The Internet has had a profound impact on business, marketing in particular. For one thing, it has broken down geographical borders. Online marketing has made it just as easy, maybe easier, to market nationally or globally as it is to market locally. In fact, in addition to the other reasons people give for not using online marketing or social media, I often hear that it does not work for local marketing. If you share this view, I hope the information contained within this article will convince you otherwise.
Recently, Google and the U.S. Small Business Administration partnered to create several videos about using online tools for local marketing. These videos provide practical examples of various small businesses and how they have used online marketing and social media to make their businesses successful. I want to share a few of these videos and offer my own thoughts where appropriate to bring small business owners the best online tools and information possible to boost their businesses locally.
An Online Presence
Interact with Your Community Using Free Marketing
Promote Using Free Online Marketing
Educate Your Customers Using Free Marketing
Twitter
I used a great example of using Twitter for local marketing in a recent article, “Should Small Business Give Twitter A Twirl?” Following that article, I was told that it just takes too much time to find local people to follow (so they will follow you back). As a matter of fact, I have not found this to be the case.
For example, you can easily locate Twitter users in your city or town by using Twitter Advanced Search. It allows you to select a certain mileage from a specific zip code. It also let’s you search by words, #hashtags, people and even attitudes.
Try the TwellowHood page of Twellow, a directory of Twitter users that fancy themselves as “The Twitter Yellow Pages.” Select any city they have listed to find Twitter users in that area. You can also search by topic or name.
TweetUp (a play off of “MeetUp”), an organized offline meeting of Twitter users that brings virtual networking into the physical world. These TweetUps are a great place to meet local Twitter users. There are several sites to find TweetUps in your area like Tweetups on Meetup, Twtvite and Twitter Search.
There are several other ways to find local Twitter users, but this should give you a great start (view Twitter demographics).
Facebook
With over 400 million members, Facebook is a great place to build a following for your business (view Facebook statistics). Learn the difference between a Facebook account and a “Fan Page”. Although you cannot have a “fan page” without first setting up an account, most small businesses will want to set up a fan page.
Finding local fans for your Facebook company page is not difficult. In the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook you will see a link “Find Friends”. When you go to that page, you will see a field at the bottom of the page “Search for People.” It says to enter their name or email address. However, a little known secret is that you can also enter a city and state and bring up a list of people in that city. From this list you can send an email inviting them to “fan” your page. Facebook offers many ways to promote your page.
Of course, there are other ways to promote your Facebook Page outside of Facebook. You can link to it from your other communities like Twitter, LinkedIn, your blog and of course, your website, where you will have locals following you. For more information, read “Network Your Social Networks for Better Traffic and Visibility.”
LinkedIn
Depending on your target market, LinkedIn can be a great marketing tool. LinkedIn users are up-scale professionals, well educated adults. Of their 65 million members, 33 million are in the United States (view their demographics – be sure to look at all three page tabs: Profile, Lifestyle and Segments). “Advanced Search” allows you to search within a certain mile radius of your ZIP code to find people with whom you can connect. There are over 600,000 LinkedIn Groups. No doubt, there are groups dedicated to your city and certainly your state. Joining these communities makes it easier to network with people that are local to you. The “Advanced Search” feature gives you many options in refining your search.
Google Places
From the perspective of ROI, Google Places and other local listings, offer small businesses a very good return. This is because they are free, take very little time to set up and they work. Google Places allows you to control information and offer coupons in real-time.
I selected Google first because the control about 70% of all web searches. As a result, this should be your primary focus. However, make sure you are also listed locally in Bing, Yahoo, Best of the Web and Yelp (once their class action suit is finalized) by visiting GetListed, which makes it pretty easy to do. Don’t overlook superpages.com, YellowPages.com, Localeze and dexknows as they can also have impact on your business.
Groupon
Depending on the city in which your business is located and the type of business you have, you may be able to use Groupon (short for Group Coupon). The concept here is that you can dramatically increase your volume by offering a special price. Each day members receive a special offer by email. For the offer to become valid, a certain number of people must purchase the offer. Groupon retains a percentage of the revenue secured as their fee. Groupon is not in all cities yet, so it is important to check to see if they are in your market. It also seems that they are looking for what is unique, not just every day run-of-the-mill products and services. I recommend that you join Groupon as a member and start receiving offers. Then, you can decide if your products and services would fit.
See all of the videos SBA and Google have put together to help small business owners and entrepreneurs.
By implementing and maintaining these marketing strategies, any local business can make a mark for themselves. I trust that I have been able to influence the views of those who doubt that online marketing and social media can work for local stand alone businesses. Nonetheless, I would love to hear your thoughts about local online marketing and anything I may have forgotten to include. Just comment below.
[Editor's Note] Shortly after posting this article, I realized that I had inadvertently left out a very important social media marketing tool for local retail businesses. I have since written about it at “Square Up Your Business with Foursquare“. You and your customers will find this tool to be a lot of fun and once you set it up it will drive a lot of foot traffic and repeat customers to your business. Be sure and check it out as you will be glad you did!
Those who enjoyed this article also enjoyed:
Square Up Your Business with Foursquare
Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – Overview
Why Many Small Businesses are Still Struggling
Using Social Networks for Marketing
Network Your Social Networks for Better Traffic and Visibility
LinkedIn: The New Business Card Exchange?
Should Small Business Give Twitter A Twirl?
Is Small Business Blogging Really Effective?
If you would like to contact me, you can do so by visiting my LinkedIn page or emailing me at mike.clough@bestbizpractices.org.
Posted by: Mike Clough
