Are small businesses using social media?  Are they finding success?  Here’s a survey of surveys – a quick look at some of the statistics and figures from around the Web on small business and social media.

Adoption is up among US small businesses.

“According to a survey conducted by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, “Social Media Adoption By U.S. Small Businesses Doubles Since 2009,” the number of small businesses using social media doubled from 12 percent in 2008 to 24 percent in 2009,” says this post on FoxBusiness.com

“36% plan to utilize social media/networking websites to build business [in 2010],” according to MediaPost reporting on a FedEx Survey.  Based on the same survey, eMarketer said, “more than one-quarter said blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter were other key tools for marketing their business.” This survey was also examined by SearchEngineLand.com Assignment Editor, Matt McGee on his blog Small Business Search Marketing.

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Read the rest of Data points: social media, small business and statistics (383 words)

Data points: social media, small business and statistics was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

If you took an informal survey today about where people get their commercial information, it’s highly likely most folks would avidly reply: “The Web, of course!” Or, when asked, “where did you hear that?” Their reply? “I ‘Googled’ it!” Easy—and immediate–enough.

But what does this mean behind the scenes? How does “stuff” get “Google-able, “Tweet”-able, or just made ready for a Facebook user to share with their friends?

The answers can seem confusing, and even at times overwhelming, as the “digg-erati” talk about the intricacies of Search Engine Optimization, hash-tags, Web 2.0, mash-ups and more.

When it comes to deciphering new media, remembering that “the more things change, the more they stay the same” is extremely important. You attract customers in much the same way you always have: by having great products and services. Their satisfaction and positive (and negative) impression makes people share stories about you with their friends. You might also snag some coverage in the news media in one form another – local, global or trade.

Through it all, “word-of-mouth advertising” is still in fashion. What has changed is the speed at which the good news (or –“oh no!” bad news) about your business spreads. Thanks to the Internet, the good, bad and the ugly spreads like wildfire.  And, that places new requirements on you to understand how you can facilitate, manage, measure and track that process, so you can attract more customers, stay ahead of the competition and keep your business growing.

We see the success that the new digital world is creating; exciting stories of business growth, and great new relationships formed. We also see some puzzlement – and confusion. People are just not sure where to start first.

Together with some PRWeb partners, we’re putting on an online event to help businesses learn the basics of interactive and online marketing. Its called “Thrive 2010: The ins and Outs of Online Marketing.”  It focuses on the fundamental tools and strategies for achieving success in the new digital world – but, in simple language.

Many of us who live in this new-fangled social media world took a leap to get here. We had to figure out how it all worked–the best practices for helping our own businesses and our customers tap the power of social media and Web 2.0 technologies to take marketing and its revenue impact to new heights. And, now, tweeting, sharing, blogging and all the other “stuff” that goes along with social media is actually pretty fun. What life and work should be all about, right?

What are your thoughts, or emotions, about leaping into the new digital world?

Are You “Tweet-able?” was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

Over the next few weeks you will see some modifications to the actual news release template being rolled out. These modifications are aimed at accomplishing several important goals including.  Top-level goals include A) Improving the experience for those reading and interacting with the news release, and B) Improving the search friendliness of the news releases.

The modifications to the news release editing tool are minor but don’t be surprised if we have introduced a few tweaks.  When we roll the new template out we’ll be providing a much broader, comprehensive explanation of the launch.

Upcoming Changes to the News Release Template was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

This morning we announced an exciting, new partnership with Zemanta, aimed at enhancing the reach of our customer news releases into the blogosphere.

I like to think about Zemanta as an Associated Press for bloggers.  They basically are a resource that provides contextually relevant content for bloggers while they are writing their stories.  Through our partnership, our customer news releases will be included in the aggregate of content that Zemanta presents to bloggers while they write.

Simply put, it is a simple and easy way for people to get their news releases to the blogosphere without having to worry about any potential negative impact.

PRWeb news releases already receive the most traction of any other news distribution service out there.  A quick search of Google for the volume of blogs linking to our site reveals over .5 million results – no one else compares.  This partnership should push us even further ahead.

PRWeb Partners with Zemanta to Enhance Visibility of News Releases in Blogosphere was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

This is just a note that we are phasing out Technorati and Keyword tags from PRWeb news releases.  Our rationale for doing so is as follows:

Why We Removed Technorati Tags

The initial function of the Technorati tags was to serve as a directional tool for news release visitors who might want to see what was being said in the blogosphere about certain topics relevant to the news release. Our research has driven us to the conclusion that Technorati tags are not being utilized with any significant consistency.  In fact, our initial research indicates that click-through rates on customer links has increased on releases where Technorati tags have been removed.

Why We Removed Keyword Tags

Keywords were initially added as meta tags to support the performance of the release in search.  For several years now it has been generally accepted that keywords have had a minimal effect on search ranking.  This belief was validated when Google publicly affirmed that they do not use the keyword meta tag in web rankings.

However Keywords Still Matter

Keywords still play an important role in the performance of the release in search.  It is just the placement of these keywords in the meta data is what has lost relevance.

It is still important to consider the placement of relevant keywords in the the following areas of the release:

• Title
• Summary
• Body
• Anchor text links
• ALT tags
• News release URL

In Conclusion

At PRWeb, we put customer content and customer links front-and-center.  We are always in the process of looking at the different elements of the news release and analyizing how we can improve the release as a tool to create online traction, build search equity and ultimately traffic to customer Web sites.  Technorati and Keyword tags had gotten to the point where they were no longer providing value to our customers so we made the decision to phase them out.

Phasing out Technorati and Keyword Tags was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

Over the past year or so we’ve seen more and more PRWeb customers share their news release through Twitter once it is published on PRWeb, which doesn’t come as much surprise considering we are blessed with some of the most innovative and technologically savvy customers out there!

So we decided to help make things a little more convenient for the PRWeb customers who are active on Twitter by introducing a new social media feature called TweetIt that allows customers to automatically share their news release through Twitter at the same time it is distributed through PRWeb.

To take advantage of the feature, you first need an account on Twitter. Once you have created an account, you simply add your credentials and tweet (a short blurb) and we’ll auto-post it to your Twitter account as soon as your release is published.

If you’d like to see how it works, we’ve prepared this quick video demo that walks you through the actual steps:

If you’d like to connect with us on Twitter we have an official PRWeb Twitter account.

Introducing TweetIt, an Easy Way to get your News Release on Twitter was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

New and Improved NewsPad – PRWeb’s NewsPad search engine has been completely overhauled to provide more than just press releases in the search results. Images, Web sites (including blogs) linking to releases, and podcasts are now included. Newspad.com is a PRWeb property used for searching the PRWeb archive of content. NewsPad searches also create RSS feeds; when subscribed to, these feeds will alert you when new releases have been added to the search results.

File Library – PRWeb has improved its news content management capabilities by adding the File Library Console to the PRWeb platform. PRWeb users can now upload all file types into their File Library for easy and ready access. The File Library utilizes a “drag-and-drop” user interface to make managing your files and attaching them to your press releases quick and easy to do.

Improved BlogThis – The BlogThis feature has been enhanced to enable inclusion of the embedded video from the press release in the blog post being created about the release. BlogThis will also now identify categories used by the blogger and allow them to be assigned to the corresponding blog post. PRWeb has also made the BlogThis tool available to all bloggers, whether or not they are PRWeb account holders.

PRWeb User Enhancements was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

A new “BlogThis” tool appears now on PRWeb press release pages.  BlogThis allows bloggers to post without even leaving the press release page. By clicking the BlogThis link, bloggers can quickly and easily write posts about the press releases they’re reading without the hassle of having to log into a blog and copying the headline and web address for the press release into the post. In addition, BlogThis makes it simple to include images from the press release in the blog post.

BlogThis was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com