How to work with fans of your destination - Small Biz Survival

---

How to work with fans of your destination Posted: 17 Jan 2012 04:38 AM PST Last week, we talked about where to find the people who can promote your town online. These are people who already love your town, and are already active online. Now that you have a list of your potential online champions, what can you do with them? My friend Scott Townsend is a fan and Online Champion of Pop's 66 in Arcadia, OK.  The first step is to do some things FOR them.  Get to know them.  Connect with them. Promote their work.  Get to know your Online Champions.  You want to get to know them and their "beat": what do they write about? If they are bloggers, what are their topics? For photographers, what types of things are they looking for? For Facebook mavens, what are their interests? Blasting press releases will not work. They don't respond because it seems so rude. A press release blast is not a personal conversation, and online is definitely a personal conversation. So please, please, please do not add your online champions to an email list for press releases. Reach out individually, with customized notes on special events and big promotions. That is what does work. Connect with your Online Champions. When you find an item online about your place, whether it is a photo, a story, or a Facebook posting, comment. Thank them for the mention. This is the most important thing you can do: comment. It shows interest in and respect for their work. Support local gatherings, groups, and photowalks. Look around for local Social Media Clubs, Jelly, coworking, or any other gathering of online enthusiasts. Support their events and get-togethers. Attend yourself! Promote your Online Champions' local content. When you find an item about your town online, link to it from Facebook or Twitter. In fact, get together a bunch of local content, and do a roundup and link to them from your newsletter or blog. Once you've made some deposits in the relationship, you can ask for some things in return. Ask to use their photos and posts, and give them credit. Ask them to connect you to their network. Give them special access at events, so they can provide you with even more great online coverage.  Invite them to weigh in on firestorms (use sparingly). Your locals and fans can be powerful and loyal champions. The more you treat them with respect as part of an ongoing relationship, the more you'll get back in online coverage, support and ideas. Sheila Scarborough and I did an hour-long webinar on finding your town's existing online champions as well as how to cultivate new online champions. It is available at Tourism Currents: Finding Your Online Champions. New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

Social Media Tools for Small Town Businesses Posted: 16 Jan 2012 11:41 AM PST Last week, we talked about the small town style to social media. Our small town style sets us apart online, because we are closer to our customers, we are natural community builders, and we care about our people. If you use that style, it applies no matter what tools you use. This week, we're talking about specific tools, sites and social networks that make sense for most small town businesses. These are recommendations based on my own small town businesses and my observation of what works well for others. While sites and tools are always changing, my first recommendation hasn't changed in years: The Barbeque Shack in Woodward, OK, promotes its website.  Build your own website with a blog. Your blog is the place you post answers to customer questions, where you share all the things we just talked about sharing. If you have no other website, a blog can be your entire website. (That's what I do with Allen's Liquors.) There are many different platforms out there. If you have tech support or the funds to hire help when needed, use WordPress software. You'll also need to pay for hosting service, but in return you get a very powerful, very flexible blogging platform.  If you are on your own for tech, and you're not a tech geek, try Posterous Spaces, Blogger or Tumblr. Each takes care of the hosting and keeps itself up to date. The downside is less flexibility and relying on an outside service. If you decide to upgrade to WordPress later, you can import your posts from any of these services. The big secret about blogging platforms: what you say is far more important than the software you use to say it.   And no matter where or how you blog, back up your data regularly.  Use a Facebook Page as an outpost.  An outpost is a supplement to your primary online real estate: your own site and blog. Don't make your business a person; make it a Page. In fact, if you have a physical location, Facebook probably already started a page for you. Claim that Places Page, rather than start a new page. Use your Facebook Page to do two things:  invite discussion and share the shareable. Invite discussion by posting questions or comments that encourage people to interact. Don't just post a bare, lonely question. But do post those pieces of stories, quotes or photos that are interesting and make people want to comment. Think about what you want to comment on, to get an idea of what invites discussion.  Share the shareable by posting photos and stories of customers that make them proud or make them want to smile.  Pride Dairy does a great job of sharing photos of folks who visit their Dairy Dipper Ice Cream Parlor. Grandma automatically wants to share that adorable picture of her grandchild with all her friends online. That's shareable.  Fill in your Place Pages. Google and Yelp have a place page on every business they can find. Android smartphones automatically search Google Places, and iPhones search Yelp for businesses. Go to these services, and fill in as much information as you can about your business. Give customers a reason to pick you from all the Place pages they see listed. Facebook, Yelp and Google allow you to offer a special deal to customers on your Place Page. It doesn't have to be a big offer, but a little something shows you're engaged. Those three recommendations are true for most every small town business: build your own site and blog, use Facebook as an outpost, and fill in your Places Pages. Look around your industry to find other necessary tools. For example, tourism businesses like motels must monitor TripAdvisor and respond to both positive and negative reviews. What about your small town business? What tools are working for you right now? New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

You are subscribed to email updates from Small Biz Survival To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610