Preserve Local Business

What is happening in the communities across America. Big box chains are taking over the world and the diversity and inventions of small business is falling by the wayside. How can the small guy compete? Is big business going to own innovation and homogenize America? Will we all be working for Corporate America? Who's looking out for the little guys?

What's even more frustrating is the city government is forgetting that bringing in big chains only shifts the economy and doesn't create new money in town. Big chains force small business out and while the city tauts that it will create new jobs, how many jobs are lost in the process when the little guys all go out of business.

Remember when you were growing up and the corner market was there for you to get those last minute things you needed. You didn't waste gas to drive 10 miles to the grocery store, you got exercise as you walked to the corner, and not to mention the convenience and time savings. Life was simpler but we had everything we needed.

Today, big chains create more options for us to choose from but lacks character, innovation, and customer service. Where's our individuality? Where's the moxy and creativity that small business brings to a community if all we have to choose from is what large retailers tell us what's in or what we need. Where's our freedom of choice and color?

Small business needs to band together and carry the torch for each community we live in. Sharing the news of the day through small business networks is crucial for our survival in this overstimulated information age. Technology is both a curse and a blessing and if used correctly, can be an effective tool to stave off the big box takeover of America. But local business has to create a united front in doing so and make it easy for consumers to find them and let them know they are here to stay. Stand up together and make a difference. Support your local community and local businesses.

Social Media Made Simple

Find social media a mystery? What does it all mean? What's in it for me as a business owner? Here is a very nice quick video that puts things into perspective on how social media should be viewed from a small business owners perspective. Watch the video and then let me know what you think.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gza8dvN8Hkc&NR=1

Here's another one that puts it into perspective...

http://www.youtube.com/user/UpsideDownIceberg#p/u/3/DEvAlylWSQI

Upon reflection and recap of what you just saw, the following is a short "crow's" eye view of what it all means....

What are the sources of your online presence?

1. Website (your URL)
2. Directory Services (Google Business, Yahoo, Twellow, etc)
3. Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, etc…etc)
4. Blogging (Blogger, Wordpress, etc)
5. Centralized community networks (Ning, Local Crow, Merchant Circle, Local media websites)
   

Choosing the correct strategy. First you need to answer a few questions.

• Define your target demographic.
• Where are your customers?
• Define your marketing goals.
• Do I use sales, events, or value of products to bring in customers?
• Do you want to drive new customers through the door?
• Do I need to build a relationship with existing customers?
• Do I need feedback from my customers?
• Information time sensitive?
• Desired customer interaction?
• Pushing FAQ’s to save time?
• Customer Service?
• Education for customers?
• Need visual integration?
• Personal relationships with customers?
• Referral expansion?
• Searchable for expanded exposure
• Real time info?
• Need a rapid reaction?
• Improved SEO?
• Fast viral message?
• Recruit new customers?
• Do I need to be found?
• Fast to the spotlight?
• Event or promotion based?

Choosing the correct tool for you and your business:

• Facebook – gen-X, education, customer service, relationship building with customers, complete customer facing, slow viral strategy
• Twitter – business savvy, summary, fast viral strategy, rapid reaction, improve SEO, drives traffic back to you
• LinkedIn – Business to business, business relationships
• Website – searchable if SEO is employed
• Ning – create your own “community”
• Directory services – searchable for destination audience
• Blogging – Engaging the audience, education, persuade audience, become subject matter expert
• Local Crow - Searchable, integration with own website, customer interaction, customer notifications, viral, community focused, event and promotion based, local focus.
• Is there an integration method or strategy available if several tools are selected?
• Does each tool have a separate strategy or will you be using the same message?

Problems with social media:

• Destination sites offer limited exposure to predefined audience.
• Mostly limited to existing customers.
• Often not searchable for unknown customers.
• Often not localized to a location or region.
• Information delivery is one time shot.

Challenges with online presence:

• How do you engage the customers?
• How do you expand your visibility through customer interaction?
• How do you create new customer visibility?
• Viral strategy?

KISS:

• Get back to the basics – your website. Drive traffic back to you!
• Pick a social media tool that interacts with your existing customer base to gain trust.
• Gain referral support through business relationships and customer support and loyalty.
• Use automated referral based tools....Create a community of trusted "partners", share exposure, become the expert in your field.
• Don't get caught up in the hype of social media! It's not that hard and it doesn't take a highly paid "social media" marketing firm to make it happen for you! You are the source of the information so just take the time to write it down...preferably once!

The world is being consumed with information, communities are become deluged with big box stores, and the intimacy of local communities are being swallowed up. The future of our communities rest in the hands of small businesses who band together and create a large voice together. Diversity and intimacy is on it's way back and communities will embrace the refreshing air of knowing their neighbor again!

Local Crow creating community!

Check out how the Crow is revolutionizing the media industry and creating community presence. http://prezi.com/yczq0ucf2qnm/local-crow/

E-Mail Marketing Campaigns

Are you like me and tired of the expensive solutions for e-mail marketing campaigns?

Are you tired of being subjected to an ocean of e-mail marketing campaigns?

What's the solution?

I'm not sure there is a solution for the flood of information that hits your in-box on a daily basis but we at the Local Crow are working on solutions that make the information available WHEN you want it. Businesses and organization leaders who use the Local Crow, have the consumer in mind. Posting information on a Local Crow Calendar can make a difference without Spamming the heck out of the consumers. Here's how:

1. New information automatically generates a tweet in Twitter www.twitter/localcrow. Allows users to follow the information updates at their leisure without being spammed.
2. New information is automatically updated on the communities home page calendar and "recently added" for review at the consumers leisure.
3. Consumers can review the community home page at their leisure and view ALL community events posted based on interest and category without spending hours searching individual websites to find an activity of interest.
4. Users of the Local Crow can opt out of e-mail's delivered through the Local Crow.
5. Users of the Local Crow can opt out of receiving ANY e-mails delivered through the Local Crow.
6. Users can subscribe to calendars created using the Local Crow and maintain and anonymous relationship with the business or organization and still be updated with any new activities posted via the Local Crow users home page.

If you're tired of e-mail spam and would like a more cohesive information portal into your community, then use the Local Crow and spread the word. The next time you get SPAMed, reply to the sender with...."Next time use the Local Crow" and unsubscribe to the SPAM.

If you're the one SPAMing the community with your news and activities, LISTEN UP!

It's time to work together in our communites. Contributing to a community portal product without losing your automonmy is easy at the Local Crow. You plug in the calendar just like google calendars but with the added benefit of automatically contributing to the community calendar portal. It's FREE and EASY to use with free features for e-mail campaigns if you feel compelled to send an individual e-mail to your customers.

Welcome to the Local Crow

Welcome friends and local community enthusiasts. The Local Crow is here to make your life easy and help you stay well connected to what's going on in the community. There are many "community" and social media tools out there but what makes the Local Crow different is it is an all in one community collaboration tool. It maintains contributors autonomy through their website's event and promotion posts but through creating connections to others the visibility expands beyond your own sites visitation. Isn't that what "viral marketing" is all about?

As a small business owner...you may be saying to yourself, "What is all this social media and how am I going to find time to keep posting the same information out to all these venues?" The Local Crow is the hub of managing your network of published information.

Post it once on the Local Crow and here is what you've accomplished:

1. Updated your personal/business event calendar on your website (www.yourwebsite.com)
2. Updated the community portal through the Local Crow (www.localcrow.com).
3. Updated all participants who "subscribe" to your calendar.
4. Updated all "community" or organizational websites that you belong to or own.
5. Tweeted your event to the Local Crow Twitter community.

With an EASY second step in the Local Crow, you can:

1. Invite your contacts to view the event, promotion, newsletter, etc.
2. Post your event to Twitter, Facebook, LinkdIN or whatever social media tool you personally use to promote your business or activities
3. Advertise your event to the entire Local Crow community in your area.

Stay connected with the community you live in and start Crowing TODAY!