Use Social Media to Promote Your Local Business

Social media is highly effective for promoting local business, and costs little beyond effort.

Unlike traditional media with its development and distribution costs (radio, tv, signage), social media is quite literally, free of these costs. 

It is the most cost-effective solution to promoting your local business. 

Using Twitter to Capture a Local Audience

If words are power, then hashtags provide the jurisdiction in which to govern and market your business.

Composing a tweet that makes effective use of words and hashtags is like saying “I am here!” through a loud speaker. Start the conversation by using the appropriate words.

Here’s an example: “Come check out our new Toronto pub.” By modifying even a couple of words into tags, your chances of getting discovered on Twitter increase enormously.

Let’s modify the words Toronto and pub, by turning them into tags:

• Toronto – Changing it to #Toronto identifies your locale.
• pub – Changing it to #pub identifies the type of business you’re running.

Using Facebook to Reach a Local Audience

Similar tags work on Facebook, but there is also a unique feature that allows you to focus the locale of your post. Just to the left of the blue Share button you’ll see a lock icon labeled Public. Click it to reveal a drop-down with the options to Target by and Location / Language. Having done that, you’re presented with a pop-up box to Choose Your Audience.

Enter a location, in this case, Canada. Now you’ll see three options that allow you to refine the location. The options are: Everywhere, By State/Province and By City. Select By City and enter “Toronto” into the text field.

Social media marketing is mandatory for optimal local marketing. You’ll be more directly engaged with your customers and your neighbourhood.  This has never been as affordably available at scale as it is with social media.

With this foresight in play, take advantage of Twitter and Facebook.

Don’t delay. Focus ahead.  Get ready, set, post!

See Also: "Twitter and Facebook: The Tag Teams of Online Marketing"