Steal This Small Business Promotion Idea

Wow!!! thank u very much for all this information. Keep on supplying such useful information. It really is interesting.

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Great idea for small business. But do you know some website for example, http://www.adwido.com offering, free advertisement ,content video upload and link exchange? these are great free stuff to promote your business online.

Chris,

I was excited to run across this post while doing some research. But then I was saddened to learn that Simply Gourmet fell victim to the economy and shut its doors in February (also saw this in a comment on your previous post about them0. Apparently, they will continue with a catering business. I wish them well. Simply Gourmet

Great idea and one we could incorporate with some of our businessed. Thanks!

Frank Polenose

That is an awesome idea! Why is it you can read something one time and it sinks in later. i read this via Google Reader but it was on Twitter so I read again and got it. LOL

Love the idea, way to get a growing community involved. Notice I said community and not customer or client. John is doing the hard work of community building. He's planting the digital seeds that will produce ten-fold in the future. It may be the restaurant/food biz, or it could be a budding online chef career, or a combination of both, I'm not sure what's going to sprout but I have a feeling we will be the fortunate ones to see it happen and learn from his experience. I wish him the best and I'm impressed with the zeal he's attacking the online space. Just one question...i'm a big hot sauce fanatic..does he have something on the shelf for me? if so, I am so in, well not in the store, but in his community. Will have to shoot him an email and find out. thx CB for helping to write another page in his story.

LOVE IT! You go John Andrews! I totally admire your passion and determination. It leads to your creativity! If I ever find myself in MA, I will certainly have to stop by!

I think the key, for all of us agency people, is NOT to rack your brain trying to think of ways to use social media to our client's advantage. The interaction should be real, flow naturally, and be an extension of the product or service they offer. Most of the time the answer for how to do this will come as a result of really getting to know your client's business - so talk to them at length. They probably already have the answer you're looking for.

Great post, Chris.

Great to see small businesses getting involved this way. It's so simple to do but can go a long way. So many small businesses are so reluctant to get involved though. They either don't know about the opportunity or don't think it is worth it. I'm sure this will change over time but it's hard to see people rejecting ideas when there are so many success stories out there.

Fabulous - I do something similar with my monthly e-letter, profiling either a current client or a client I really want. I have gained business as a result.

I love this idea. I am working with a regional restaurant right now that is looking for ways to draw in more customers. At this point, they don't even have a website, much less a blog. I definitely will see if this is something they would be interested in. A lot of small business owners in our area are trying to cut down expenses during the current economic climate. We are trying to help them understand that marketing is not a good place to cut. Why do so many business owners still run ads in the newspaper and on radio but don't understand the power of the internet?

John is doing a fantastic job of bringing the attention that his food creates into the thoughts of the people that consume it. The ideas from the previous post were (more so the comments) were a great indication of what social media can do if it is aligned with a great marketing plan, restaurant atmosphere, kick butt customer service and amazing food!

We have done something similar in Orlando for a small, family owned sushi restaurant, Orlando Ichiban. We have helped them along in blogging, utilizing Twitter to promote specials and sourcing for user generated content. Our biggest accomplishment with them was a recent tweetup where 20 or so local twitter'ers came into the restaurant for a discounted lunch and had a chance to experience the experience of what Ichiban had to offer.

John can do something very similar. It is not how much money you have, but how passionate you are about your business and making sure that you offer the best service and pay the most attention to what matters.

Chris - awesome. Thank you.

Shirley - I'm going to email a small biz owner I know to come read this and suggest that they do Customer Of The Month. It doesn't have to be a daily thing. Adapt the idea to what fits your situation.

you know chris I am so happy to hear you say this about that great idea b/c this is the same idea I was going for when I started something similar on my style site 7 mos.ago-I call it my "stylish real person of the week". I go out and take photos of real people I come across everyday (those who will let me take a photo) and then tell about them and "who they're wearing". There were some weeks that I thought- should i still keep going with this? Is it really an important part of my site and do my readers like it? But then I started getting some psotive feedback about it and readers saying they looked forward to it and I knew I should keep going.Thanks,reading that re-affirmed I was on the right track!

Chris, thanks for introducing me (and all your readers) to John. I'm enjoying getting to know their business. Even if I'm not dropping in to Peabody soon, I'm learning from their innovative ideas.

And thanks for the shout out, friend. :)

Chris, you rock and "The happy Meal for Adults" is on its way!!!!

I absolutely love this idea. It really just made me smile to see that 'Customer of the Day' post. Wonderful! :-)

Unfortunately, I doubt this would work well for me. But something like this is ideal for businesses who work with a lot of clients on a day-to-day basis. I suppose that you could also do 'Customer of the Week' if you worked with fewer people...

This is really a fantastic idea for small businesses. It is something that requires commitment but ultimately creates a much greater customer relationship. What I would like to know Sean as well as Chris is how can this be applied to a national company?

This is a great idea. You've got me racking my brain now to try to figure out some way we can use this in our business. Granted, we're a PR agency that has some big-money accounts and some small dollar accounts. So while the daily spotlight might not work very well from us, we can use other ways and other opportunities to promote those clients doing interesting stuff. Now I've talked it through with myself and used your comment section to do it. Thanks.