Remember it’s not the quantity of visitors you want, it’s the quality. Five strong customers are better then 100 5-second visits.

2. Start the conversation on Twitter
   Start following friends, colleagues and competitors. Now of course, tweeting with friends will not expand the bank account. However, it does start the conversation. By discussing “fly fishing” the conversation expands beyond friends.

   After friends, begin following local lodging companies, restaurants, and local organizations. Don’t just follow. Join the conversation. Make friends. Make partnerships.

   Twitter creates followers, it creates buzz, and it eventually creates customers. It all begins with one sentence: “What are you doing?”

3. Flickr Photo Contest

   Ask for photographs of favorite fly-fishing spots. Then, give away free instructions to the best entries.
   
   After it’s over, be sure to give something to all entries. Even if it’s small, everyone loves winning.

   Flickr requires minimal time and investment. Plus, it has great photo sharing tools that allow you to integrate those photos into your blog and more importantly it allows “customers” to share those photos.

Other tips, outside of Social Media:

• Create packages with local lodging companies
• Place brochures in state border Welcome Centers
• Find ways to give away lessons. A small gesture will lead to great word of mouth
• Email is a great way to talk with customers. Look for ways to collect email addresses.

Well, I was not chosen as a finalist for the Semmys, but its okay. As they say, “it is an honor to be nominated”. There were some great articles this past year. I definitely can not say my writings were better than the finalists.

Local Search
Anatomy & Optimization of A Local Business Profile - By Chris “Silver” Smith

Analytics
Web Analytics Demystified - By Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor

Google
Google 2.0: Google Universal Search - By Danny Sullivan

SEO
SEO Linking Gotchas Even the Pros Make - By Andy Beard

Online Marketing / General
How A Pretty Face Can Push Visitors Away - By Bryan Eisenberg

PPC
Five Common Paid Search Mistakes That Can Sink Your Campaign - By Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide
* This one mentions some of the same points that I mentioned in 7 Habits of Highly Effective PPC Advertisers. However, Jennifer does a much better job of explaining in many of the points. Plus, she has some other great points that I left off. I strive to write as good as her.

Small Business
When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss: What You Don’t Know About Your Web Site Can Hurt You - By Christine Churchill

LOL Funny!
Web 3.0 Sites - By Philipp Lenssen, Google Blogoscoped

Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is NOT the Same as Word of Mouth - By Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide

Nominations for the first Semmys were recently announced recently.

The awards recognize the best articles in search engine marketing over the past year. “The SEMMYS are an annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry.” - Semmys.org

I was honored to be nominated in the PPC Category, for Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertisers.

The finalist will be announced around January, 23rd. From there the public can vote for a winner. In the PPC category, the judges are Christine Churchill and Aaron Wall. With that being said ….

Have I mentioned how much of a fan I am of Christine Churchill and Aaron Wall? They are geniuses and masters of search engine marketing. Their intelligence is beyond belief, and they would … (too much?)

Christine Churchill is the President of KeyRelevance and a frequent speaker and contributor to the search engine marketing community. Christine can also be found on SEMClubHouse.com

Aaron Wall is SeoBook.com, one of the leading SEO blogs around. SEOBook.com has long been a source for quality articles in the industry..

(Link love never hurts)

One of the most frequent comments I hear is: “Paid Ads? Oh, I never click on those”.

The fact is that’s simply not true.

I want to pass off an article that I contributed on SearchEngineLand.com that address that comment and others.

If Paid Search Isn’t Working Then You’re Doing Something Wrong

The article I wrote this past summer for DMNews’ Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing, was published on their website today.

Here is the link.