I don’t know about you, but for me the days of excitedly signing up for a free teleseminar on this or that subject are long gone. For quite some time it’s seemed to me that most of these are nothing but glorified pitch fests.

Rarely is there ever any meat. Most of the time they just explain what you need to know, and the perils of not knowing (or wonders of knowing), then how you can you spend a bunch of money with them to learn it.

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It’s shakeout time folks. It’s game on, so to speak. As I hear the news of another local search marketing provider closing their doors today I suspect there will be much more fallout. So I can be completely transparent here, I too have gone through some adjustments with regard to my company. I am excited about the opportunities that are in front of me and my business partner. The changes in the market have created more opportunity than ever and for that I am forever grateful to God.

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I have to say that this one came as a bit of a shocker for me: apparently 93% of American consumers want businesses on social media sites, according to the aptly-named 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study. Odd, I thought when most Facebook users rebelled against Beacon, this was exactly what they didn’t want.

When asked whether businesses should interact with consumers on social media sites, 85% said yes (I guess the other 8% either subscribed to a “seen and not heard” school of thought).

Specifically, Americans believe:

• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
• Companies should market to consumers (25%) [I assume this means online or on social media sites, not just in general]

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