Jason Spector.com

As job losses and business closures continue to increase, more and more people are turning to social media to give them a boost – both in the job market and as a tool of self-promotion. There isn’t a place more evident of this trend than on LinkedIn, where the site’s foundation is based on business and other professional connections. Looking through my connections list, for example, I see a sharp decrease in business names under “Company Name” and an increase of more generic terms like “self-employed” or “independent consultant”.

Seems innocent enough, but what you may not know is that labeling yourself this way adds you to the growing number of employees of the “Self Employed” company.

One of the benefits of working from home is that I don’t always have to work from home. I can pack up my laptop, plug in my iHeadPhones and head off to the nearest wifi hotspot. In most cases, that takes me down the street to the local (non-Starbucks) coffee shop. I usually spend some of my “working” time observing the shop’s space, staff, customers and how they all interact.

On this particular day, I was wondering how the shop could bring in more customers. Specifically, how could crowdsourcing and social media help drive up their customer base. The following is one idea and the grand plan to achieve it.

Anyone in the business of getting business for themselves (and others) has heard of the elevator pitch, that 5-30 second monologue/dialogue that gets you the big deal or the big fail. If you don’t have one, no worries. There are a multitude of blogs, articles, books, applications, consultants and unsolicited advice dedicated to the subject.

But what seems to be lacking in most of them is the tie in with social media. To be successful, your social bio needs to be as much as, if not more, of an elevator pitch as it is a personal brand. So in an effort to do justice to the real world and the online world, let’s take a look at both pitches – the elevator and the twittervator.

Driving down the east coast to South Florida provides its own unique set of observations, experiences and challenges. During a recent family road trip, I found myself looking at the standard geographic differences and weather changes as well as enjoying some southern hospitality. But it also occurred to me how much we can learn from these local businesses.