Talk about the perfect trifecta – the seamless blend of social media, local and offline marketing – the “Real Joe” of Joe’s Real BBQ (a local business owner here in Arizona) understands social media better than any one in my area (IMO) and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about a recent promotion by his business. I bring this up because I am always hearing about local businesses not using social media, or not getting it, or worse they are just plain afraid to even get involved because they think its a “waste of time”. Well, here is an example of a local business owner (Joe) that GETS social media, and uses it to bring customers to his front door.
To illustrate, I am going to have you take a look at the screen shots I took from Joe’s customer appreciation day… In this first one, you find Joe tweeting about the even through his Foursquare check-in! So, not only do the people following him on Twitter know about the even, but everyone following the business on FourSquare now knows as well.
Let’s Not Kid Ourselves
You start a business to make money, not to connect with a bunch of “cool” people hoping to get “conversations” going. So, you are involved in social media because its a “tool” and not just so you can have a lot of “fans”. GET REAL – You want to make money, so you get involved and do stuff like this to bring people to your doors. Joe’s use of Twitter here is a perfect example of what you should be doing with social media websites like Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook.
Joe’s Real BBQ
As a business owner, you need to figure out the “thing” that is going to get your customers talking and dropping coin! (yea, I just came up with that haha). The “thing” is what allows you to leverage social media to spread the word (via channels like Twitter, Facebook & FourSquare) and hopefully be picked up by other media sources like local news (offline). These local offline news also have online reach and provide valuable citations that help boost local rankings too. This is a big deal! When you accomplish this, now you know you got it, and you understand what it takes to connect with your loyal customers and what it takes to find and gain new ones.
I tip my hat to Joe for understanding how social media impacts business. Because sooooo many business owners are just lost with it or don’t even know where to begin. If you are a local biz (small or large) and have been wondering what “the Facebook”, Twitter & FourSquare are all about, I would highly suggest following @realjoe on Twitter, and “liking” his business on Facebook (Joe’s Real BBQ).
It is always best to learn from someone who is already doing it right. In case you were wondering; No, I do not know Joe and have never met him in real life. I just happen to think he’s got a handle on this local/social media thing.
