Diamonds In Your Own Backyard…
The global outreach of social media allows you to connect with the world. But are you forgetting about your own backyard? There are many opportunities that businesses fail to seek under their feet when they jump head first into social media. Our business is local, yet, we have clients around the world. This year, I’m putting more of emphasis to seek out opportunities that are local rather than global. Not that I will turn down business anywhere – not in this economy, thank you. The advantage of seeking local clients is the ability to do business face to face. There is a trend of many who feel that while their social media contacts around the world are great, it’s time to get back to basics. There are a number of ways to connect with local connects outside of the use of social media platforms. Meetups, Chamber of Commerce are still viable ways for you to market your business and get those diamonds in your backyard. I believe what happens with some companies is that they assume everyone is on social media – they aren’t. Not all of your clients have embraced the medium. We need to remember that as we network with colleagues online. Not everyone is comfortable with Twitter or Facebook – Google Plus is still confounding many as well. LinkedIn has become the online resume and great way to network but there are limitations to the use.
I am putting more into keeping my presence online open to the world but focusing my time and effort to real life connections. And that also means carving my audience on social media to speak to the local audience. It would surprise you to know that many companies do not even know you exist except on the internet. It can take away from your brand if you limit yourself to only these platforms.
What say you, are you going local this year?
Reblogged this on Annetta's Collections.
Thanks, Annetta!
Jennifer,
Currently, I am a stay-at-home dad blogger and most of my resources and connections will be online. However, I totally agree that any business needs to not only connect with the blog but they need to know the person behind the blog. In my opinion, the best businesses have been able to integrate both into their business which helps them to be more successful.
I do know, as a dad blogger, I would like to go to a few of the conferences that we have around the country to increase my connections and have people know me on one on one basis. My thought is that it would help promote who I am and my site more.
Aaron
I have been making the same effort, but you knew that from our phone convo…
Hence from our call, I was inspired to write this post and share my thoughts. I know you have made great strives locally and that’s a tip of the hat to you and your efforts.
Thanks, Aaron. I think we need to break free from the bonds of online and get out to our local people. Our efforts do not need to be grand stages like national conferences if we do not have the time to travel due to family commitments. I think swinging a night or weekend breakfast should be doable to get ourselves immerse in the local scene.
Great thoughts. Especially in selling. The face to face connection can’t be beat. I like social media, however, I do agree with you, we are losing some of the face to face connecting.
Take care – John
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Another nice reason to connect with local customers: people near you could be more easily enticed to come to your location and record a testimonial video in your setting with your products. Those testimonials could then be part of your online marketing.
You can solicit videos from anyone anywhere, but if you can get them to come to you and foster that face-to-face connection, what they say will be that much more genuine.
Good point, Patrick. I think the more we go back into our own backyards for business, we have better opportunities to create real time impressions and connections. There is a back to basics approach that need to be part of our marketing plans.