Were noodling around with an idea and thought we might put it out there and see what kinds of thoughts and feedback we might get. So, the idea is Beavercreek Village People (we have a facebook page with that name--but were open to others). The concept is a facebook page where consumers can find local business and businesses could share and cross-promote their products, services, sales, and special events. The folks over at The Beavercreek Ohio Buzz page do an outstanding job of promoting whats happening in Beavercreek and they graciously share business specials from time to time, but thats really not their mission. I think I can safely say that they believe and promote Buy Beavecreek, but thats not their sole purpose. Local businesses without the name recognition of a chain and a mall-base location are no longer finding local newspapers an effective means to drive traffic, and find mass-communications such as radio and television too expensive (youre paying to reach 100% of the regional market, when only a very small percentage are in your neighborhood market area). Facebook is great, but with facebook, you only reach the folks who have liked your page (your existing audience) and facebook continues to share posts with fewer and fewer percentages of total likes. For example, we have almost 3,500 total likes, and frequently our posts get shared (placed on newsfeeds) with fewer than 100 of our fans. So, we small businesses have to stick together. If youve followed us very long, you know that we promote with local businesses just about any time we can. Wed like to expand that, so we had this idea. Wed like to start a facebook page for Beavercreek Village People for local businesses and services. To participate, you would need to be: - a non-chain, non-corporate owned local business - not located in the mall shopping areas* - have a physical location - have a product or service thats available retail to consumers - or, have a government service that youd like to promote *We love the Green and Fairfield Mall and shop there frequently. This is not to take away from the value of the mall shopping areas. The next time youre driving around, imagine this. Picture every small business thats outside of the mall areas as gone. Just gone. Where would the flavor and personality of the community be without these businesses? The mall shopping areas will do just fine, they have a great business model. They help bring shoppers to the area and ultimately help all of us, local businesses included. They market collectively through their physical location. We have to market collectively with a different approach. Participation would look like this: - Local business would share their promotion on the Beavercreek Village People--or a better name--facebook page. - For every sale or promotion posted on the Beavercreek Village People page, the business would share 2 posts. One would be to promote the Beavercreek Village People page and the second would be to promote another participating business. For example, we are Beavercreek Pizza Dive. If we shared a post on the Beavercreek Village People page about our All-You-Can-Eat Buffet on Monday, then on our Beavercreek Pizza Dive facebook page, we would share a post about buy local, check out the Beavercreek Village People facebook page and then another post about a participating business (maybe Knickerbocker is participating and they have a sale--so we would make or share a post on our page). The cross-promotion is important: - promoting the Beavercreek Village People page on your facebook page drives traffic to the spot where consumers who want to buy local and find products and services - promoting other businesses helps us all increase our reach with new customers The idea is to cross-promote and to increase our exposure collectively. I would share my audience with your fans and you would share yours with us. And, only through this cross-promotion can we build a page that consumers want to consult before they shop. It can be a centralized voice for local shopping opportunities. So, looking for feedback here. Interested? Drop me a line at teresa@beavercreekpizza or private message me on the Beavercreek Pizza Dive page. Have ideas? Id love to hear those. I think the nugget of the idea is probably a good one for all of us, but Im pretty sure that it needs some fleshing out and input--and the page probably needs a better name. Like the idea, please share it on your page and help us get the word out! BTW, if theres something like this out there already, please let me know. I would not picture this as a money-making or money-charging venture, just a forum for local businesses to share their products and services with consumers who want to buy local. Thanks! Teresa
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 18:53:14 +0000
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