Every week, I open a Brag Basket, so you can introduce yourself or share some good news. So speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great.
It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others’ stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.
This particular basket is open from Nov. 13-Nov. 15, 2009.
How does it work? You write a comment on this post. You tell something great about your week, or you give plaudits to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate a terrific failure. It’s not an ad; it’s a conversation with friends. So jump in.
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OK, I’ve got a brag for the week.
For months I have been working on a new kind of hyperlocal website that has a main goal of creating a market for downtown businesses. I started the first project in a small Ohio town (population 11,000), and in just six months have had almost 1,000 people sign on to follow stories on the site and on our Facebook Page.
This week, I was finally able to begin adding the downtown component – we now have an advertising system for downtown merchants based on Twitter, where merchants can upload information about the latest details on sales, new merchandise, “customers of the week,” whatever. The first invitations to be a part went out this week, and we have our first participants. The service is limited – and free – for downtown business owners.
Just thought I would brag a bit – it might well be one of the first Twitter-based downtown advertisement systems anywhere.
Love your blog!
Becky, I love your bog. Thanks so much for all you do.
This has been a great week for us as we have launched our first ebook to help small businesses with their IT problems at http://wordlions.com/wirelessguide.
It is the culmination, or if you will allow me the beginning of a culmination, of a career working to provide other small business people with access to the IT tools that can help them to be competitive.
My family seems genetically predisposed to small business entrepreneurship. I have always been surrounded by hard working, dedicated people working to build their business.
So often, I have seen small business people get tripped up by relatively minor technical glitches. I have worked as a consultant and been able to help them one by one. But by necessity I have to charge a fair wage for the work and it can really take a bite out of a small business budget.
I firmly believe that I can create simple manuals to help them to solve their problems themselves, and the creation of this book is my first step.
Hello All,
I have been working for a client over the past few months to create/enhance their online presence. The client owns and operates a fairly large business park 30 miles NW of Boston.
I’m happy to report that, with good old-fashioned local SEO efforts, inbound inquiries are up substantially and coming mostly from our optimization efforts. (previously, everything came from offline marketing)
Thanks for the opportunity to share!
– John
Becky,
I’m presenting this weekend at http://www.iblogconference.com and will be taking my attendees to Tourism Currents and …here! You know I’m excited about presenting, it’s really my destiny.
Next year – on the panel with you and Sheila!
@debworks
Thomas, that is a terrific project! Love to see someone taking time to work closely with those downtown small businesses.
Joel, congratulations on the launch! May it be just the first of many, and may it help many small businesses to succeed.
John, congrats! It’s so satisfying to see results from our work. Sounds like a neat economic development project, too.
Deb, thank you. You are a wonder. Thank you.
Becky,
I just found your site and blog but love what I’ve seen so far. Some really great articles on here and directed at just my niche….small towns. I’m just now starting a business to give small and new businesses a presence on Facebook and will continue on with LinkedIn and possibly Twitter. I’ve gotten 2 new clients in my first week and am really excited about it. Looking forward to all the posts as they come.
Mary Cunningham
small town Ontario, Canada
Mary, I am just so pleased to hear that Small Biz Survival is helpful for you. Huge congratulations on those two new clients, in your first week, no less! Hurray!