Guest post by Becky McCray
The old way of marketing was dictating, I heard Ted Rubin say last week. The new way is communication. If the old way was the big city way, the new way is the small town way. Or maybe it’s the “old new” way, a throwback to a time when even city neighborhoods were centers of local communication like small towns. And maybe it’s “new new” as we go online to create new small towns in a single niche or industry.
No matter how you classify it, here are two networking lessons for small towns that you can put to work in your business today.
1. Be available – be a regular somewhere.
My friend Chris was eating breakfast in a small local cafe. He probably wouldn’t have noticed the local construction guy eating at the counter, except three times during breakfast, people came up to the guy and asked about jobs. He closed three deals over his morning coffee. Chris finally got up and asked him for his secret. It was simple. He ate breakfast in this cafe every single morning. People knew they could find him there. They came to look for him.
Where can people count on you to be? It doesn’t have to be breakfast. Maybe you’ll always be at the neighborhood ball games. Maybe you never miss the outdoor concert series. Maybe you’re always at any arts event. Get out of your office and be a regular somewhere.
Online, you can be a regular, too. Be the one who’s always at #agchat on Twitter, or always participates in the webinars in your niche. Or always posts photos with local tags on Instagram. Or you always check in on your favorite network each morning. Pick a place and time to be easily findable.
2. Get involved – choose a local cause to support. Give more than just money.
Choosing a local cause is an opportunity, not just a deduction. It’s your chance to get involved with the cause, to deepen your relationship with the others involved. It’s your chance to get the cause involved with your business. If you sponsor a scout troop with a donation, that’s just barely involved. You can expand that to letting the troop piggy-back on your advertising, or borrow your offices for an event. Why not let scouts learn about your business through job-shadowing, or even let scouts try their hand at building an entrepreneurial venture of their own? A local cause really is an opportunity.
Online, a cause can be more than a banner ad. It can be something you promote, through all your marketing. You can help connect the cause to other people in your network. You can get to know the people working for the cause and find out even more ways you can get involved besides money.
You’ll get a lot more benefit out of your donation when you do this. But you’ll also build your network as you connect with the other people associated with the cause and as customers notice your increased involvement. Commitment is like a magnet, showing that you actually care about something.
Becky McCray shares more lessons useful for urban and rural business in the award-winning book she and Barry Moltz wrote, Small Town Rules. She also owns a liquor store and a cattle ranch in Oklahoma, in the U.S., and is a recognized expert in small business and social media. She publishes the popular website Small Biz Survival on small town business, and she and Sheila Scarborough co-founded Tourism Currents to teach tourism professionals new ways of marketing their destination. Her professional life is clearly an example of Small Town Rule #3: Multiply Your Lines of Income.
GREAT post Becky! And great book you wrote with Barry! LOVE Ted Rubin, and they way he bluntly captures the truth!
We all live in a small town!