Squidoo is a collection of over 700,000 pages created by users about whatever they want the world to know – ideas, recommendations, interests, instructions – basically any topic that they know or care about.

Squidoo was founded by marketer, Seth Godin, in 2005 and is a free service where users, called lensmasters, select a topic and then create and publish a single page called a lens, which can be enhanced with photos, videos, links, feeds, articles, lists and text to support their efforts.

The pages are monetized with ads and items from Amazon, eBay or CafePress and the proceeds, if any, are split between Squidoo (45%), charity (5%) and the lensmaster (50%).  The lensmaster has the option of keeping their cut of the proceeds or donating it to one of a long list of charities (we chose the ASPCA).

Getting started:  Register with Squidoo and create a profile.  The profile includes a photo, bio, ability to add numerous links to blogs and websites (yours and those you recommend), and a list your favorite Squidoo lenses.

The Squidoo Lens:  Each lensmaster can create as many lenses as they wish and are encouraged to do so by Squidoo.   When completed, the lens is listed in one of 30 categories, tagged with key words, and if you’d like a copy, it can be easily exported with the click of a button.  Notification of the completed lens can be Tweeted with a click of a button.

Here’s our recently created lens called:

The Marketing Equation:  Time + Money + Skill = Marketing Success

Business Use:  If you read our lens content (recommended), we mingled content with self-promotion.   Squidoo lenses index well with search engines and can create traffic to your website  so, as we mentioned in our lens – here’s one of those free marketing opportunities and the only cost is your time in setting it up, so give it a try!

The researchers found 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with their consumers through social media…

For those of you following this series on business use of social media and implementing the tips on using social media for your business, this article and research firmly supports your efforts.

We have heard from some of you with success stories already realized from the series- business networking connections made on Merchant Circle, reconnects with people on LinkedIn from previous jobs that provided a referral, dramatic increases in website traffic from StumbleUpon submissions and an overall improved website presence and ranking from having so many new links on the web.

So, keep it up! It works.  Social media, with genuine communication and interactions from businesses, improves the marketplace, increases consumer knowledge, and is here to stay.

clipped from emarketer.com Consumers Await on Social Networks OCTOBER 10, 2008 Befriended and poked by companies Nearly six out of 10 Americans who use social media interact with companies on social media Websites, according to a September 2008 study by conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for Cone. The researchers found 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with their consumers through social media, at least when needed. “Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media at Cone, in a statement.   “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.” Nearly four out of 10 online merchants surveyed used social networks. Of those, nearly one-third said they had a page on Facebook, and more than one-quarter said they used each of MySpace and YouTube.

The first word that comes to mind with Issuu is “awesome.”  Issuu is a free online publishing site that allows users to convert documents into interactive online publications and then embed the documents into websites or blogs.   The document is presented in an interface so realistic it feels as if you are thumbing through a magazine or glossy brochure.

Here is a document we put together to try out Issuu… click on the document for the expanded view.

Imagine the possibilities: Transform product literature, fact sheets, brochures, training manuals, annual reports and other printed business materials into elegant, interactive documents.

Getting started: Sign up and create a profile with a description, image and website and blog links. You can explore documents published by the Issuu community, make some friends, learn more about Issuu for business use or read the Issuu blog.

Publishing documents:  Issuu requires all documents to be uploaded in .pdf format. If you already have a brochure in a .pdf format, give the process a try by clicking on “Upload A Document,” completing the document information and then submitting.

Once uploaded, click on the document to ensure it looks as expected, then click on the drop down on the lower right hand corner to get the code for embedding the document into a web page or blog.  It’s that simple.

But wait, I’m not a graphics person…You can create some attractive documents with tools you probably already have.  If you have Microsoft Word and a photo editor, give this a try.

Create a new Microsoft Word document and change all the margins to 0.   In a photo or graphics program, create a layout that measures 817 pixels X 1056 pixels, which should be the same as one page in your Word document.   When you have your image/page complete, save it and then go into Word and Insert the picture. Create a page break and repeat for the next page.  When you are finished, convert the Word document to a PDF and your are ready to upload.  If you do not have a .pdf converter, check the Issuu FAQs for suggestions.