Guest poster Greg Sterling is an Industry Analyst.View more from Greg Sterling at his blog, Screenwerk.The numbers are compelling. US teens spend roughly 25% of all their online time on social networks according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And among social networks, as most people know, Facebook is dominant. The site has 350 million users worldwide and more than 130 million in the US.

One day in the very near future Facebook is likely to supplant Yahoo one of the top two Internet…

Everybody wants to be #1. 1st in line for the movies, 1st to know about a new feature, 1st team in the league, and 1st on the search engine results page. Being in the 1st position is certainly a great way to drive new leads and make more sales, but it can be expensive and time consuming. It is also not the only way to get the local traffic you need to get more customers. 

Here are 4 really good, under the radar, tips and tricks to drive traffic to your website. Some of these may seem pretty simple,…

Yodle recently held a contest on twitter for new followers. In order to enter, twitter users had to become a Yodle follower before July 4th. We had more than 30 entrants to our contest! The prize? A FREE copy of Yodle’s new book Local Online Advertising for Dummies and a $100 AmEx gift card. We did a drawing for the winner, and the winner is @OzyTribe. Thanks to all our new followers on twitter and please be on the lookout for more contests soon.

Got a cool prize idea? Send us a…

Part Three in a series on growing your business through social media tools.

YouTube isn’t just a site to post videos of your pets making silly, human sounds. Many small to mid-size businesses actually use the video friendly site as a marketing tool.

YouTube attracts over 2 billion video views per day and has over 120 million US viewers, which is no small business. Best of all, its free to sign up and easy to use! Here are 6 golden rules to use YouTube to grow your brand:

1. Create Compelling Content: To attract eyeballs…

There is a lot of news out there for small business owners to read covering everything from government grants to management techniques. We know you don’t always have a chance to read it, so we’ve picked five that you can’t miss.  Read a story that isn’t on here? Leave us a comment below with YOUR best stories from this week.

1. Getting Beyond Myths: Government Small Business Loans, Grants Explained Do you know what government-backed business financing is and what it isn’t? Read this story from Small Business Trends to learn more.

2. Treasury Report:…

Location-based gaming and mobile applications have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year.  Foursquare, a site that allows you to “check in,” or indicate online your real-world geographical location, has really taken off as well as other check-in sites like Gowalla and Loopt  which are also enjoying success. One week ago today, social networking giant  Facebook decided it was time to enter the fray.   Here’s what Facebook’s new location-based check-in program “Facebook Places” entails, and why we think you should check it out.

Places Features

Facebook Places has two major functions: