I’m going to Go Local for a couple of posts (like here). Small Business Trends has an article about “the top 5 ways people find local businesses according to Comscore“:

1. 31%  Visit a search engine – most research without a specific brand or business name in mind and a specific location (i.e. a plumber in Tampa, Florida).
2. 30% Look up a business in print in the Yellow Pages or White Pages.
3. 19% Use Internet directories – often to find a phone number.
4. 11% Look at local search sites like Google Maps or Yahoo Local (usually to get driving directions).
5. 3%   Get information from a newspaper or magazine.

What does this tell you? Search counts for 42%. You might want to have a strategy for that.  I find the YP number to be high until you consider that not everyone has a computer (with broadband and powered up all the time).  So you need to start measuring how folks find you. Seriously.

At the December AMA Tampa Bay luncheon, the speaker was Melissa Helms, co-founder of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation and partner in Keep Me In Stitches, talking about Cause Marketing. This has been the break-out year for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Pink ribbon marketing with everyone from M&M’s to Yoplait to Pepperidge Farms.

Helms talked about her Board of Advisors and her customers have helped her. She has made flags for Americans after 9/11. The business has collected food – one can was a 10% discount; 2 pieces was a 20% discount.  The store sells sewing machines, so making quilts for the children hospital is a natural fit. The store donated the space and lunch while customers and employees did the labor.

It is about inspiring and rewarding customers for giving, because everyone wants to feel like they are a part of something. It is about Community, which is really what social media is all about after you get past the technology and Internet parts.And don’t forget to have an Attitude for Gratitude.

Her last question was: What are You Passionate about? Tell that story.

On Twitter Sarah Evans asked what the difference was between marketing and public relations to be answered on twitter in less than 140 characters. Here are some answers:

• Marketing is what gets people through the door, PR is what keeps them coming back.
• In my world? Marketing connects people to me as a service or brand. PR connects me to people as a person.
• Marketing gets people to the dance. In sales, you have to do your own dancing. PR makes sure there are people to keep dancing with.
• Marketing=first thing people see.  PR=showing what’s underneath
• On a cynical side, marketing is selling face – PR is saving face

Since I started in sales and moved to marketing, I wouldn’t agree with all of these answers, but I can see how PR people would.  To me: PR is media spin.  Marketing is messaging and buzz to your target audience. Sales is actually getting dirty to pay the marketing and PR people.

All too often, people in marketing, social media, PR, lead generation (SEO and SEM), and advertising have espoused how they deliver. I have to tell you: until the salesperson closes the deal, nothing happened.

Brand Autopsy has visual representation of the differences among marketing, PR, advertising and branding. It boils down to: Advertising is when you tell people how great you are. PR is when someone else says how great you are. But in PR the person saying it is usually a paid spokesperson. Referrals, testimonials, and customer reviews are truly the best sales tool.