Can Social Media Save a Local Business?

Here’s a social media idea that might help his business:

He should give some small percentage of his profits (not revenue) to a local “cause.” He can pick a new one each month. The “causes” can be anything from the local Little League, to the volunteer fire department, to a neighborhood family in need. The key is that the cause needs to be something that is, or could be important to some part of the community.

He should obviously promote that he does this each month, but the beauty of this idea is that the people involved in the cause, their families, friends, friends of friends, local media, etc. will promote it for him. They will spread the word, organize events, have parties, and invite everybody they know (some of whom will also invite people they know). Also, people will travel further for a cause they are connected to so his potential customer base will naturally expand. Over time he’ll make a strong connection with people who will care about him and his business, end up with a powerful reputation/brand in the community, expose his great product/service to more people, do good, AND make money.

Some may argue that my idea isn’t SM, but I think that’s exactly what it is.

Social media has its own vices but then a few ideas should work out really well under the circumstances. First, he should start a website that has a blog, start networking in sites like http://bakespace.com or http://foodpals.com to name a few (thanks to the Big G). He might also ask an expert blogger to taste his food and write a review about it or ask the blogger for a testimonial. Then, there are microblogging sites for announcing stuff and interacting with people luring them into trying his place. Then, there are places like ning where John can create his own network and hold monthly meetings just for the fun of it. One cool idea would be to bring about the concept of something like a premium subscription and a free one and offer an affiliate program in his blog. Really, there are many ways. Social media alone isnt going to help. He needs to know marketing strategies to promote his stuff. I am afraid only that’s going to help.

Social media has its own vices but then a few ideas should work out really well under the circumstances. First, he should start a website that has a blog, start networking in sites like http://bakespace.com or http://foodpals.com to name a few (thanks to the Big G). He might also ask an expert blogger to taste his food and write a review about it or ask the blogger for a testimonial. Then, there are microblogging sites for announcing stuff and interacting with people luring them into trying his place. Then, there are places like ning where John can create his own network and hold monthly meetings just for the fun of it. One cool idea would be to bring about the concept of something like a premium subscription and a free one and offer an affiliate program in his blog. Really, there are many ways. Social media alone isnt going to help. He needs to know marketing strategies to promote his stuff. I am afraid only that’s going to help.

Don’t think Social Media on its own can do it. Pity there isn’t anything like this
http://www.orderit.ca/forms/Search.aspx (Orderit.ca) in his locality. If there was he could reach outside his immediate community and then use SM to spread the word or announce. Has he considered take-aways, sorry, take-outs, deliveries? Take orders over the phone, given incentive to order, take the food to diners. Businesses/catering? More of a long term business strategy though.

Looks like you’ve already started it up: http://www.yelp.com/biz/simply-gourmet-bistro-and-groceria-peabody Yelp is the number one source I use to check out local restaurants. I’d keep spreading the word, and if I worked there, I’d ask customers to post reviews after eating there.

Additionally, have them create a simple website with an up-to-date online menu. Yelp lists a generic domain for their website, which is misleading and unhelpful.

Get the word out to local businesses – someone in my office orders out at least once a week. My co-workers go out to eat even more frequently. Have Simply Gourmet cater a networking event on social media (NorthShore Tech, Salem State Enterprise Center & NEDMA sometimes have them) and invite everyone to join the online group or post their opinions to yelp after. Practical application of social media for attendees to try as soon as they get back to the office!

I’m not sure what it takes to get an article in the local newspapers these days, but the Salem evening news has pretty decent online updates, and their site supports comments. If the article is engaging enough, maybe people will start taking notice and leaving feedback.

OK. Here’s what online interaction can actually do for a small business. It can give you an edge. I use this myself, for my small business in a very rural small town in Oklahoma. It has brought me customers. My competition has zero online presence. Instant advantage.

The food business needs to be top of mind when you are deciding what and where to eat or shop. I think regular valuable updates to customers via the right channels can make a difference.

Save a local business? Not sure, but why not try?

A few ideas:

Twitter – Glimpse into the everyday characters, musings, events, etc.

Blog – Culture of Simply Gourmet; Retail Food Industry; Cooking/Buying how-to Videos; Personal Shopping Guides; Budget Gourmet ideas; Promotions (catered lunch giveaway); and the sky is the limit

Video – How-to cooking AND buying; Behind the Scenes; Customer Testimonials; Quiz Show; etc.

Networking – Great FB Fan page – Now find where your target customers are and Participate! Local food blogs/forums, industry food blogs/forums, and meetup groups can be worth the time commitment. Also, networking/partnering with other businesses (caterers, bakeries, schools, office buildings, delivery services, online food businesses, tech events and conferences, etc.)

Scope – Just because the business is local doesn’t mean it can’t extend its reach/presence beyond the current market. Strive to be the best Gourmet Bistro and Groceria in the county, state, US…Let us know what Simply Gourmet is doing better than everyone else. How-to videos, articles, guides and other media can be passed around easily. Maybe someone will recommend Simply Gourmet if a friend is in the area. Maybe another local business will read your blog and have Simply Gourmet cater an event.

Basically, social media (as Senior Brogan helps us all understand) won’t solve your problems, but SM can enable you and your business/brand to better interact with your customers. Have the conversation. Facilitate the conversation. It’s 2009 – Why Not Social Media?

@chris_lugo

Some of these ideas are social media related, some are not but hopefully will help….

He’s got to think bigger. He’s not just in the restaurant/groceria biz, he’s in the food/relationship biz. People need/want food. People need/want relationships.
He’s going to have to get real social with area businesses, community groups, and organizations.
Many of the ideas above are good
-meetups are good
-special event nights
-catering with twitter/blog post discounts,
(i would think niche, like catering for football parties/weddings/bachelor parties/even funerals..there’s a story there but anyway)
-ad trade and tweets to generate buzz
-how about popping up a webcam when you have these events, mogulus, ustreamtv, now you’re the hotspot for social media and you can promote w/social media and it’s and SEO Hot Tamale
-free wifi, can’t tell you how many times i’ve gone in to a place and left because of no wifi, I would have even chipped in some $ for the usage. Advertise the heck out of it, especially the college crowd! I think we all know a few college dives that have survived decades because it’s “the spot” to go when you’re in town.
Just my 2 cents, hope it helps and good luck. I’m a little surprised you didn’t give him a little link love Chris…Simply Gourmet Bistro and Groceria…;) seriously, they need to get a website as of yesterday, wordpress=free and mucho SEO

Well, social media saved a local event, so why not a local business? I was involved on a very limited basis with a local community event, part of which was a battle of the bands. We were one month out from the event and had only one or two bands on the roster. I had no local traction on Facebook, but figured it was worth a try. We built a group and event page, and began reaching out to every local person we could find … a very low key introduction, adding maybe 10 or so friends every day. In addition, I enlisted the help of a social media savvy friend of mine, who enlisted the help of her fans.

The key was not in what we could do to draw people to the event, but the community interaction once a few people got excited about it. All I did was reach out, and I do not have a huge social media presence. The fans took the event and ran with it. It was a highly successful event, by the way, with a full roster of bands, and it wouldn’t have happened without social media.

My recommendation is to do all you can online with social media, but also to do what others have recommended here. Deb’s newsletter idea is great, as is graywolf’s suggestion to generate events and talk them up on Twitter, and Lori’s suggestion for meetups. Also, make sure you’re listed in Google Local, etc. Be sure to send out press releases whenever you have anything newsworthy to say.

Best wishes for a successful new year for John and his business!

Wow, there are a lot of great ideas. Here are my votes:

1) Blog. Blog about everything local, how the business is going, the visitor that stopped by for a cup of coffee that you invited from Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook/etc. The blog will help online awareness.
2) Newsletter. Print or email. People like humor. Use it to develop relationships. The newsletter will help develop and strengthen the relationships you’ve started.
3. Find out what business professionals are on Linkedin and are in/around your city. Invite them in for a coffee on you. Give them a special edition print newsletter that you only hand out to those you invite so they can take something away with them and pass on to friends. Give them another free coffee to give to their friend in the newsletter.
4. Have a cause? Join or start a Facebook group to help connect/build relationships.

Good luck!

Wow, there are a lot of great ideas. Here are my votes:

1) Blog. Blog about everything local, how the business is going, the visitor that stopped by for a cup of coffee that you invited from Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook/etc. The blog will help online awareness.
2) Newsletter. Print or email. People like humor. Use it to develop relationships. The newsletter will help develop and strengthen the relationships you’ve started.
3. Find out what business professionals are on Linkedin and are in/around your city. Invite them in for a coffee on you. Give them a special edition print newsletter that you only hand out to those you invite so they can take something away with them and pass on to friends. Give them another free coffee to give to their friend in the newsletter.
4. Have a cause? Join or start a Facebook group to help connect/build relationships.

Good luck!

Is there a business in being the preferred bistro of Twitter users in and around Peabody, MA? Perhaps, the problem is that finding out will take an investment of time over weeks or even months before he gets to see. Starting down this path makes sense, but we all know what it takes to build a following (though the Brogan love will help a lot, I expect.)

For small businesses like this it’s not about share-of-market, though, it’s about share of customer. While the foundation is building above, how might he get a bigger share of the customers he has?

How about building a simple loyalty program over cellphones? CouponZap.com has a simple app, they’d just collect people’s mobile numbers to send coupons with specials just for “club” members. Program details would depend on the needs of thier business… if they could convert more of their morning coffee business into lunch customers, for example, would that help? If so, collect numbers in the morning, and send out alerts at 11:00, with free soda or buy 1/get 1 type offers just for club members. Maybe specifics are different, but you get the idea.

A couple suggestions for you:

Others have mentioned this but if you have a local college, get involved! Sponsor athletic teams, events, athletic department lunch in exchange for P.A. announcements at games, in-game contests (winner gets a deli sandwich!), same goes for local HS. Greek system events, big weekends (mom’s weekend, graduation, homecoming, etc.). Offer delivery to faculty.

Most grocery stores have coupons on the back of the receipt for local vendors, offer something if they bring in the coupon.

Kids eat free night (set menu), kids won’t come alone & parents eat more!

Start a local ‘tradition’ for all of us creatures of habit, like ‘Fajita Friday’ or ‘Taco Tuesday’ and yes, I like Mexican food.

Good Luck!

What a wealth of ideas, Bob Wan Kim, graywolf, CoffeeTakee, @edcallahan, Josh Williams, Bill, @Chris_Lugo, Stefan Holt. Fabulous sharing!. The wisdom of crowds, or, a mini-MBA in Social Media.

My own humble contribution, a story from March 2008 about when the St. Paul Cookie Company in Minnesota was facing hard times. http://tinyurl.com/stpaulcookiecompany

Best of luck to all.

Sure if it has the right people behind it. A new blogger or tweeter won’t be able to do it, but someone like you chipping in anything is possible.

It all comes down to executing a brilliant plan. It might take months, but if the person has a little luck, persistence and enough cash in the bank to get over the low funds they have a great shot.

As a Dining Group Organizer, I always appreciate it when a restaurant and/or food shop contacts me to try and set up a special event with them or even encourage me to visit. I’d look into your local Meetup Dining Group, contact the main organizer and you can do one or two things. Offer to comp their meal if they set up an outing for their group to visit your place of business for lunch or dinner.

Or offer to do something like a tasting menu for a dining group. The main organizer would still be comped, but you would set up a per person price that the other members of the group could pre-pay to the organizer so that you have a guaranteed guest count. See a similar event below:

http://pleasurepalate.blogspot.com/2008/07/tasting-extravangaza-at-glacier-ice.html

Working with dining groups will give you a guarantee that people will come in. Of course, once they’re in the door, you just have to impress them enough to want to come back.

Best wishes for success. It’s so frustrating to find a wonderful place only to see it shut down. It seems like it’s happening all around me lately. I would recommend trying Valpak. It’s measurable and in this economy, people are always looking for coupons and savings. check it out at http://www.valpak.com.

What a fantastic post– and what great responses! John– good luck! I have a client in Beverly– Just opened a great little burger place, wifi included, environmentally aware, North shore plaza, lots of shops and businesses around. They are also struggling–

For a food shop the target market is maximum fifty miles from the location of the shop. Was difficult to reach Twitterers in that particular radius, but Facebook worked well. For instance, we created an ambasador program for the businesses around where one ambasador who placed the order for the firm got free lunch.

One other thing that can be done even in a small shop — market segmentation: For instance:

Fitness & Weight Loss= Healthy Sandwitches- people who are on fitness programs (not diets), exercise and need to eat accordingly (eat more to lose weight– I am happy to explain John). Why not have these ‘healthy’ sandwitches available in the shop and properly labeled (Wholefoods is trying to have a similar corner). People may appreciate the convenience, order entire meals to make sure their workouts pay off. And of course, in connecting with some fitness facilities in the area this would work even better. Just one example– but there are many.

I think that long term, social media may help build identlty and following, but to stay in business now, ingenuity and being creative on the 50 miles radius available is best.

For small business social media needs to be used for innovation. Marketing won’t work in small towns where people aren’t connected or as Chris said everybody already knows you.

Use it to connect with small businesses in similar situations or your target audience (food lovers) not for new customers but for ideas. Or find that small deli in NYC that has leveraged social media to create tons of press and customers. Connect with them and see if they have some interesting techniques that could help you get some business over that other local deli.

Finaly use it to brand yourself as an expert in your field. If enough people follow you and respect you the opportunities for bigger and better things are endless.

Chris, you just used SM to promote this biz. You knew that :)

Getting the words out is not the challenge here, SM or not. Lots of good suggestions above. But it is a local, brick-and-mortar biz, and marketing needs to be done accordingly.

Try and experiment around 6 degrees of separation. give out coupons online for a free meal/cake or whatever. give out thousands. You obviously can’t redeem them but the point is that you have to send the ticket to someone who might be able to use it. I’m based in Australia. I might send my coupon to my cousin in Miami (not very good i know!). he could then send it on. etc etc.

Hopefully thousands of people living in or around the area will start to get floods of tickets/coupons about the place. position it as a social experiment.
just a thought….

Can social media save a local business?

Hell yeah! Have you ever seen the awesome writeup on the Caminito Steakhouse by Jason Falls? I think Jason really nails it — involvement is key. Justin Levy of Caminito is doing a brilliant job.

Does your community have a website? Perhaps you could host a website where members of the community can talk, find out about events in the area etc. Create a place for your community to connect online and mix it in with your store. Have your brand image on the site. Have a poll for different foods or a food of the week. Open up a forum for feedback. Have the website url on your products, to go boxes, wrapping, and in your local newspaper. Your community will have a place to communicate online and they’ll think of you every time they do.

Dave

I think we’re going to see some new W2 apps in the next 3 months that will have an SM component of the product built in. I hope to send out a rather enthusiastic Tweet about the service when it launches. Wish I could say more. keep in touch @bcavanaugh

Make it impossible for people to ignore you. as SG would say, don’t be boring at all, not even for a second. create buzz by doing something better than anybody else and making sure everyone knows about it. and…don’t forget the overlooked stuff, tasting nights, freebies, great cust. service, poetry readings, wifi, wine clubs, become the place to be.

i live in central oregon and it’s amazing to me in this great little town how all the shops close at 7-8pm – coffee shops people! i don’t get it. this little tea place opened and they stay open until 11 or 12 during the week and it is always packed. all they’ve done is be the best (and only) tea place in town and made sure to attract the high school crowd. KEY.