Mom & Pop Need Your Social Media Help

I’ve been back home the past week or so in Chicago visiting family and friends. It’s always great to get back and visit, eat the great food, and feel some actual summer heat. Seattle has been failing in delivering any sort of summer so far.

In addition to our visit back, my wife and I were able to escape the kids for a few days and rent a cabin from a really cool place up by Lake Geneva called Seven Oaks (a great place to stay by the way if you’re in the area).  For the past few days, we visited a few local hot spots, shops, historic places.  It’s a pretty cool town, and the homes on the waterfront are insane.

Being in the business that I am, I’m always thinking about social media and on the lookout for local businesses that are doing it right (and in most cases, not doing it all!).  The biggest takeaway I had was that there are far more local businesses that are not doing anything from a social media perspective that are.  It’s actually quite amazing to me that in this day and age when it’s so incredibly easy to simply have a Facebook page or Twitter account, how few businesses that actually do.

The bottom line is this, if you are somewhat social media savvy, self-employed or looking to set up your own shop, opportunity is everywhere!  If I were, I’m fairly certain that there were at least 5-10 local shops I visited that I could have interacted with and potentially scored a few leads.  Now we’re not talking major businesses, here, but opportunity is opportunity.  These are not major corporations in need of hefty social media plans and execution.  They just need someone to hold their hands a bit and get them going.  Show them how to get set up, and use these channels to engage with their customers and drive new business.  Maybe you just make a few bucks on the front end helping them get up and running, a little training.  But maybe you end up managing their social media efforts ongoing earning yourself a monthly retainer?

Fact is, many of these business owners KNOW they need to be doing it.  But they either do not have the time, or believe they can’t afford it.  In this economy?  The latter simply isn’t true.  They just need someone to walk in the door and capitalize on the opportunity.  Maybe that’s you?

These business owners don’t realize the opportunities they are missing out on.  Moral of the story?  Try out some old fashioned social media and walk into a few local businesses and introduce yourself.  Chances are with a little pounding the pavement, you can walk away with a few new clients.