159 Top Social Media Sites: The Ultimate List

159 Social Media sites, Social Bookmarking Sites, Blog Aggregates, News Aggregates, & Email Software Tools.

Where did this list come from? 

Thanks to AddThis.com here is the list of the most relevant and top social media sites as of September 8th, 2015.  Including some more that are not as easy to share with an addthis button but still worthy of the ultimate list of social media websites.

What am I to do with all these social media websites? 

Take advantage of their visibility, pick the social media sites that fit your brand and product, and build a community around your social media. Start a conversation with your followers and give them the information they are starving for. Create a profile and link it back to your website or blog. 

Should I start a profile with everyone of these social media websites?

No. Pick the best social media sites for your business, website, brand or blog and make sure to post to them on a regular basis. Whether once a month or 3 times a week, make sure you are consistent so your followers know what to expect and don't drop off after long absences. Post relevant, informative and interesting content to your social media sites to keep your followers engaged.

What are the top 23 Social Media Sites?

1) Twitter - Connect with your friends and other fascinating people. Get in-the-moment updates on the things that interest you. And watch events unfold, in real time, from every angle.

2) Facebook -  Create an account or log into Facebook. Connect with friends, family and other people you know. Share photos and videos, send messages and get updates.

3) Gmail - Email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

4) Google+ -  a place to connect with friends and family, and explore all of your interests. Share photos, send messages, and stay in touch with the people.

5) Pinterest - a visual discovery tool that you can use to find ideas for all your projects and interests.

6) Tumblr - Post anything (from anywhere!), customize everything, and find and follow what you love.

7) Linkedin - Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities

8) Blogger - Free weblog publishing tool from Google, for sharing text, photos and video.

9) Delicious - Keep, share, and discover the best of the Web using Delicious, the world's leading social bookmarking service.

10) Y! Mail - Official site for the email service, which features spam filters, a virus scanner, and interfaces for international users.

11) LiveJournal - A service for journals and blogs, that also offers privacy controls, photo storage, publishing tools, style templates, and online communities for many interests.

12) WordPress - Create a free website or easily build a blog on WordPress.com. Hundreds of free, customizable, mobile-ready designs and themes. Free hosting and support.

13) Meneame - Spanish site where users submit and vote news, to promote them on the cover.

14) VKontakte - Social networking as a means of communication and people search . International service created by Russian developers .

15) WhatsApp - Cross-platform mobile messaging app for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. Send text, video, images, and audio.

16) Reddit - User-generated news links. Votes promote stories to the front page.

17) Stumbleupon - the easiest way to discover new and interesting web pages, photos and videos across the Web.

18) Outlook - a free, personal email service from Microsoft. Keep your inbox clutter-free with powerful organizational tools, and collaborate easily.

19) Instagram - an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms.

20) Snapchat - Using the application, users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients.

21) Flickr - an image hosting and video hosting website, and web services suite.

22) Vine - the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.

23) Yelp - a crowd-sourced local business review and social networking site

The other 136 are in alphabetical order:

2 Tag - Paste your long URL and shorten it for a mobile by making a mobile tag or QR Code. Share it on Facebook / Twitter / etc. so everybody can scan your interesting link.

2linkme - Italian social bookmarking site.

Amen Me! - Social Bookmarking for Christians

AOL Mail - free email address from AOL

APSense - a business social network combining the best elements of business networking with the relationship building power of a social network.

Arto - Chat with your friends, participate in quizzes, share your photos and videos, play games, become member of exiting groups and much, much more.

Ask.fm -Ask and answer. Find out what people want to know about you!

Badoo - chat, date and meet with over 265 million people. Join our community and make friends in your area.

Bebo - makes your regular text messaging app look...well, boring. Start chatting with attitude! Available on iPhone and Android.

Beat100 - Watch new music videos just added to the Beat100 music network, stream your Soundcloud music and YouTube videos.

BlackPlanet - Worlds largest free African-American online community where Black women and Black men meet to chat, discuss and engage on what matters to us.

Baidu - Chinese website and search engine that enables individuals to obtain information and find what they need.

BibSonomy - A social bookmark and publication sharing system that supports BibTeX.

BiggerPockets - Social network for the real estate investing community. Learn real estate investment, get free tips & education, make deals, and grow your business.

Bit.ly - a URL shortening service.

BizSugar - Share small business news, tips, blog posts and information with BizSugar's community of small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Blogmarks - A social bookmarks manager that allows categorization via custom tags.

Blogkeen - Follow your favourite blogs on Blogkeen.com, on Facebook and on your mobile phone.

Blurpalicious - a social Multiblogging platform where you can create, publish and share web content for free.

Bobrdobr - Russian social bookmarking site.

BonzoBox - a home page that you can add a site, (or many sites), to and makes sharing websites and bookmarks with your friends and family fast and easy.

Bookmarky.cz - Czech social bookmarking site.

Bookmerken - A German bookmarking site.

Box - secure content management and collaboration for individuals, teams and businesses, enabling secure file sharing and access to your files online.

Brainify - Russian social bookmarking site for business professionals.

BuddyMarks - The Online Bookmark Manager. The Web's best online personal, group and social bookmarks manager.

Buffer - sharing, creating, analyzing and converting with social media.

Camyoo - a photo and video sharing site devoted to all the picture and video takers.

Care2 -  Largest online community empowering people to lead a healthy and green lifestyle while taking action on important causes such as human rights.

Cherry Share - Fast & Free File Hosting for everyone. 1 step upload and simple instructions for uploading your files.

CiteULike - Search, organize, and share scholarly papers. Indexes over 2 million articles.

ClassicalPlace - Your reference for the classical music. Meet new artists, publish your concerts, share your life in music.

Classmates -  Reconnect with high school friends, browse the biggest database of online yearbooks and/or plan high school reunions.

Colivia.de - German social bookmarking site.

Cosmiq - German social bookmarking site.

Digg - the homepage of the internet, featuring the best articles, videos, and original content that the web is talking about right now.

Diggita - Italian social bookmarking site.

Diigo - a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community.

DoMelhor - Portuguese social bookmarking site.

Douban - Chinese social bookmarking site.

Draugiem.lv - Latvian social network.

Dzone - Programming, Web Development, and DevOps news, tutorials and tools for beginners to experts. Hundreds of free publications, over 1M members, totally free.

EFactor - enables you to connect with fellow Entrepreneurs around the world and gives you the proven tools to help grow your business.

Embarkons - the Idea Network for Entrepreneurs to use Social Media to Share and Post Ideas to find Financing and Gain Traction; to find Employees, Resources.

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas and write meaningful words.

EzySpot - a news/social bookmarking site.

Fabulously40 - The social network for women in their prime. Women over 40. Community, Tools, Games and Resources for people over the age of 40.

Fark - Satirical views on interesting, bizarre and amusing stories, submitted by a community of millions of news junkies, with regular Photoshop contests.

FAVable - gives users the capability to save all their bookmarks online.

Faves - Share and Share Alike, social bookmarking site

Favoritus - save bookmarks online, manage favorites links. Save bookmarks online. Manage bookmarks online. Backup bookmarks online.

Financial Juice - provides real time, fully customisable news via voice and text for traders of all markets.

Flixster -  A community where users share film reviews and ratings [free registration required].

Flipboard - a social-network aggregation, magazine-format mobile app localized in more than 20 languages.

Folkd - Social Bookmarking - Save your bookmarks and links online and search what your friends like.

FreeDictionary - Collection of dictionaries by subject including medical and legal together with free and subscription encyclopedias, in ten languages.

Friendster - A global social network that emphasizes friendship and the discovery of new people. Search for old friends and classmates, and stay in touch with friends.

Hatena - the most popular social bookmarking service in Japan

Hi5 -  The social network for meeting new people

historious - a single-click bookmarking search engine.

Hootsuite - a social media management system for brand management

ihavegot - Add everything you have got and see what your friends have got, share your photos, links, videos, ideas, questions, problems.

Indexor - Bookmark your favourite websites to create a personal homepage service from the UK.

Instapaper - A simple tool for saving web pages to read later on your iPhone, iPad, Android, computer, or Kindle.

iOrbix - a unique social network that makes expressing your life and connections between friends so much easier and fun.

Jamespot - an enterprise social network solution and provide a collaborative platform in SaAS.

Kik - lets you connect with friends, groups, and the world around you through chat

Kledy - German social news aggregator.

Librerio - Easily, visually organize your favorite bookmarks in your own personal library.

Links Gutter - Russian Complete Free Social Bookmarking Portal for Sharing News, Gossips, Photos and Videos

Markme - an online social bookmarking site that works with all browsers and requires no add-ons.

MeetMe - US-based social media technology company catering to Latin Audiences worldwide

Meetup - Find Meetups and meet people in your local community who share your interests.

Yahoo! Answers - Share insights and experience. Get answers, ask questions, and find information.

Memonic - a browser add on to save links for later viewing.

Memori.ru - Russian social bookmarking site.

Mendeley - Easily organize your papers, read & annotate your PDFs, collaborate in private or open groups, and securely access your research from everywhere.

Mixi - an online Japanese social networking service

mRcNEtwORK - Italian social bookmarking site.

MyHeritage -  Create your family tree and discover your family history. Free genealogy software. Get automatic Smart Matches on over 2 billion profiles and share photos.

myVidster - a social video sharing and bookmarking site that lets you collect, share and search your videos.

MySpace - An international site that offers email, a forum, communities, videos and weblog space.

N4G - video game social network.

Nasza-klasa - a large Polish school-based social networking service used by alumni and students.

Netvibes - all-in-one dashboard intelligence platform for real-time social media monitoring, social analytics, brand sentiment, and reputation management.

Netvouz - a social bookmark manager where you can store your favorite links online and access them from any computer.

NewsMeBack - the place for everyone who likes citizen journalism and social news, a place for you where you can put your news, and events from everyday life.

Newsvine - Register to add a news story, comment or write a column. Open source, community news service, which lets members customize the news viewed.

Ning -  An online service to create, customize, and share a social network.

Odnoklassniki - a Russian social network service for classmates and old friends.

OKNOtizie - an Italian social bookmarking site.

PDFmyURL - turns your web pages into PDF with a single click

PhoneFavs - a mobile web portal and phone optimized bookmarking service.

Plaxo - easily eliminate duplicate contacts and always keep your address book clean.

Plurk - a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links

QRF.in - Create QR-codes on the fly. Simply insert your URL in the box and click Tag NOW. Then you can copy resulting short URL, download QR code or share it

QRSrc.com - Generate and share QR Codes for text, url, sms, phone numbers.

Rediff MyPage - India's social networking site. Connect with people who matter and stay updated by sharing instant info, photos, and more.

RenRen - Social networking internet platform in China

ResearchGate - a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators.

Scoop.it - Discover, curate and publish great content to get visibility online.

She Told Me - a Digg-like with a 100% AdSense Revenue Sharing program.

SlideShare - Offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios.

SodaHead - A site where users create polls to get advice about issues and society.

SpinSnap - a discovery engine for websites, music & videos.

Startaid - Save your bookmarks and favorites online. Social bookmark manager that allows you can use tags or categories.

StudiVZ - a social networking platform for students (in particular for college and university students in Europe)

Stumpedia - a social search and bookmarking site that relies on human participation to index, organize, and review content.

Symbaloo - A free social bookmarking service in the cloud.

Tagged - meet and socialize with new people through games, shared interests, friend suggestions, browsing profiles, and much more.

Tapiture - a visual discovery and social curation platform that lets you share images, videos and products, as well as buy an endless assortment of cool stuff.

The Fancy - a social photo sharing webstore and mobile app

The Web Blend - a community for designers, developers and tech junkies that keeps you current

ThisNext - a social commerce site enabling people to recommend their favorite products and guide others in online purchasing.

Thrill On - Home to the most epic and awesome photos, videos, and gear - every day.

Taringa! -  a social network geared toward Latin American users

Transferr - a visual, web-based bookmarking service that allows its users to save, customise, organise and share their favourite websites

Tulinq - a news aggregator in Spanish (digg style)

Twoo - the fastest growing place to chat, search, share photos and play fun introductory games. Free to join.

Typepad - Service for hosting and publishing weblogs and photo albums.

Viadeo - a Web 2.0 professional social network whose members include business owners, entrepreneurs and managers

Virb - Whether you're a novice or a pro, a photographer, a band, a small business, or anything in between, Virb is perfect for building your own website

VisitezMonSite - French Digg-style site with 100% Adsense sharing.

vKruguDruzei - Russian social networking site.

Wayback Machine - Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.Only available for sites that allow crawlers.

Webnews - Here you can find news, eyewitness news videos set themselves assess, discuss and comment - or just check out the latest news.

Wanelo - an online community for all of the world's shopping.

WireFan - Sports social bookmarking site.

WishMindr - let's you create wishlists and set reminders to help your friends and family know what to get you!

Wykop - Polish social bookmarking site.

Xanga - a website that hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles.

Xing - a social software platform for enabling a small-world network for professionals.

Yammer - a leading enterprise social network for businesses to get work done smarter and faster.

Yardbarker - Sports news, commentary and humor submitted by fans and celebrity athlete bloggers.

Yoolink - Share instantly your findings on Facebook, Twitter or e-mail! Yoolink is the simplest and most effective tool to share and find again all that interests you.

YouMob - Are you mad as hell? Got something to shout about? Join others in a LIVE mob. Shout out about today's event, gossip or news.

Yuuby - the best way to explore friendships and discover people beyond the boundary of your social network.

Zakladok.net - Russian social bookmarking site.

Know of another social media site, social networking site or social bookmarking site? Add it to the comments.

Google Pigeon Algorithm Update: How it Affects Your Local Business

Launched on July 24, 2014 for U.S. English results, the “Pigeon Update” is a new algorithm to provide more useful, relevant and accurate local search results that are tied more closely to traditional web search ranking signals. Links, On-Page Factors & Social Media play a more impactful role in Google local search results. Google also stated that this new algorithm improves their distance and location ranking parameters.

Neighborhoods not Cities

One of the major algorithmic shifts around Pigeon was the way that geo-location was redesigned. Instead of identifying cities as single geographical entities, Pigeon sliced and diced cities up into neighborhoods. If you’re in a larger city (with neighborhoods), don’t focus your online marketing efforts and search terms exclusively on your city name, but rather on your neighborhood name. Hyperlocal search is more important now.

All Neighborhood Names are Correct

A neighborhood can be known by several different names, depending on who you’re talking to. A map-reading stranger may visit a new area and call it “Uptown,” just like his map tells him. But a local may think, “‘Uptown’? Never heard of it. We call this area ‘The Art District.'” Two names. One place. Which one is right? With the algorithm update, both are right.

More Mobile, Less Desktop

As the users move more and more to mobile search not only has there been a decline in city level searches but the searches will be occurring with Google having a much better handle on the actual users real location rather than a very approximate desktop location.

More than just Yelp

When it comes to Local Directories you have to see what local directories rank for your business type and in your neighborhood search results. Yelp isn’t the only local review site that got a boost. Sites like Urbanspoon, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Zagat, Kayak, etc. received higher visibility within the search results following the release of Pigeon.

No more 10 or 7 Pack, 3 Pack only

"Recently Google changed the amount of Google My Business listings it shows on every page of search results. In the past, you could have seen up to 10 Google My Business listings. Then it went to the 7 pack of local listings. Google has confirmed that it will only show 3 Google My Business listings in local search results. If you ranked in position 4-10 you no longer show on those local map listings." The Anatomy of a Local Search Result in Google

Conclusion

Traditional SEO is more important than ever for local listings. Local Directories influence local search results and you want to keep them 100% accurate. Focus on mobile over desktop, more and more local searches are performed on mobile. Finally, local search results are becoming more competitive than ever, these are the things you must do to survive in Google's local search results.

How to Take Full Advantage of Yelp

According to studies, 93% of people who conducted research on a review site also make purchases from the business they look up, Restaurants being the highest converters on Yelp at 78%. Yelp gets a lot of visibility on Google organic search results. It is important that you are taking full advantage of Yelp for your Business.

Find and Claim your Business Page - Respond to viewers as the business owner and Measure visitor activity on your page. According to Yelp, "$8,000 is the average annual incremental revenue generated by a business claiming its free Yelp Business Page." Also, "$23,000 is the average annual revenue from Yelp as reported by Yelp advertisers." Sounds like it is worth the time to claim your Yelp Business Page, if nothing else you have access to your Yelp Analytics.

Free Tools from Yelp - Allows you to fully fill out your business page with business name, address, phone, website, etc. It also allows you to respond to reviews as the business owner. You can upload photos to show off your products and create a Yelp  Deal. 

Yelp Deals are, "...prepaid vouchers that offer consumers an attractive discount (e.g., $10 for $20) at your business. It’s an easy way to give consumers who are already searching for a business like yours an incentive to choose you over the competition. Yelp users can buy your deal or gift certificate directly on your business page via the Yelp website or mobile app."

Yelp Analytics - You get business analytics to track visitor engagement and customer leads from your Yelp Business Page.

Finally the free subscription comes with a mobile app to get all of this information on the go.

Self Service Advertising - Wait 30 days from when you sign up to do any advertising. More than likely Yelp will give you $100 or more to test out the self service advertising platform. This level of service from Yelp will remove competitor ads from your business page. You also get the ability to use Yelp SeatMe.

Yelp SeatMe gives restaurants and bars tools for front-of-house management. Yelp Seatme also allows you to capture online reservations without the cover fee, reservations can be taken on Yelp and your own website. Plus you can let people waiting for a table know their table is ready with a quick ping from Yelp SeatMe.

Full Service Yelp - In addition to all the services you receive for the free version of Yelp, the full service version can add a call to action, a slideshow or restrict competitor's ads for a fee of course.

Yelp Review Badges - "You have a website, and you want to show off your Yelp love. Just copy the HTML code next to any of the buttons and paste it into your website. The review counters will update automatically every time a Yelper writes a review of your business."

I got a bad review, what do I do? If your customers have posted legitimate complaints, don’t be afraid to publicly apologize, be sincere. Also, Describe what has been done to correct the problem.

Lastly, you get a weekly update of your analytics sent to you by email. Easily keep track of how many impressions and clicks you get for your Yelp Business Listing.

Google Adwords Migrates Video Campaigns into Main Interface

What happens to my video campaigns?
Your current video campaigns and campaign data (statistics, settings, targeting criteria, and remarketing lists) will carry over to the upgraded view. You will not lose any data.



A single AdWords buying experience (All campaigns in one place)
If you also have other campaign types such as search and display, your video campaigns  will be unified in a single location in the left-hand sidebar.

• Columns - All will be unified in a single view in the data table. New columns for Conversions (if enabled), Google Analytics (if linked), and more will be available.
• Filters - With advanced filtering tools, you can filter your campaigns by data in any column and save that filter for later use.
• Segments - You'll still have access to current segment types such as device, network, time, view type, click type, and conversions (if enabled).

Targeting groups replaced by ad groups
Like a targeting group, an ad group is a set of targeting criteria and bids that you can manage together. Currently, targeting groups are created independently of video ads. Going forward, an ad group will contain video ads with common targeting criteria and bids.

Also, an ad group can only have video ads with the same format. If you want to run in-stream and in-display ads, you will need to create two different ad groups. Your current targeting groups will be automatically restructured into ad groups. But, the original targeting criteria for your targeting groups will carry over to their updated ad groups.

Improved bulk management tools

• Bulk edits - With bulk editing tools, you can simultaneously update multiple items in one campaign, or across multiple campaigns.
• Bulk uploads - With bulk uploads, you'll be able to download spreadsheets, make edits offline, and then upload the updated spreadsheet back into your account where your changes will be applied.
• Automated rules - You can make changes in your account automatically, based on settings and conditions you choose. For example, you can change your ad status, budget, bids, and more.

New home for video shared library tools

YouTube account linking will merge with other types of linked accounts within the AdWords settings menu.

Video remarketing will be available in the unified AdWords shared library. Remarketing for other campaign types will continue to be available under 'Audiences' in the shared library.

When is the deadline to migrate?
October 12th, if you haven't upgraded already there will be an auto-upgrade of your video campaigns.

The Anatomy of a Local Search Result in Google

Recently Google changed the amount of Google My Business listings it shows on every page of search results. In the past, you could have seen up to 10 Google My Business listings. Then it went to the 7 pack of local listings. Google has confirmed that it will only show 3 Google My Business listings in local search results. If you ranked in position 4-10 you no longer show on those local map listings.

What can you do to combat the Local Algorithm Shift?

Focus on all the ways you can show up for local search results. Here is the anatomy of the current local search query in Google search results:

Google Adwords - The easiest way to show up on local listings is pay for placement in Google Adwords. Depending on what a customer is worth to you will dictate how much you spend per click. Calculate the LifeTime Value of a Customer multiple it by your conversion rate and you have your max cost per click. i.e. $100 x 2% = $2 Max CPC

Google My Business - The second easiest way to show up for local search queries is to register your business with Google My Business. This is a free service offered by Google. This is were Google changed the local algorithm from a 7 pack of listings to only 3 listings as you can see in the screenshot. Support your Google+ account with 100s of other local directory listings to improve your ranking in Google local search results.

Yelp - Google favors Yelp for local search queries. As you can see in the screenshot there are 3 listings that top the organic section of the local search query. Yelp is free to join and they even send you a weekly update of your listing if you claim your business. Some search queries will list yellowpages.com, whitepages.com and foursquare. Don't forget to submit your local listing to the top 4 databases that distribute local listings to 100s of local directories to capture more local search visibility.

Website SEO - The last thing you can do to capture customers from local search queries is optimize your Website with SEO-Friendly URLs, title tags, body content & as many good links as you can find.

Conclusion

It is important to do all 4 tactics to capture visibility in local search results. Never know when Google will decide to change the algorithm and you want to have all your bases covered.

8 Must Use Tools for Social Media

When you are optimizing for Social Media it is always better to use tools that can save you time. Here are 8 tools that can do just that.

Search Marketing City Platform - Manage all your social media and local directories all in one place. Schedule posts and tweets, update the top 4 databases that feed 100s of local directories, and do it anytime 24/7. Also get alerts when new posts, tweets, or reviews show up on your profiles so you can respond quickly. Studies show that after 4 hours an unanswered post can actually hurt brand equity. Finally get leads from Twitter and Facebook to promote your products and services.

Argyle Social - Helps you better understand the value of leads and build stronger relationships. Merge social data with sales numbers to identify prospects.

Facebook Insights - Visualize the last 30 days of your Facebook interactions. This too is free of charge.

Tweet Deck - a desktop solution to monitor and manage Twitter feeds. Also, get notification alerts for new tweets.

Tweepi - Helps you get rid of un-followers and inactives. Plus you can reciprocate followers with the touch of a button. Helps you manage your visibility on Twitter.

Social Bro - Browse your community and identify key influencers, figure out the best time to tweet, track engagement and analyze competitors. Pricing starts at $14/month.

Crowd Booster - Social Media analytics with suggestions and resources to boost online engagement. Get recommendations for tweet timing, audience insights, and content scheduling. Pricing starts at $9 a month.

Tallwind - Track engagement and growth of your Pinterest account. You can also connect Google Analytics to track conversions. Pricing starts at $29/a month although a free version is available.

Found any other great social media tools? Post them in the comments!

10 Link Ideas for New Businesses

As a new business you are looking for ways to get the word out and get a critical mass of customers. Some things you definitely want to do will also increase the amount of links to your new website and get you better rankings in Google organic search results. Unfortunately some of the opportunities cost money but are worth the money.

1) Chamber of Commerce - Utilize your local Chamber of Commerce to increase the amount of very value links. You will get a profile page with link to your website. The Concord Chamber of Commerce, which I am a member of, allows press releases to be uploaded to local new outlets. This can cost you and depends on your cities annual dues.

2) Crunchbase - Not only is this a great free directory to get links to your business website and personal blogs, you even get a link. Plus, it will rank on your business name so you will capture more organic real estate alongside Facebook & Linkedin for your business name on Google organic search results.

3) Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter - You can create all of them if they make sense for your business. Facebook and Twitter for sure, Linkedin for your business professionals, Instagram for pictures of products or food from your restaurant, and YouTube for videos that promote your business, the products you sell or the services you offer. Don't forget to add a link back to your new business website in these profiles.

4) A Blog - I have been blogging since 2008 and SEM has changed dramatically since that time. What hasn't changed is the link value I get from my blog interactions. The more posts, comments, followers and back links I get to my blog the more value it gives my website. You can also add all your social media profiles to your blog to give them some value too.

5) Yelp - This is a no-brainer. Billions of people search Yelp for new places to eat, shop at or do business with. Yelp also dominates many local search queries. Try this test, type "plumber in concord" in Google and see the two to three listings Yelp has on the top of organic search results. Just under those Google My Business listings.

6) Foursquare - Find the best places to eat, drink, or shop. Your customers can access over 75 million short reviews from local experts. Many of the impressions foursquare gets is from users that download the app and walk around the city and see pins for locations near them. Great place to get a link.

7) Google+ - Go to Google My Business and get seen on Search results, Maps & in Google+. Share posts, updates or images with your Google+ followers. The more interaction the more value Google's algorithm gives it for your links.

8) Local Newspapers, Blogs & Reviews - Ask the journalists and bloggers in your area to do a story on your grand opening. I am sure you can think of something unique about your business. Try starting a conversation with them about something they have written in the past, then when the time is right tell them about your grand opening and unique value proposition.

9) Friends, Family & Industry Colleagues - Do you know the association president of your industry? Do they have a resources page on their website? Great link opportunity. Does a friend or family member blog? Have them interview you about your grand opening.

10) Press Releases - You are probably wondering how a press release relates to SEO and getting links? If you pay to have your press release sent to reputable web newspapers and press release aggregates you will get 1,000s of links from 1,000s of different domains. When I started my business, I didn't rank for my own name because it is somewhat generic. After my press release I shot up to Position 3 for my name on Google organic search results (with more link building I am now in Position 1).

Remember to include a text link in your press release. It is worth the extra money to use your business name as the link text for your homepage. A great place to start is PR Web, they charge about $249 to send out your press release to 4 different geographies.

Conclusion

There are a lot of ways to get your name out into the world and get valuable link value back for your website's search results. Some of these may cost a few dollars but it is well worth the value you get back.