Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest, and Peter Shankman has taken a simple idea — facilitating conversations between journalists and sources — and turned it into the amazing resource known as HARO.

Everyone is talking about social media these days, and marketers are trying to figure out how to use social media to drive business. I’ve done successful social media campaigns for some big brands — Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Thomas the Tank Engine, Cirque do Soleil — but I wanted to know more about social media and smaller businesses. So I turned to HARO.

Last week, I submitted the following query to HARO: “Seeking small and medium-sized businesses (local and regional) who are using social media tactics in a way that’s delivering real return on their time invested. What tactics are you using — and what return are you getting?”

It was published to the HARO mailing list on Thursday evening. Within 45 minutes, I had 20 responses. Within a day, I had more than 50.

So tomorrow starts a four-part series of LOHAD posts: social media, small business and real returns. I’m going to shut up and get out of the way and let some of my new HARO friends generously share their experiences.

If you have any interest in social media whatsoever, stick around. This will be as good as it gets.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Social Media.