Localizing Your Business Via Online Tools: A Bay Area Example

Nothing like having a real business challenge to get me moving on how to advertise locally. And I certainly had that. Nothing complicated in any way; just a few small businesses yearning to open their doors and reach out to the Bay Area community, and my challenge to come up with a few strategies for them.

Since I had been concentrating on online awareness campaigns exclusively, and not what social media could do on the ground at the local level, I had some work to do.  No matter. Like a siren call, there came a point when certain terms persisted, echoed louder and louder.  Words like “localizing”, “hyperlocal.”   I’m sure for you too.

So, here’s what we’re probably all seeing.  Local is part of almost every social media effort now.  Sure, we always had our friends to help us broadcast announcements but what’s newly sprouted are potentially more powerful options for discovery that lie beyond our own networks.  Oh, and the accumulation of many more options, such as:

• Local search (Check out Google Becoming Local)
• Blog aggregation focused on a local community and category of interest (see below)
• The emergence of outlets that emphasize  local views (Think Google AdWords or cityslick.net)
• Local video/TV/radio  (BlogTalk Radio provides a local lookup)
• Local ‘location-based’ coupons channels (Think Groupon, now in S.F. and the East Bay)
• Local mapping (Bing, Google, Ask and Yahoo, all have local filters, with mapping opps that create better or even new experiences while mobile)
• Local social networks/meetups (Think Craigslist, Loopt, Tweetups, etc.)
• Online business hubs with a local emphasis (e.g., Google Local Business Center really can optimize your search, achieving better placement in search results, etc).

I was a little surprised, on the other hand, to realize several local business directories (like Yahoo) were quite sparse, and content from many local professional associations, disappointing. Nevertheless, what has emerged to help us hear about/advertise local is impressive (especially those innovations that have focused on filling the gap left by traditional news outlets). For example, Vid SF LOCAL is a ‘Video as Local TV’ site which accepts local advertising and improves local connection-making, and Bay Area News, one of the aggregators for community sites and bloggers, now makes local exploration increasingly fun (many points of view represented in our most passionate areas of interest), not to mention rewarding to folks interested in combining business with a community presence.  Places like Thumbtack are now emerging as the new local directories. And I’m sure we’ll be hearing about many more developments as well.

So, hey, there’s reason for a little optimism, no?  Certainly, there is power in this media. The trick, of course, is to keep up with it, and then, do something with the visibility we are able to achieve.