Increased investment, a bullseye on customer acquisition, yet unconvincing results. These are the core themes emerging from Manta’s recently-released Q1 SMB Wellness Index, a survey of small business owners focused on social media. They are the very themes called out in BIA/Kelsey’s LCM 16 SMB research. SMBs continue to pour more time and energy into …

Over the past year, American Express has embarked on a series of initiatives centered on digital advertising intelligence for SMBs. These include SearchManager (via Clickable) for SEM and multiple social media experiments with Facebook and Foursquare. Now, its small business-focused OPEN division is rounding out the suite with AdManager, which utilizes AdReady’s dynamic display capability …

The ILM:10 conference in Santa Clara ended with what is arguably the most important topic of the conference. How can businesses take all of the incredible users experiences emerging in local and social media and convert them into SMB sales?
Tackling this subject were Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle; Todd Rowe, head of global channel sales, …

Panelists on the Home and Trade Revolution panel this afternoon echoed the sentiments BIA/Kelsey CEO Neal Polachek expressed during his opening presentation yesterday about the importance of trust. Increasingly, this level of trust is achieved through the process of service provider or SMB verification. In other words, the small business is what it says it …

The headlines about 2011 being “the year of local” are everywhere, and as the curtain lifted on ILM:10 (with a record 600+ local-focused attendees filling the master ballroom), BIA/Kelsey President Neal Polachek encouraged the audience that as more media ad spend tilts locally and digitally, “there’s a big prize out there if you get it right.”
BIA/Kelsey’s local …

SEO companies are a dime a dozen. How do you stand out? How about guaranteeing a front page rank on major search engines to SMBs? That’s what Relevant Ads’ Local Splash has done.
The fast-growing SEO company cofounded in 2006 by former Local.com executive David Rodecker has built a template for SEO that it hopes to …

American Express has recently been leveraging its powerful relationship with SMBs on the Web, including a tie to search engine marketing and lead generation via a deal between American Express Open and Clickable.
Now Amex is going deep with social media, specifically Facebook. It is giving up to 10,000 SMBs up to $100 of customizable Facebook …

I sat in on a breakout session this morning at SES Chicago entitled “Local 2.0: The Evolution of Local Search.” Gregg Stewart from TMP division 15miles moderated, with two local SEO experts presenting, David Rodecker or Relevant Ads and Curtis R. Curtis from SharksFly Marketing.
According to the speakers, many of the old rules of local SEO …

As the demand for dependable call-tracking tools intensifies in the SMB marketplace, WebVisible — the Irvine, California-based local online marketing provider — has unveiled upgrades to its portfolio of services to enable more focused ad geotargeting and greater call-tracking capabilities for businesses.
WebVisible has boosted its Geneva Platform to serve locally targeted ads for its clients across all …

Today brings two meaningful announcements in the answers space from SuperMedia and MerchantCircle. Answers is an area that seems to be getting more attention as a way for local merchants to differentiate themselves online and for local online media sites to generate social content that indexes well.

SuperMedia has unveiled a new beta “social platform” called …

McClatchy Co., the third-largest newspaper entity with 30 newspapers in 29 markets, including The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, will aggressively target SMBs in each of its markets via an extended deal with WebVisible. The deal, per release, “will help local advertisers provide the most efficient way to get found by customers no matter …

Philadelphia-based 7Mainstreet cofounder Andy Leff got the idea for his company about four years ago while driving to the grocery store. “I was listening to something on the radio about the success MySpace was having with helping rock bands promote themselves, and I thought no company is doing anything like that for small businesses.”
Leff and …

As it readies its expected public offering, ReachLocal is branching out beyond its roots as a third-party SMB reseller for Google and others. First, it started selling display. Now it is set to offer improved search optimization, digital presence and reputation management via the acquisition of SMBLive.
Other companies in the space have made similar moves …

Less than a month after its peer company Idearc Media emerged from bankruptcy with a new name (SuperMedia) and a new lease on life, R.H. Donnelley has done the same thing. Freshly out of bankruptcy and US$6 billion lighter on its balance sheet, RHD has shed its historic corporate name in favor of DexOne, which …

Most of the money spent on mobile ads is from brand advertisers and agencies. And the targeting methods they use, via ad networks, are mostly borrowed from the online tactics they know best.
This involves branding and some direct response, but the targeting is woefully behind what mobile devices are capable of (see past commentary/rant on …

ReachLocal’s S1 filing to raise $100 million includes valuable details about the company. With grosses of $146.7 million for the first nine months of 2009, and operations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, the local search and display reseller has become one of the biggest bets in local.
According to the S1, ReachLocal, which …

This has been the year for new sites that combine service directories and social features such as ratings and reviews.  Earlier this year, we saw sites such as RedBeacon, HelpHive and others launch. Depending on definitions, earlier entrants include Citysearch, Yelp.com, Tree.com’s Done Right, FixR , LocalPrice, Insider Pages and Center’d.
Behind their fancy Web 2.0 …