Over the past few months, more and more Humboldt County businesses have found a place online to spread the word about what they do, share their knowledge and discover new customers. These days having an online presence is about much more than putting up a website and pushing content out to customers. Smart business owners are taking advantage of social networking to market their businesses. I thought I’d spend some time in this article telling you about a few local businesses that seem to be doing it right.

Some businesses have started using Twitter to connect with existing and new customers. Arcata Scoop uses the micro-blogging service to post ice cream flavor currently in the case and let people know when a flavor has run out and been replaced by another. By posting the flavors alone, they build excitement among locals and tourists coming to the area. The recent issue of AAA’s Via Magazine posted Arcata Scoop as a readers’ favorite ice cream parlor, and provides a link to the Twitter feed directly from the article. You can follow their updates at http://twitter.com/arcatascoop.

The Times-Standard has a robust online presence, including lively comments to stories and letters to the editor, and an impressive array of special interest blogs at www.tsblogs.com.

The North Coast Journal is also active online. They do a good job posting local news and happenings to their blog, and posting updates to Twitter when they have a new blog entry. They create an interesting headline or tweet around each blog entry, which piques users’ interest and encourages them to visit the North Coast Journal site. From there, they are able to drive users to other interesting content on the Journal website. See their Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/ncj_of_humboldt.

Other businesses and organizations using Twitter well include Film Humboldt, which keeps people up to date about local film happenings as well as interesting tidbits or news about national and international films. The store Yarn in Eureka tweets at http://twitter.com/yarnfun about new styles of yarn that have arrived in the store, strange happenings in Old Town and knitting projects. The owner of yarn understands that by tweeting about more than just inventory in her store, she is creating a relationship with existing and new customers.

Twitter is not the only online site that local businesses and organizations are using. If you are interested in the local art scene, check out the Ink People’s presence on Facebook. They do an excellent job keeping fans and group members aware of upcoming events or needs that the Ink People has. They often send event invitations within Facebook so that fans can put Ink People events on their calendar and remember to attend. In addition, they use the site to solicit work from artists for upcoming shows and to let the community know about fundraising events.

If you’re interested in technology, whether it’s broadband capability, social networking or digital media, check out the Redwood Technology Consortium. We have a Twitter account (@redwoodtech) and a Facebook group page. We try to keep people up to date with news and upcoming events.

The bottom line is, if you want an effective marketing strategy, you should include social networking sites. Not only is social networking a great way to tell people about sales, interesting items in your store, or promotions your business offers, but it’s a great way to build your reputation and target customers who might not have heard of you otherwise. No matter how you create your business or organization’s presence in social networking, I hope to see you online.

Daria Topousis telecommutes to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and serves on the Board of Directors of the Redwood Technology Consortium.

Copywright 2010 Eureka Times-Standard Newspaper. The print version of this article first appeared in the 3/4/10 edition of the Times Standard.