It takes a real commitment to build a business. The same commitment is required when building a social media campaign. One thing that is coming out of our country's downturn is the rise of people building business pages for their hometown in order to attract more people to the small business. The backbone of this country.
The team of Jason Turner and Brenda McGuire created the page Roanoke Doesn't Suck because they were sick and tired of people complaining that there was nothing to do around town. They talk about local businesses and fun events that are coming up. They do everything they can to bring a sense of community awareness to the city.
Lora Trout began on Facebook with a page called Promote Commotion because she kept hearing about the same thing. She loves promoting people within the community and their services.
Gwenda Kellett began a website named Main Street Salem upon hearing some of the local businesses possibly closing due to lack of foot traffic and sales. This website is the most comprehensive of all the local sites. Pages with different types of services are locked and loaded.
However, none of these sites could exist without help. Usually in the form of advertisements and space on their page that describes your business and links to the business web pages. The amount of traffic that these sites are receiving is ASTOUNDING. Main Street Salem began recently and is receiving hundreds of hits daily! This exposure is better and less expensive than taking an ad out in the newspaper or making a commercial. The more hits these pages receive, the better word spreads about your business. Since my business started it's listing with Main Street Salem, visitors to my page have TRIPLED. My job? Making sure my site stays current, fresh, and relevant to the client I envision being able to reach. It's nice to have traffic, but you have to be able to use your site and yourself to close the deal! My advice? Get your business listed with one of the above or ask about their services!