Slowly I’m starting to see and hear about some local small businesses in my area who are “dipping their toes” into the process of implementing social media into their marketing plans. It’s great to see it, especially since I believe whole-heartedly in it. Some have started advertising their social media presences, on-air, in print, in-store, billboards, etc. and I’m hoping to see it continue to increase. I believe it’s important for local businesses to communicate with their current customers; not just one way communication, but true interaction. Find out what your customers like, what they don’t like, listen and respond to suggestions, and build upon it.

Last June I taught a series of “Social Media for Business” classes through the Darien-McIntosh County Chamber of Commerce, and was excited by the attendance, but surprised to find out most weren’t even using social media personally at the time. It was a good introduction for them, but I wasn’t able to dig as deep as I had hoped into how they could use Social Media tools to improve their business. Instead, it ended up being more of an introduction to Social Media, which was still a lot of fun to introduce them to.

I’m throwing some ideas around on how I can get involved and offer my expertise to those interested in implementing Social Media into their business models. Stay tuned as I’ll be announcing some of my plans in the coming days/weeks.

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below…