We hope you had a great weekend! This is our first ever video blog post and we are proud to share it with you. This post covers a Yodle Tipster on public relations for small businesses. Selling your story to the media to get coverage of the great work you do is very challenging. Hopefully the tips in this post will put you on the right track. Enjoy!

Here’s a true story:

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a particular local service in my area (which happens to be New York – home of Yodle HQ) so I performed a quick Google search for the service I was looking for “in nyc.” 

After checking out several of the websites that came up, both in the sponsored and organic results, I at last settled on a business that seemed to suite my needs and gave them a call.  Two automated menus and eight minutes of being on hold listening to Pachelbel’s Cannon in D later,…

Here’s the thing about small businesses marketing expectations. SMBs view telephone calls and in person visits as the most important indicators of a successful marketing campaign. If you’re not delivering these to small business clients, you should expect them to look elsewhere for their marketing services.

BIA/Kelsey has been tracking small business sentiment and spending patterns for more than a decade via our Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), an annual survey of 1,000 small businesses (SMBs) with less than 100 employees. BIA/Kelsey’s 2010 Local Commerce Monitor shows that:

A few months ago, Google teamed up with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in order to create an online repository of information and how-to videos for the small business community. The videos are divided into nine separate categories:

What’s interesting about this online tool is that the video case studies/tutorials are…

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:…