Guest post by Linda Mandeville

Do you remember the old days when a young child wanted to sit at the table to eat, the parents (or grandparents) would put a big, fat, telephone directory on the seat of one of the adult’s dining room chairs so the child could sit there? Growing up in an urban area, I was used to seeing really fat telephone directories.   I had a strange kind of fascination with them.  I have no idea why, really. I just can remember whenever we would travel to a different city, when we would check into a motel I would go look for the local telephone directory and flip through the yellow pages.  I always felt that was the best way to get a really good idea of what the area was like.  And I can remember as a child, there were several times that I had a question about something and for some crazy reason I would call the telephone operator and ask her for the answer to my question. And you know something? The telephone operator always was very pleasant and had the answer I was looking for! Boy, those were the good ol’ days!

Now small business marketing involves much more than a listing in the White Pages and an advertisement in the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory.  The Internet has done its part to revolutionize local listings.  I still use the telephone directory for a lot of things, but usually it is only when I don’t have access to the Internet. I am always sure to keep a current telephone directory near the hard wired phone at home, and usually last year’s copy of the telephone directory in my car.

Whenever possible, however, I will generate a local search on my computer.  Doing that is often faster than using the paper version of the telephone directory.  It is definitely time to stop using the telephone directory as a booster seat – I think it is an endangered species.