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:

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…

Part Two of a series on growing your business through social media tools

You’ve heard about Twitter enough to know that it is more than just a fad, but you still don’t really know much about how it can work for you and your local business.  Before you do anything, you should know what Twitter is.

What is Twitter? From the description on Twitter.com, Twitter is “a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.” Often referred to as a micro-blog, twitter users post updates that…

Part One of a series on growing your business through social media tools.

In 2003, a nifty social media tool went live that allowed career-oriented professionals to connect and network online in new ways. LinkedIn quickly became a leader in the social media space and today has around 70 million members. That’s certainly no small crowd!

Though your business might be small and have a local focus, keep in mind that all 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented on LinkedIn. There’s no doubt, it’s the place to be for businesses. Companies both large and small use…

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…