Wikipedia, YouTube and Delicious

Most people have heard of Wikipedia and YouTube but not as many are familiar with Delicious. Wikipedia is a "free encyclopedia" that anyone can create a topic and edit the information. Many times when you "google" something the Wikipedia link is usually on the first page. I use Wikipedia often to learn random information, although the information is not necessarily correct. Anyone can edit the information and usually if it is incorrect information it is corrected fast. A firm can create a page to put information about the company so that people can learn about it. It is a free and easy way to market.
YouTube is a website that people can post videos on for the public to view. A firm can post videos about their company to promote the firm. This is a more interactive way to advertise and a lot more entertaining than reading a dry, boring article.  If a video sparks peoples interest and many people view it, it could end up on the front page of the website or in the "most popular" link. This is even better for the firm because then more people will be exposed to it and learn about the firm.
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows you to tag, save and manage different websites on the web instead of only on one computer. The more people tag and save a certain website, that site ends up on the front page of the website or most popular under a certain topic. A firm can become recognized if more and more people tag their site.

Social Media Tools

Three good examples of how a small firm can use Business Week, business.twitter and Technorati would be that they are public blogs that can be used to advertise and promote a small firm. Anyone can read the information for free. They can be constantly updated and accessed by the small firm so most of the information would be current.

Three bad examples of how a small firm uses social media tools is that since it is a public blog anyone can create a blog and speak their mind; this could negatively affect the small firm. People can also create fake blogs that don’t represent the firm. There are also a lot of small business firms trying to get their name out there by blogging so it is harder for them to make their sites individualized.

Twitter, Facebook, Blogging

Facebook, twitter and blogging are all social networks that can help promote small businesses. Facebook can be used to advertise for different companies. A company can create a facebook page to promote their business.  Famous people can "make a tweet" about a business to help promote it. People can mention businesses in blog posts that help promote their small business.