A recent PEW Internet survey reports that people are increasingly using the Internet, search engines, specialty websites and social networks to search for local businesses.

In the Fast Company article, E.B. Boyd summed it up nicely, “Not being online today is the equivalent in earlier eras of not having a storefront or a Yellow Pages listing. It’s effectively impossible for potential customers to find you.”

In this post we offer a definition,additional reasons why it’s important to optimize and ten tips to ensure that businesses can be found through local searches.

While both B2B and B2C businesses use social media marketing, their tactics, goals and objectives differ dramatically. Buy, buy, buy is often the over-arching message for B2C brands using social media. Instead, for B2B businesses social media marketing is seen as an opportunity to demonstrate your know-how and a way to build and strengthen relationships.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times a week I must hear the question asked, Does Social Media Marketing really work for generating leads and new business? What I’ve learned about social media marketing and seen first hand is that like any other marketing plan a business embarks upon, in order to be effective, social media must be well-planned, targeted and strategic. Sure, you can create presences and tweet and post updates ‘till the cows come home, but will you get the results you’re hoping for?