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One thing that many people forget is that, in many cases, your business ultimately is a local business in the online space. Unless you are a pure online play people expect something more than just the usual e-mail dance to have contact. Many times, I use the example of IBM. Sure it’s a corporate behemoth but if you search for IBM with a local qualifier in Google there is likely to be a place page for a location if it exists in that city. IBM a local company? C’mon! Well, in a way yes.
A leading local Internet authority, Mike Blumenthal, has put together a VERY comprehensive infographic about the local presence and how search and social play together to form it.
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I studied political science in college and one of my professors used to always say, “As political scientists it’s our job to study the system from the outside. Like traditional scientists that study rats in a maze, we study politicians in elections.” I never really felt comfortable with that analysis, because it seems to me that when you study something from the outside you are missing all the details. Details that can make or break a campaign. During school and shortly after I worked in politics and quickly learned the difference between running and talking about campaigns. There’s a lot you can’t see by looking in from the outside. 
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