Steve Gasser» rural

Is There A Guide to Social Media Marketing for Small Town Businesses?

Steve Gasser — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:00:34 +0000

A ‘Google’ search for a guide to social media marketing is going to turn up more than a few results. Newly branded social media experts are eager to share their knowledge and experience with the world. However, social media is a broad topic, and finding a guide targeted at local, small business is not nearly as easy as finding an overarching guide to social media marketing. Here are a couple of tips these guides offer, and how you can tailor them down to be effective on a more local, small town level.

Avatar

One of the first steps any guide to social media marketing will give has to do with the avatar. The avatar is a picture or symbol that represents you or your business on various social media networks. Instead of developing a new logo, however, think about what local people see when they drive past your business. A distinctive building? A prominent sign? Whatever it is, making it your social media avatar will trigger instant recognition with locals on social media networks.

Engage in Conversations

Secondly, a guide to social media marketing will instruct you to engage in conversations around your niche or area of interest. Instead, do searches to find those who are talking about your local area. Instead of focusing your participation on the industry at large, focus your attention on those who are talking about the area around you. Establish yourself as a local contributor with an investment in the community, not just your commercial industry.

Build a Community

A third popular tip is to build a community of leaders in your niche. Don’t forget about your niche, but don’t worry about finding the right community – you already have one! Create your fans, friends and followers community from those you see every day, in your store or office. Rather than catching the attention of the big players, catch the attention of those who are likely to walk in the door.

Take Your Time – but Keep Moving Forward

A guide to social media marketing main contain tips that seem like they’re for a bigger business, a larger city or popular niche. However, take your time reading these guides and you’ll see several ways these broad tips can be tailored down to a local level for your small business.

Do you have a guide that you love? Let us know about it by leaving a comment below. If you would like to follow a 30 Day plan to understanding social media, take a look at my recent blog post: Your Personal Guide to 30 Days of Social Media – a Special Summary for You.

Social Media with a Rural Focus: 3 Tips for Marketing with Social Media as a Small Business

Steve Gasser — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:20:53 +0000

When you have a rural small business, your clientele and target customers are clients that are likely spread out and difficult to categorize in any one specific group. Marketing with social media to such a wide variety of people can be a challenge. Knowing how to appeal to a diverse group of people is never an easy task. Here are three basic tips to keep in mind when marketing with social media. As you get more familiar with your target market’s presence on social media sites, you will get a better idea of how to tailor these tips for your specific needs.

Marketing with Social Media Tip 1:

Keep in mind that you should not be focused on selling yourself. Social media networks are largely about building relationships. In a rural area, it is likely that most of your targeted market knows of you, so take advantage of social media to let them know who you really are.

Marketing with Social Media Tip 2:

Find your angle. Some people use social media to link useful tools, apps or stories to their followers. Others use social book marking sites to promote niche topics. Some use social media mainly as a conversational tool. Once you choose your angle or style, be sure to stick with it. It is essential to your brand to have not only a consistent message, but a consistent presentation as well.

Marketing with Social Media Tip 3:

Remember how big the Internet is. No matter how small your local community is, remember that any social media messages you post or sites you promote, targeted customers in your small local area are not the only ones that will be able to see them. It is important to not get too casual or veer into unprofessional, which can be tricky with the free flowing, instantaneous nature of marketing with social media.

Marketing with social media is constantly growing in popularity. With no sign of waning, it is safe to assume that sooner or later, your small business is going to have to get involved with social media. Keeping in mind these three tips for marketing with social media is a good start, with many more resources available for your perusal as you get more comfortable with your social media presence.

Rural Small Businesses Can Use Social Media to Compete

Steve Gasser — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:23:01 +0000

Small businesses, especially in rural areas, can struggle with keeping customers loyal when big box and chain stores are opening in the nearest major city. Competing can be tough, but social media for small business can give you the edge that you are looking for.

Consider the example of a small, locally owned coffee shop competing with a newly installed Starbucks. Here are a few quirky tips using social media for small business to make the local coffee shop seem like a much more interesting option than the popular chain.

Offer free wifi and let customers Twitter their orders. Imagine it. Customers come into the shop to chat or work, and from their phones and laptops, can place orders without worry of losing their seat or disturbing the conversation. Regular customers stopping in on their way to work can Twitter their order before arrival and have it ready to go when they get there. Social media for small business offers convenience that the big chains simply can’t.
Run a coffee shop blog and allow visitors to contribute. Set up a free blog with a guest account. Services like WordPress allow you to moderate posts before they go live. Encourage your patrons to post about the coffee shop, compose poems, or simply express themselves freely.
Put a “secret password” up on Twitter every afternoon and encourage people to come in for a coffee happy hour. Those with the password can receive discounts, a free pastry or an entry into a happy hour drawing.
Feature your favorite tweet of the day up on your menu board. Name a drink after one of your Twitter followers for the day. Enter each of your Twitter followers into a drawing to be the “Follower of the Week,” entitling them to one free coffee each day of their reign.

These are just a few quirky and creative ways social media for small business can be used to set the local guys ahead of the big brand players. These types of ideas can be applied to any type of local business. Take your time to think up a few ways that social media will allow you to offer benefits and services to your customers that the big guys can’t.

Caffeinated Conversations

Do you visit coffee shops as regularly as I do? I think you will enjoy learning more about “Caffeinated Conversations.” I met Jason from Caffinated Conversations on Twitter a couple of weeks ago and I have found his blog fascinating. Striking up, facilitating, capturing, and collecting conversations at coffee shops, coffee houses, cafés, and other conversation friendly places.

Rural Small Businesses Look at Ways to Use Twitter

Steve Gasser — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:36:10 +0000

I have met some amazing people in small towns across Minnesota. Recently I had the opportunity to give two presentation on social media in Arlington and Redwood Falls, MN.

At the end of the presentation, we do a group exercise and ask the participants to gather in groups of 5 to answer the question, “How could you use Twitter in your business?“ Below are some of the responses to the question.

Great responses to the the Twitter question

Idea 1: A local strawberry patch could use Twitter to communicate good picking days and share recipe ideas that are posted on the blog.

Idea 2: A tool and die company could use Twitter to educate people on the industry, show a human side of the people in the company, and information about the life of the tweeter. This would help create relationships and bonds based on common interests.

Idea 3: An embroidery shop could tweet about recent jobs they have done – sending traffic back to their website with pictures. They could also use Twitter to share stories and inspire ideas – both would direct traffic back to their website.

Idea 4: A landscape business would use Twitter to educate their followers and help them maintain their landscaping. They would send tweets when it is time to seed your lawn or prune your trees. They would also use humor and stories. One example would be to share stories like: “This isn’t a weed.” This series would educate people on what is a weed and what is not a weed – but a plant with benefits! Most tweets would link back to their blog with more details, ideas, and inspiration.

Idea 5: The local used car dealer has several clients that call and ask about his inventory. He could use Twitter to post new vehicles and ask questions about the types of vehicles clients are interested in.

Idea 6: An Avon lady could use Twitter to post links to videos taken of clients.

Idea 7: An auto body shop could use twitter to offer tips. It would also be good if they followed others in the industry to stay up to date on industry news and gather feedback they can share with their clients.

Idea 8: A residential and commercial carpet cleaner could use twitter as a referral tool.

Idea 9: A day care could use twitter to let parents know what activities kids are doing, meal plans, and any changes in day care schedules.

Idea 10: A traveling hot dog stand could use twitter to update his followers on the location of his hot dog stand.

Idea 11: An alternative energy company could use twitter to find people in the industry to talk to when they can’t find anyone locally.

Yes, Small Businesses can benefit from Twitter

There is a business use for Twitter no matter what business you are in. We all hear the big success stories like how Dell reported that they can directly attribute $3 million in sales to their Dell Outlet Twitter account. But you don’t have to be Dell to reap the benefits of Twitter.

Here are just a few benefits you can find from Twitter

Enhance Customer service while reducing costs
Manage your online reputation
Instant access to what is being said ‘right now’
Share current events – citizen journalism
Constant stream of new ideas and links
Extend your reach – become a thought leader
Network with other in your industry

More Twitter Inspiration

What is your Twitter Story?

We all have stories to share. What stories do you have to share about Twitter? The smallest things can inspire greatness in others.