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Read the Time article
Get your own seal

Well, it’s about time!

Every person who’s ever had a blog or uploaded a video or left a comment can proudly claim this honor.

Now that Time recognizes us, will it be the “tipping point” that brings blogging and social media to the awareness of the masses?

If so, we’d better be prepared. That means it’s time for small businesses to check out blogging, del.icio.us, YouTube, and all the ways people are contributing to the distributed conversation online. It’s better to be slightly ahead of the curve than behind it.

I do find it ironic, however, that the Time articles are mostly about video. That’s what’s really grabbed people’s attention.

I have mixed feelings about video.

Yes, when it’s done well, it’s great. But for things like search engine optimization, not so great. All the content is locked up in a video file. Search engines can’t parse that yet, so it doesn’t help with keywords.

And bandwidth is still an issue for a lot of people.

My advice for small businesses who want to do audio or video podcasts is to put as much of the content as possible in show notes. That way you’ll reach the most people, and the search engines, too.

(And for an example of viral media, check out how clever Alister Cameron created this seal and got some links!)