Social Media and the local business

Prince George is made from the small business, it is the backbone of town. But being a small business does not mean you can not and should not compete with the big guys. Doing social media right is a way of making the playing field level. Done right it is very affordable especially when it brings more attention to your business. In this article it shows how social media helps the local business.

Small businesses face a number of challenges along the path to success, but one of the things they have working on their side is advancing technology.

Technology and social media have allowed the small business owner more control over their image and how they interact with customers.

Dothan’s Bite Club food truck has used social media to spread the word about their business since they opened in September of 2013.

They currently have nearly 2,800 likes on their Facebook page and it’s the primary way the business communicates with their customers.

Owner and executive chef Saylar Green said their use of social media is imperative to what they do especially since the food truck moves from location to location throughout the week.

“Since we transport around so much, we rely on our Facebook to tell people where we are,” Green said. “It’s not like a restaurant where we have a set location. We’re somewhere different every day.”

Having social media as a tool for Bite Club, Green said, is also important because of the size of Dothan.

“In bigger cities, it works. You don’t have to have Facebook to have a food truck because you have enough foot traffic for people to stop and eat. We don’t have that here in Dothan so we have to bring people to us,” she said.

Bite Club has a Twitter and Instagram account as well but because of the number of Facebook users, they use it as the main way to communicate.

“If we didn’t have Facebook, we wouldn’t have half the business or success that we have today,” Green said.

Social media, itself, is evolving though and success of the business introduces new challenges. As Bite Club grew in popularity, the more Facebook noticed, too.

Before, social media marketing was essentially free for businesses.

However, some sites like Facebook and Twitter have begun requesting money to promote the posts of small businesses, otherwise their followers won’t see as many of their posts unless they directly search for their pages.

“The more likes you get, they want you to start paying for promotion basically, so they’ll make it to where people don’t see your posts,” Green said. “It’s a bit ridiculous. That’s the only problem I’ve seen with Facebook changing the way they do things.”

Green said she’s sticking firm to not paying Facebook for promotion.

“We have to print out schedules now, because people are saying ‘I’m not seeing your posts anymore so what do I do?’” she said.

Green keeps a set schedule printed out and passed out to customers and urges customers to visit her webpage. By keeping to a regular schedule, she said hopefully her regular customers will eventually know what the schedule is so they don’t have to refer to the Facebook page.

“That’s what we’re doing instead of relying on the posts like we did in the past,” she said.

Green said she is considering other options to better get the word out to customers.

Some small businesses are turning to apps to help promote and market to their existing customers and draw in new customers.

Michael Miller, owner of the Recovery Room bar, said he uses both social media and an app to promote his business.

“We utilize Facebook almost on a daily basis,” Miller said, adding that he doesn’t mind every once in a while paying the charge from Facebook to boost or promote his posts.

“I think it’s very cost effective approach,” Miller said.

Promoting on Facebook, he said, allows him to market directly to his customers, the people who have already “liked” the Recovery Room Facebook page.

“The app we saw primarily as another avenue to promote the Recovery Room,” Miller said.

The app, which can be found by searching “recoveryroom” in the app store, is free for Android and iPhone and provides customers with a schedule of events and notifications of drink specials.

Miller said he also has a quick response (QR) code near the front of the store that if scanned each time a customer comes into the bar, they get a free drink for every three times visiting the bar.

The feedback he’s received from customers about the app has all been positive.

“(Customers) like the app. They like being able to pull up when the different events are going to take place and they like the QR code function,” he said. “From my perspective, it’s easy, it’s free and just about everything we do now revolves around our cell phones.”

Miller said he plans to continue his use of social media and continue staying up-to-speed with what can seem like an ever-evolving social media market.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/business/social-media-changing-ways-local-businesses-market-themselves/article_b8460266-dfb9-11e4-8543-73dc42174745.html