Social Media Starter Moves for Small Town Small Businesses

May 23, 2008 · Comments

Today, a guest post, by one of my earliest social media friends and business partners:

Social Media Starter Moves for Small Town Small Businesses

By Becky McCray

Small town businesses have some fundamental differences from our big city counterparts. But our relative isolation doesn’t mean we don’t have a use for social media tools. To the contrary, small town professionals have the most to gain from making new connections. Liz Strauss was kind enough to let me tell some of the reasons why over at Successful Blog. To follow up, here are some starter moves to help you get connected to the larger world.

Twitter to make connections

Yes, I know you’re heard that Twitter can be an enormous time sink. But only if you treat it that way. If you treat it as a way to meet people, to expand your horizons, to learn from others, and to feel connected, you can make it a useful tool for your business. I recommend you start by adding a handful of people, and let your network grow organically. Start with me; I’m @beckymccray, and I love to connect with other small town folks. Check Twitter Packs for more people in your industry or in your state. Share cool discoveries, information, and just connect on a human level. Twitter does not require (or deserve) constant attention. You can check in a few times a day, or monitor it more or less in the background while you work on something else. I’ve been known to let friends on Twitter keep me company while I’m doing my least-favorite bookkeeping chores. And yes, I’ve made and strengthened valuable business and personal connections at Twitter.

Blog to position yourself as an expert

Part of what makes a small town special is the sense of community, and that’s what blogging does at its best. Find the blogs already talking about your field, and start reading and commenting. Then start your own blog, telling stories. While your small town business may not pick up paying clients from your blogging, you will be learning new skills, improving your writing, and making connections with people interested in your field. Read the Starter Moves for Freelancers to learn more about making your blog business-like.

Facebook to reach the community

Even in my home town of 5000 people, there is a healthy group of Facebook users. I just got an invitation to join the community summer band, via Facebook. I’m also seeing small town people using Facebook as a tool to remain connected even as they spread out around the country. By staying active yourself, you can make and keep connections based on this natural geographic affinity. Another option are the local community websites. In your town, you might find people online at the local newspaper site, an independent community forum, or even on a local business’s website. The disadvantage? These are usually hotbeds of local politics. Use caution.

Experiment to learn

Use Flickr to connect with your local photo enthusiasts. Sign up with Utterz to give on-the-spot reports. (I would so love to see an ag commodity report on Utterz! “We’re live at the Woodward Stockyards…” ) Use Operator11, Ustream or Blog TV to share meetings, trainings, or build a networking group across distance. Your goal is not to be on every single network out there. Your goal is to try the tools that could work for your business, or even for your clients, and learn them. Drop the ones that don’t help you. And remember that it’s not all about getting business, it’s also about connection, learning and thinking.

Share your secrets

What tools are you finding the most useful for building connections? Share in the comments, and if you are from a small town, be sure to shout about it!

Tomorrow at Small Biz Survival, I’ll have four examples of people who live in small towns and use social media to build their connections.

Written by Becky McCray

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  • Very informative indeed.. Helps not only for small towns.. As well For many developing countries, where social media awareness is in dim.
  • So many people use Facebook
  • My favorite social media tool is LinkedIn. But have you ever found that sometimes your connections don't utilize LinkedIn as much as you do (at least sometimes). This is where FB comes in handy.

    Think about it, "top of mind" marketing means staying on peoples' minds via various networks: from blogging, to FB, to LInkedIn, to Twitter, etc. But through it all, remember to keep the social element present.

    If you're blogging for business and all you're doing is spewing blatant advertisements out, consumers have a keen radar for that sort of thing so they'll be less receptive to your message...so again, just remember to keep it social.
  • Here, here Becky,

    I'm in the world of real estate investing and I heartily support your comment regarding local companies being able to benefit from the new marketing, even though they are small and local. Jim Cronin's www.RealEstateTomato.com is a super resource for real estate agents (or ANYONE) to learn about successful blogging - check it out, you'll be glad you did, especially if you're just getting into blogging.....

    Yours with boundless enthusiasm,

    Richard Dale-Mesaros :)

    Chief Deal Weaver
    www.BlackWidowNetwork.com
  • Hi Becky,

    I'm looking forward to the other comments to follow.

    This past week I was a panelist on the Mt. Washington Valley EDC Forum (reviewing three NH companies in the hospitality industry). It had never dawned on one owner that the thousands of humming birds that annually migrate from South America to her backyard could be used as a marketing tool. Operating a small 12 unit lodge at the Canadian border, she is now going to use social media to connect with aviary enthusiasts world-wide to come visit, study, learn ... and network.

    Living in NH, where 87% of the businesses are micro enterprises (<$500K and/or <5 employees), these "small town/small business" issues seem to be the center of daily discussions.

    Regards,
    Kevin Skarritt
    http://www.AcornCreative.com
    http://www.BlackWidowNetwork.com
  • Great article Becky. Lots of practical and smart tips for small businesses - anywhere!
  • beckymccray
    Saravanan, glad it's helpful. We have more in common that most people realize.

    Will, true! Good or bad, it is still a tool.

    Ricardo, you raise some excellent points. In my small town, I think I am the only one on LinkedIn, but one of many on FaceBook. And you're right. Keep it social.

    Richard, thanks for that resource!

    Kim, Thanks!
  • beckymccray
    Kevin, that is a terrific example! It's a pleasure to meet other people who are thinking about these same small town business issues.
  • Hi Becky.

    I guess the type of business one is in is also important..? For example a liquor store in a small town could not benefit as much from social media than a similar store in a bigger city with more prospects...

    In my humble view, blogging/etc eliminates (or reduces) geography from the equation for many businesses. This means that a small town companies can compete with "big city slickers" in an almost equal footing. They can use blogs/etc to establish themselves as experts. After that - locaiton is almost irrelevant.

    Personally I don't care where an expert is located provided they are good.

    And, there is not a day that goes by where I consider leaving the Miami with all its hassles and settling in a nice quaint and small new england folksy town... say like Boston or Providence.

    Cheers,
    Marco
  • beckymccray
    Marco, I agree that generally a bigger city business will draw more local customers through social media, smaller town businesses will draw more benefits in other way, by learning, networking, and expanding perspectives. Tomorrow, I'll have lots more on that in my article with examples at Small Biz Survival. Thanks!
  • This is a good list Becky. One thing I would add is to participate in local online forums and message boards. I have noticed that in my area, there are many more locals reading and commenting on two local sites than on twitter or linkedin. Networking in these places can benefit a small business as well.
  • Apex Digest / Apex Publications has been allowing me to explore social media to get the word out. This has been as fun as it's been interesting as it's been a learning experience all the way around.
  • beckymccray
    Charles, you are right about local online forums. Most every town of any size has some local meeting place. One word of caution: most are riddled with local politics, so tread carefully.

    Mari, experimenting is how we all learn. Enjoy yourself while you go!
  • Thanks Becky! :)
  • Becky
    An excellent post. I actually just started reading blogs recently, and in the last few weeks was asked to be a guest blogger on a site, and I have been thrilled with it. Writing and or blogging is the farthest thing from my day job. I am a builder or was a builder, and have built some 12,000-14,000 apartment units over my career. Five years ago this July, I decided I wanted to create wealth, and set out from Corporate America on my own and created Urbane Apartments in Royal Oak, MI. I have no idea just yet if I will find the treasure, but I am having a great time and learning a lot. It has been a humbling, but productive experience.
  • beckymccray
    Eric, five years! Wow! That is an impressive accomplishment. All the best, and thanks for commenting.
  • This is the whole reason I am into social media. I grew up in a small town, less than 250 souls, I live in a town of about 1100 people, and the town where I work has less than 1500 people. Back to my hometown of <250, I have helped to create a blog on their behalf - you can see it at http://soldieriowa.blogspot.com - and have also helped my little (oh, so little) company to create their own blog - http://leungschineseherbnews.blogspot.com - dealing with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) remedies.

    I would echo Ricardo's comment - I love LinkedIn and think that if I couldn't have any other social app, then LinkedIn would be enough. On LinkedIn, I get the same access to Chris Brogan as Chris Pirillo does, so this not only erases the geographic separation, but it also levels the playing field in other important ways. By the way, I'd be glad to connect with any of Chris's readers - my profile is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonehlers

    I make my living not in the computer tech world, but in a research laboratory. I would suggest that I am more geeky than most readers of this post, albeit less well known in the tech world. But believe me, if you think it is easy to network with other chemists when you work in a town of <1500 people, you are simply wrong. Without social media, it would be very nearly impossible.
  • Hi Becky,
    Great post and great advice. I posted a similar piece on building community in small towns- I think newspapers may be a good place to start http://tinyurl.com/3q8zmb What do you think?
  • Establishing yourself as an expert via quality blogging is certainly a well-established and successful method, but the reach of expert blogs is usually well beyond the local -- unless you focus the blog on local issues which tends to minimize its non-local/regional interest. One of the better approaches to that problem is to deal centrally with the local, but also extend your post themes to more general topics on the same basic theme. Sort of a local blog plus+. A local architect might think and write local impact, building, events and business, and supplement with that with industry news, competition notes, reviews and trends (such as green building, sustainability, city planning, etc.).
  • beckymccray
    Jason, you make excellent points about small town newspapers in your article. I'm certainly seeing some more innovating action from medium-to-small papers in Oklahoma, than from the metro papers. Thanks!

    Vance, those are some great points for small town businesses focused on the local and regional markets. To me, it's amazing how adaptable social media tools are, that we can use them for local business, or to build national or global networks.
  • beckymccray
    Shannon, you are a perfect person to talk with about this. I would love to connect with you a bit more, especially about how you use LinkedIn. Please email me, if you don't mind, at becky at small biz survival dot com. Thanks!
  • Chris, this is a fantastic post on a small town utilizing Social Media. I'm currently trying to help my local community embrace and see the potential for social media. Things are really starting to happen and it's an exciting time to see people eyes open up to the possibilities that social media can offer.

    Thanks again for the great post! I definitely shared the love on Twitter for you
    @helloqtown
  • I guess the type of business one is in is also important..? For example a liquor store in a small town could not benefit as much from social media than a similar store in a bigger city with more prospects...
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