I love helping Local Businesses find new ways of increasing their bottom line. With Social Media and all the data-mining tools out you can market till your hearts content. I have allot of local businesses that follow me on the various Social Networks and they e-mail as well call me asking many questions  from Marketing to SEO. 

Since I usually blog about my local market that I live in which is less competitive as its a small area, I would help out a Local follower and their business in a more populated area in a more competitive industry. One of my new Followers on Twitter is Jason Brusewitz @BranchOutShrubs and I immediately took a look at his website: http://www.branchoutshrub.com/ 
He is in the Shrub Trimming/Landscaping Business and it looks pretty competitive in his local market.

He is on the Right Track Socially, However I do not see any link for Google+ or any +1 button. He has A Google+ Business page located here Branching Out. See my post on Increasing Citations using Social Analytics and Strategies on how to data-mine Google+ and Facebook. Increasing the Citations helps boost your local business rankings in the serps with Social Integration. I also recommend adding Authorship to help increase the CTR's and give more credibility.

I'm going to use a couple of social data-mining tools (Followerwonk & All My Tweets) for the tools  too help boost his bottom line by finding personal advocates that will spread the word socially and help his business out in the search rankings.Props out to Anthony Pensabene for showing me these tools in some of his guest articles on various blogs.

Lets check out his rankings in Google. I chose "Landscaping Woodbury, MN" as its a more competitive search term and not as targeted as Shrub Trimming.
You can see his business does not rank on the first page for the query at hand.
I suggest Adding Geo-Tags to his website and pictures, also adding Alt-Image descriptions to every picture, I think I found 3 on his home-page that did not have any.
Add a Video to YouTube and link it to home page as well upload it to your Google+ business page. 

Now that a little basic SEO is done, we can focus on data-mining to find personal advocates to spread the word and increase his links from social networks and websites to improve his local business  ranking in the organic listings.

The first tool we are going to use is Followerwonk, this cool tool lets you analyze twitter Followers. Click on the tab for Analyze Followers and put in his Twitter handle. Next in the drop-down menu select "Analyze Their Followers" and give it a minute to populate all his followers. Since I'm looking for Local Advocates you can click on the Map and Zoom in to his local area and see who is following him.
There is one Follower in St. Paul and two outside of Minneapolis. I click on the 2 and chose Tim Ryan @SeamusPicMcGee and clicked through to twitter.

Tim Ryan has a website he can add a link too, He tweets allot and has a good amount of followers.

Using AllMyTweets we can see Tim also Mentions @BranchOutShrub.You can search using Ctrl+F.

I would Thank Tim for the Mention and ask him for a citation on Google+. Offer him some services at a discount, and he may just tweet about it again or share on other social networks.

From here you can go back to Followerwonk and analyze his local followers and find ones that have the greatest clout and influence to spread the word.

There is much more data you can dig into by using these tools. I would say a few times a week he should reach out to past clients and potential clients using these social tools to thank and ask them to spread the word. Social links will follow helping boost his rankings in as little 3-6 months possibly sooner.

Use the Map in Followerwonk to target local followers and engage with them on all social platforms. Use AllMyTweets to search the tweets of followers if they have mentioned other services you may provide.

Become the expert, share and re-share on Google + and other social networks, while staying in contact with your followers by engaging in a timely manner.

I hoped this help a little in helping out your Bottom line, this is tested, tried and true!

Google+ Local
I like to dig deep into any kind of Social Analytics to see how I can further market a local clients business or give some insights to a future client. We all know by now Google+ Local has a rating system depending on the reviews (Local Citations) and it helps with the display of Rankings and also helps drive foot traffic.

For this little exercise I'm going to use Google+ Local as I have stated above already. This wonderful platform lets you drill down into niche markets and target potential clients, customers and followers.

Lets start by opening up Google+ Local and Discover some Sports Bars Located in or near Lake Havasu City, AZ. This is football season and competing for those sports enthusiasts that like food & drink will help increase foot traffic and gain some much needed citations.

For the Search Query I used "Sports Bars" and for the location I used "Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Now you can scroll down the list and check out to see how many reviews and what the overall score is for an establishment. I chose the one that came up in the first listing (Mad Dogs) as I have been there many times before at the Bullhead City, AZ location.

After I clicked on mad dogs, I looked down to check out the reviewers and scroll over to see how many reviews that persona has given to local businesses.

Donald Cook has rated the establishment Excellent and has 83 reviews. If I owned Mad Dogs I would extend a thank-you and maybe a coupon for maybe the next time he stops in, also I would ask him to check-in with FourSquare and let him get a deal on something every so often when he checks in.

Now Donald has many reviews so we are interested in the ones he has written on for "bars". Type that in the query and Google+ drills down deeper to show you exactly what your looking for. Donald has many reviews on bars, 18 to be exact. This is the kind of data (analytics) that Businesses and Local marketers should be looking for and Google+ Local is a great platform for Social Marketing.

Mad Dogs should use this data to increase the number of +1's by asking patrons for reviews if they liked the service and provide a link to their Google+ Local Business page or a QR Code they can scan with their mobile device that will take them right there or to their website. With Social Signals being integrated into the Organic Search results these citations on Google+ and Zagat are increasingly becoming more important especially according to the recent research on Mobile Search that says "64% of mobile restaurant searches convert within the hour".

Facebook
On Mad Dogs Bar & Grill Google+ page is a link to the business website. I check to see how the website is socially connected and noticed they have a big plugin for facebook with 345 likes. On the bottom of the page is a twitter and Google+ button.

Facebook is a great place for Local Businesses to connect with their customers and I found one local patron (Sean kerns) that looks like a happy customer.

Mad Dogs can ask him for a citation on Google+ and a Tweet since he already liked the business on Facebook. Sean Kerns has 451 friends and 99 Likes, you can drill down further to engage his friends by sorting through the ones that live in Lake Havasu and friend them, Facebook already lets them know that Sean Kerns likes the business.

Facebook lets you sort through his friends by the city from the drop down list. Immediately you see Mallorie Baker holding a shot Glass and Tricia Rill Jandrew who is a Food & Beverage Manager. This is targeted data that Facebook allows marketers and Local Businesses to use in order to create a bigger fan base and increase foot traffic to brick and mortar establishments. You can use the same techniques on their profiles and search their posts to see if they have also frequented Mad Dogs or any other Sports Bar in Lake Havasu.

Facebook already breaks the ice for you, now its up to you to offer coupons, Drink & Food Specials, deals etc... and hopefully, they will recommend, Like, Tweet, +1 and give a citation as well come in and visit your business increasing the bottom line.

Bing has integrated Social Search with Foursquare and Facebook. This is another reason why businesses need to be socially active, writing posts, making comments, asking for citations etc.....

You can use these Social Networks to mine data for any business. The goal here is to create relationships, Increase Citations and foot or web traffic to your Local Business. The benefit of citations and social signals helps with an increase of organic rankings in local search and helps people find you in social applications for mobile devices.

I recommend adding Google Authorship for Google+ and joining Bing's So.cl Network. The key is to share, Re-share, Comment, Circle, Like and +1 content that is directly correlated with your niche. Become the so called "expert" and you will see your rankings, relationships, citations and business increase across the web as well to your Local Business. Don't forget to sign up on FourSquare, its growing tremendously and allows businesses to offer coupons and discounts with check-Ins. Showcase your businesses products and services on Pinterest, you would be surprised how much traffic this social network is driving to websites and Local Businesses.

There are many Social Networks out there. Here is a list of the ones I joined and try to stay active on, feel free to sign up, add me and more!
Facebook
FourSquare
Google+
Linkedin
Manta
Pinterest
Reddit
So.cl
Twitter
Webmaster World
Yammer
Yelp
Yahoo
YouTube
Zurker

I Just got done reading Guy Kawasaki's Book "What The Plus, Google+ for the Rest of Us"let me tell you, this guy has done his research and if you don't start using Google+ for personal and business use, you are missing out on one of the most advanced social networks on the Internet!.

There is so much to go through in the PDF version which I have uploaded here for you to read, however since I'm a Search Engine Marketer and SEO kind of guy. I immediately took interest on the part of "How to Optimize for Social Search" and "How to Optimize your Posts for Search Engines". Scroll down to page 87 where he explains How to optimize for Social Search.

How to optimize for Social Search.
What I take from it is that you should write about what your niche is and quite often so your name stays on the list of  "Suggested People" in the right  Sidebar (This increases your Authority and Gives Higher click through rates) Give tips and help other people, the more you comment on your niche the more likely your posts and comments will show up in search results. He calls this SED: Search Engine Duhism.

How to Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines.Pg 147
Guy Kawasaki basically says "Write Good Shit", write stuff people will enjoy and want to share with others. If it is good, Google will find it and index it accordingly.

I will ad on to the above subject since it was short, however he is right on the mark about writing good content.
From my personal experience with optimizing Google+ Business pages, I listed the following Tips to increase your visibility in Google+ and on the SERP's

Authorship-Include Google's Authorship on your blog and add it to your Google+ profile, this increases click-through rates and gives better credibility. Instructions on how to do it are explained here: Google Authorship
Hash-tags-Include Hash-tags like this: #SEO to make it easier to find your posts in search.
Pictures-Google+ is a visual world, people click on stimulating pictures and tend to comment on them the most. Provide a description and tag your pictures.
Videos-Short video clips no longer than 30 seconds should keep peoples attention, include a short description what the video is about.
Address-Include your address on your Google+ business page and in important posts as well, this is good for the Google+ Local Search Feature and it woks in the Google+ App for Mobile devices, I use it daily and it works (Brick and Morter stores take note) this will increase your foot traffic and Local brand.
Share-This is one of the most important things in Google+. Sharing other peoples posts and mentioning them by adding the + and their name or business like this +Guy Kawasaki will let them know you mentioned them, and increase your visibility and gain new followers

Be sure to check out Guy Kawasaki's Google+ page and his other books for that matter. He gives great advice and is a tremendous Content Curator with a big following.

About Guy Kawasaki Excerpt from PDF
"Guy Kawasaki is the author of eleven books, including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College."
By "Shawn Lippert"

The staff at Cision has come out with their top 100 blogs in the U.S. using 4 metrics from compete.com. Here is a screen shot from their blog of the top 100 blogs. Click on image link to go to their blog to have a look at the complete list.

If you are an internet marketer, I would head on over and follow each link and read up on those blogs, I'm sure there is a ton of valuable information and plenty of opportunities to learn, network and drop a link on those blogs that are in your niche. Leave some valuable information or just say hi and congratulate them for making the list.