With small business owners finding it a challenge to get more customers these days. There just may be some help, from Facebook no less. Not for every business but for a lucky few Facebook will be helping them spread the word for free. You know how the saying goes, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." It is however a gesture that will surely make Facebook more money than it gives away.

Facebook announced a program to help small businesses build brand awareness and reach new customers using the platforms vast social network. 

Here's what Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sanderberg had to say, "Our goal is to give small businesses a boost by helping them find customers the way possible — through friends."

Facebooks plans to give away $10 million in advertising to 200,000 business starting in January. What that really amounts to is 50 bucks per business of Facebook ads. I have seen these $50 Facebook vouchers around for awhile. How much traction can a small business owner for  this amount? Let's just say it will get them out of the gate.

Google has been doing this successfully for years it's no wonder Facebook decided to jump on board and give it a go to compete with the search giant for the small business owners advertising dollars. With the use of social sites on the rise this will no doubt be a successful campaign for Facebook.

Will Facebook be able to take away from Google's massive pay-per-click profits? Probably a bit. Facebook advertising has been around for a bit but is not quite as slick as the big G. 

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Google purchase of Zagat has signaled that mobile marketing is and will become the next shift in marketing. With local signals perceived as more relevant, social becoming the norm and more people accessing the web on mobile devices and tablets it only makes sense. With mobile marketing budgets on the verge of exploding it seems everyone is scrambling to get their piece of the pie.

Here's an excerpt from a recent blog post at CNET. 

"For Google and other online companies the lower hanging fruit in the mobile market has been picked," said Karsten Weide, a research vice president at IDC. "And now these companies are trying to tap the local advertising market, which at this point is wide open and has the potential to be much bigger than the more general mobile-advertising market."

Indeed, Google isn't the only company trying to wring revenue out of advertisers looking to target consumers based on their location. But it's likely the one with the best chance.

A crop of smaller players--such as review site Yelp, local coupon specialist Groupon, and the restaurant reservation broker OpenTable--have already become destinations for many mobile subscribers looking for local retailers, restaurants, or deals. And of course, larger players--including Google as well as Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL--also see big potential in the local market. And each of them are forming strategies to get a piece of the action.

Just how big could this market be in the next few years? U.S. mobile ad spending is expected to grow from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion in 2015. The local portion of that total is projected to grow from $404 million to $2.8 billion, according to BIA/Kelsey, a consultancy in the local media market. In other words, the local portion of the total will grow from 51 percent to 70 percent by 2015, BIA/Kelsey predicts.

Why local advertising is a good fit for mobile

There is no question that the mobile market in general is the next frontier for advertisers. According to IDC's Worldwide New Media Market Model, by 2015 more U.S. Internet users will access the Web through mobile devices rather than through PCs or wireline services. The more eyeballs there are glued to mobile devices, the more important that platform becomes to advertisers.

But as people increasingly access the Internet from their mobile devices as opposed to from their desktop computers at home, there is a greater need to provide search results, marketing offers, and suggestions from "friends" that are relevant to where a person is at any given time.

"As the audience becomes mobile, it's geographically targetable," said Jay Adelson, CEO of SimpleGeo, a geolocation startup. "And this isn't just a benefit from a pure ad perspective, but it also helps add richness to the apps by providing location. It's one of the most important trends in mobile search."

While people may be accessing the Net with their smartphones to check social-networking sites or to read e-mail, more and more are also looking for restaurants and movie theaters. They're using mapping apps to plot their routes. They're checking social-networking sites for recommendations for places to go and see. And they're in search of discounts for nearby stores and merchants.

All of this leverages existing GPS and Wi-Fi technology that can pinpoint subscribers' locations.

And for Internet users who are mobile, geographically relevant search results tend to be more important than they are for traditional desktop users.

"I'm not suggesting that there isn't any local search traffic on the desktop Internet," Weide of IDC said. "But the share of local search requests on mobile is much higher. And that creates a perfect opportunity for marketers."

Read the rest here: http://cnet.co/qKW39q

This is definitely an exciting time in marketing. With the combination of local, mobile and social it makes possible to target your audience with pinpoint precision. You just have to get through the data, which there is plenty of. If your present marketing campaign is not using these channels ... You should be!

Text "localbiz" to 90210 to learn more about mobile marketing for your business

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