Facebook is for people you used to know. LinkedIn is for people from work. And Twitter is for people you want to know.
That was the secret sauce of connection types using social media from television guru Jerry Ferguson at Fairfax County’s Channel 10. We shared a laugh over it at the time, but as I continued using all three, they did seem to cluster that way. There is overlap, of course, and a broom closet full of sweeping generalizations, but there is a lot of truth there too. 
Jerry’s joke, shared during a committee meeting for a non-profit, made me think a lot about the way we use web services.
Reviewing The Social Network on a movie site we run, I wrote that it’s no longer enough to simply say that Google is the cluster of sites providing us utility (searches, email, maps, data) while Facebook is the site that provides fun (chats, messaging, games, apps). Both companies are fascinating because of their attempts to diversify. Facebook already is a substantial search engine in its own right and is rumored to have a new communications platform ready to roll. Google, meanwhile, is supposedly hard at work on socializing the organization even more after the failures of the standalone Orkut and integrated Buzz.
All of this brought my thinking to Big Thinking for Small Business and what this blog might be used for. I talked with coaches and developers, equity holders and designers. The issue really boils down to the audience for this blog, which is something Sara and I thought was defined a long time ago. We don’t want to be your breaking news source although we will tell you when there is online marketing news that might change your organization. And we don’t want to be a how-to primer either. Many good sites do both things well.
Instead, Big Thinking for Small Business is intended for the very people Silver Beacon Marketing serves–small businesses and non-profits. We write for our clients, partners and corporate friends. We write about search engines, online marketing, advertising and even some things that can help you earn more profit. Starting March 1, we’ll integrate even more with Facebook and use their commenting section. We’ll feature more guest bloggers, more reference pieces, more academic work and more content that will help you run your business. Our WordPress tutorials, previously open just for clients, will be open to everyone. We believe that any business can effectively compete in any market in the world. Read along with us and we’ll show you how. This is the next iteration of the Big Thinking for Small Business blog, Big Thinking 2.0 if you will, and we look forward to your comments and guidance on how it can help your organization.