This Week in Social Local Media

While we were recovering from ILM East this week, Google decided to unveil +1, the search engines answer to social networking. Not all were impressed. It’s about time, though. We have been waiting for months. While some industry experts suggest the symbol is Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like or Twitter’s tweet, I’m still digesting the impact on local and social marketing and advertising. And just to show Google that people still like it, they really really like it, Facebook announced that it now has more than 250 million mobile users.

On the blog we also covered Closely’s debut of Social Select, a way for merchants to share deals with their best customers that they can share with others. And we uncovered a post by Ross Mayfield, who strikes a chord with insights and anecdotes about how social engagement empowers organizations.

Here’s what we uncovered this week in socialsphere:

Facebook Allows SMBs to Convert Profiles Into Pages
For those SMBs that didn’t really get the difference between a FB Profile and a FB Page this announcement by Facebook might help them figure it out and create a stronger Facebook Page offering.

How To Target the Affluent on Facebook
Marketers want to get ads in front of the affluent, but there’s no way to target job titles, incomes, or property values on Facebook unless you think outside the box, explains Merry Morud. She demonstrates Facebook’s new broad-category targeting, and points to geotargeting as a marketer’s best friend.

Kawasaki’s Secret Social Marketing Strategy
Guy Kawasaki attributes, in part, marketing techniques for getting his latest book “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions” on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists within a week. Kawasaki steps through 12 things he did to launch the book.

How to Leverage Missed Opportunities
Creating a connection between offers, location and value takes skill. Lori Luechtefeld demonstrates how it’s done through what she calls “missed opportunities” in location-based services. She talks with Alistair Goodman is CEO of Placecast to get answers.

Reaching Customers Through Social Media
While there is an abundance of ways to invest in social media, Bruno Aziza believes his methods can help marketers do it wisely. Start by forming a solid customer service strategy and don’t implement solutions, but rather solve problems.

Six Q&A Location-Based Sites
Sarah Kessler tells us about six new location-based Q&A services that send questions about places to locals likely to have the answers. Some provide recommendations. It seems as if the sites took a cue from Ask.com’s latest business model, but these have an interesting twist.

Twittering for SEO Value
Lisa Barone gives us five ways marketers can get more from local, social media. She explains how companies continue to invest less in local directories and more in websites and social media, according to stats Barone shared in a prior blog. Search engine optimization (SEO) and Twitter are two main topics covered in the post.

Sporting the Check-Ins
New features in GetGlue let users not only to check in to tell friends about a favorite book or television show, but also when landing at a location such as a bar. And since watching sports is a social event, David Chartier tells us the app has finally built in custom support for teams, leagues and networks. Wonder if he’s a sports fan.

A Car That Connects to Facebook and Twitter
Aston Martin and Mobiado teamed up to develop a concept phone and I couldn’t help but tell you about it. The phone acts as the key to the Aston by unlocking the doors and connecting to the car’s internal display system. GPS tracking provides a social media experience through Foursquare and cameras in the car automatically update Facebook and Twitter with pictures, according to Shahzad Sheikh.

This weekend ponder if you are playing it too safe in social. Remember what happened to Thia: