Tourism groups and small businesses both struggle with a common question: once we get online, how do we get local people to follow, like or friend us? Online friends join local friends for atweetup in Alva. Here are 3 quick ideas on how to get connected with the locals: 1. Talk about local issues. When…
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 isa fan and Online Championof Pop’s…
Small town businesses need social media, despite a few claims to the contrary. Almost every small town business can benefit from a smart, customer-focused and community-serving approach online. Why? Because local customers are actively using social networks like Facebook. Because visitors to town are using their smart phones and tablets to access the internet from…
A headline like, “Regional and rural small businesses outperform metropolitan-based businesses,” is sure to get my attention. This one is from Australia, and mirrors U.S. trends. In Australia: Business looks good at the Exchange Hotel, in Grenfell, Australia (population 1900).Photo (CC) by Pip Wilson. All small business monthly growth for October 2011 was 2.8%, while regional and rural…
Small town economies look strong for 2012. The trends for small town and rural businesses are always different from the general small business trends, and for once this is good news. The national economy is not looking all that good, but the rural economy looks strong. Rural small business trends are always different from general…
By Jon Swanson “What key personal and business lessons have you learned about social media in 2011?” Social Media Breakfasts are held in manydifferent cities. What if we held one in thecomment box below? Photo by Rick Mahn. That’s how Kevin Mullett started the most recent meeting of the Social Media Breakfast-Fort Wayne. There were…
Small towns have trouble competing with the entire global economy, but that’s what we are up against. Dave Ivan from Michigan State University is presenting a webinar of ways we can better compete. In 2009, I heard Dave’s Can Small Towns Be Cool talk, and it was FULL of excellent info. You can bet I’ll…
My hometown of Alva, Oklahoma, is doing something that most any small town could benefit from: building a habit of helping in our people. People make small donations, conveniently at all the local banks. Most of the banks have pledged matching funds. (Double cool.) The group picks just three or four causes to support each…
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