I found this good read on Twitter and it’s effects on Local Marketing by Chris Smith over at Search Engine Land it is definitely worth taking the time to read.

The Twitter social networking and micro-blogging service was launched only two years ago, but it’s rocketing up in usage numbers quickly, and it seems likely to turn red-hot. Many companies are rapidly cluing into the promotional value, but smaller businesses appear slow to hop on the bandwagon. Here are a few tips on leveraging Twitter to help your locally-oriented business.

As oft pointed-out among search marketers, Twitter links do not pass “link juice”—that is, they don’t transfer PageRank value from Twitter to linked-to sites. Even though links in Twitter are nofollowed, there still could be some small value in real ranking terms, according to the theory that “citations” or “references” appear to sometimes help improve rankings in local search.  So, at the very least, it’s a good idea to claim a profile in Twitter and link back to your business site.

But, the larger value of Twitter to your company may be in terms of audience engagement and as a communication vehicle, if you learn to use Twitter effectively…

…Even better, if they endorse the business to their followers, this becomes an online species of word-of-mouth-marketing. So, how do you encourage this to happen?

Twitter is full of word of mouth Marketing opportunities. Here’s a sample of just a few tweets I saw that came up in the last week for people seeking NYC restaurants:

• “I need a good reco for a restaurant in NYC with fried chicken. Anyone have suggestions?”
• “looking for inexpensive restaurant options in NYC. Anyone want to help? I’ll be in Soho, but all around the island”
• “I’m seeking NYC Mexican restaurant recommendations, any thoughts?”
• “looking for a NYC restaurant recommendation for me and my lady friends…”

To read the complete article Click Here

Then head on over to twitter and follow eLocal Listing for updates on blog posts, products and not to mention the fact that we would love to hear what you are up to.