Today’s Wall Street Journal tackles the topic of holiday-season marketing for small businesses, with the idea being that, if holiday traffic and sales are a key part of your business plan, you better be thinking now about your holiday online marketing plan.

The article covers and expands on four main themes:

1. Polish Your Web Site
2. Work the Search Engines
3. Tap Into Social Media
4. Keep Up With Email

And get this: I’m quoted in the “Tap Into Social Media” section, talking about the need for local businesses to encourage online word-of-mouth:

A strong presence on review sites “encourages other shoppers to become customers, it’s good word-of-mouth marketing and can have long-term impact in the search engines, which often award better rankings to well-reviewed businesses,” Mr. McGee says.

Even without my own quote in there, it’s a good article. Stephan Spencer is also quoted in the article, along with several other smart folks. Here’s the link:

Wall Street Journal: Help For The Holidays

For the sake of new readers, I should probably mention that I’m now an independent marketing consultant available for hire. Oh, and if you’re looking for more holiday marketing/optimization ideas, I might also point you to an oldie-but-goodie that I wrote for Search Engine Land: Tis The Season To Optimize For The Holidays.