Using Social Media To Promote Local Business

blog post by Boundless Flight’s Kimberly Kitchen

Are you a business owner or decision maker at your place of employment?  Are you in charge of increasing awareness?  Maybe brand awareness, or event attendance or awareness of a political campaign?  If any of those answers are yes, I hope you’re not relying on newspaper, magazine, yellow pages, radio, direct mail, coupons, television and/or billboard advertising and marketing without considering social media.

Social Media:

What is social media?  Well, I’ve always considered it to be a form of media that encourages socializing. For example, you can’t talk to a magazine, a newspaper, a radio, a billboard, a television, a coupon, direct mail, etc… (I guess you can, but they won’t respond).  LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc… are forms of media that not only encourage interaction – they’re driven by interaction.

The difference can be identified with a classroom analogy.  Have you ever tried to learn something by reading a book and listening to some tapes without any interaction with peers taking the same course and/or a teacher?  Compare that experience to a course taught in a room with other students and someone leading the class.  There is social interaction that can alter the path of the curriculum based on the students.  There is a feeling of community shared by the class that takes on its own dynamic.

Here is Wikipedia’s answer.

In today’s world, the delivery of news is evolving.  News used to be delivered, by a delivery boy, the television, the radio, the postmaster, or some other form the user was expecting.  Now, news is being “delivered” from blog posts, LinkedIn discussions, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, word of mouth, etc…  Of course the way we get our news has an impact on advertising and marketing.  If people no longer bought the newspaper, what would be the sense in advertising in the newspaper?

So it’s no surprise that companies are starting to see sales increase as a result of their social media presence, that political groups can attribute raising funds and awareness to social media campaigns, and that relief efforts for Haiti, breast cancer awareness and other causes have been seeing more results with a better social media strategy.

Martin’s Corner Deli:

We made a blog post about the wine tastings promoted by Boundless Flight a few weeks ago.  Read the post for the whole story, but the short version is before we took over promoting the event, Martin’s was using a flyer, word of mouth and a sign in the deli to advertise the wine tasting.  The attendance was very limited.

When Boundless Flight took over we set up a Twitter account, a Facebook group (we prefer pages, but in this case a group was more appropriate), and used LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Meetup to promote the event.

This past Thursday, March 4th, with only 10 days to promote the event, Boundless Flight got 33 people to attend the wine tasting.  We had software professionals, event planning professionals, lawyers, insurance representatives, a photographer, a few people with the heath care industry and even a magician!

Many small businesses know a little about social media, know they spend too much on marketing and advertising but don’t have the time to

Wine Tasting Attendees Watch The Magician

learn the tools.  Their option?

1. Create a job!  That’s a great thought – hire a social media strategist for your company.  A recent college grad will probably do it for $30K/yr in this economy.
2. Increase  a current employee’s responsibilities to include creating the accounts and regular messaging.
3. Outsource the social media efforts to Boundless Flight.  For less than the cost of a newspaper ad, Boundless Flight will set up the accounts, provide messaging from all accounts, promote events, expand digital footprint and increase SEO efforts for maximum exposure.

Contact us on LinkedIn, Meetup, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress or – if you must, call: 216-659-4303 (Kim’s Boundless Cell. Text Friendly)