I just met with Don Mock at Jobing.com here in Phoenix. This is someone who really understands the importance and effectiveness of using Social Media as a key component in their corporate marketing and sales strategy plan. Don explained to me that he has recently implemented a blog site for each of his Jobing job categories and that the most recent one he has created was for Construction/Trades. Over th last four years Phoenix has experienced growth unparalleled, well, even for Phoenix. Gilbert, Arizona, the town I live in has gone from 72,000 in 1989 to now more than 200,000! Gilbert, Arizona has been elected the “Fastest Growing Town In America” three years running. That’s a lot of residential construction. That was the reason for my writing the nationally published book “Build Your New House In No Time”.

As anyone who has every heard about real estate knows what happened to real estate in Phoenix. It is one of the few ares of the country that has actually doubled since 2004. You must also know that we are currently in a slump, which has really only accounted for an overall 10% decline in real estate values from the already 200% value increase. And, as anyone who has ever followed Phoenix real estate knows it’s much like the weather in Denver “If you don’t like the climate… Wait a minute!”

Don created the blog for his Construction/Trades and yesterday wrote a blog. This morning… If you go to Google, type in AZ Construction Jobs, his company shows up… Not only on the front page Top Ten of Google indexing, but ahead of Yahoo! and CareerBuilder.com! All this because of Social Media in the blogosphere!

What would it cost in time and money to get your business’s web site listed on the first page Top Ten of Google Search ahead of Yahoo! and Career Builder? Marketing is moving back to a level playing field where the ones who come out triumphant are the most clever, not the ones who can throw the most amount of money at marketing. Don has told me that he’s already gotten a call and a client from Virginia wanting to relocate to Phoenix because he saw the blog in Google!

In the early days of Internet marketing it was such an exciting field because conventional marketing had become so expensive that only the Fortune 500 could afford to advertise. With the early Internet if you had good content and a clean layout, you were ahead. You could win. When SEM or pay-per-click first became popular, it was still fair and even for most players as the keyword cost-per-click was only 8¢ or 20¢ per click for the really popular words. With the high participation and stiff competition in this type of marketing nearly every keyword is a $1 or more. Did you know that “Austin DUI” goes for $82.92 per-click, “School Loan Consolidation” goes for $78.01 per-click, and “Car Insurance Quotes” costs $74.93 every time you click on the link?!

While the competition for the same words continue to increase the cost-per-click increases as well. The more more we use AdWords and Yahoo! Search Engine Marketing, the more it drives up the cost, the more companies like Google and Yahoo! make per-click. Not a bad business model? THe more you use it – the more it costs…

That’s why I love Social Media! Social Media once again returns the the playing field to the creative, not the affluent. That’s why I am writing the definitive book on Social Media. I want to share successes like Don’s and the Social Media tools that will enable small, medium, and large businesses to have sililar successes based on their ingenuity and innovation.

Top ranking, branding, visibility, traffic, and new clients all for free, but for only a little Innovative Thinking!

Lon Safko
Innovative Thinking