Yes, it’s true! (C’est vrai!)

Gradiva Cousin and Jennifer Grappone, co-authors of Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, recently sent me some questions about small business SEM (what else would you expect the questions to be about?) and it was a treat to put together what I hope were coherent thoughts. I hope you agree:

Interview with Matt McGee

An excerpt:

Q: How does the rise of social media optimization affect small businesses online?

It opens up some new opportunities and avenues for marketing, and this is one of those areas where the smart and quick small business can try out some of these new opportunities before big business muscles its way in.

But I have mixed feelings overall about social marketing. I don’t think MySpace, for example, is a legitimate opportunity at this point for the typical small business, and that includes small businesses whose target audience is the MySpace demographic. Yes, there are small business success stories on MySpace, but I think they’re the ones who started a year ago, trying it out to see what works and what doesn’t. Everyone’s trying to market on MySpace now, and I just think small businesses are smarter to try something else at this point.

G & J’s book is one of the three books I recommend in my “Big Ideas for Small Businesses” presentation at the SES shows. It’s a great way to learn SEO at your own pace without spending a lot of money. I encourage you to check it out on their site … after you read the interview.

And if you disagree with or just want to reply to any of the points discussed in the interview, feel free to add a comment below!