While social media gets a lot of press for uniting people around the world or making it easier to connect with faraway friends or celebrities you’ll never meet it’s actually a great tool for uniting locals with shared interests. I thought it would be fun to look at the major social networks to see how you can use them in your business to create a community that will lead to loyal customers.
- This is the big one. Everyone is on Facebook. Heck, even my grandma gave it a shot, although I did have to do all the work for her. But anyway, your business needs to have a Facebook profile. And it needs to be easy for people to find. A good tip is to add a little blurb on your receipts that say something like “Add us to get info on discounts and promotions”. That alone will attract the budget conscience shopper but isn’t enough to garner a loyal following.
Over the past decade the farm to table movement has really taken off. If you’re not familiar, it works like this: you sign up with a local farm for weekly produce deliveries right to your door. You don’t get a lot of say in what they bring but it’s very fresh and gives you the chance to try new things you woudn’t normally buy at the store. Of course there are plenty of recognizable items like apples, spinach, carrots and the like but you might also get some leeks, beets, or rhubarb. A lot of providers will give you a recipe sheet to give you some ideas of what you can use all the produce for.
With the great recession mostly behind us I thought it would be interesting to look at how some businesses handled themselves during the period of 2008 through 2013. There are two examples in my hometown that I thought I would focus on. In the name of journalistic integrity you should know that I’m familiar with the business owners.
I’m not a dog owner but a lot of people in my neighborhood are. A lot of friends and neighbors have been complaining for years about the lack of dog parks in our hood. It never really bothered me that much because I’ve never had a dog and I assumed it would mean more people with dogs in the neighborhood which would lead to more mess on the sidewalks, if you catch my drift. Boy was I wrong!
My City is set-up in the following way: we have a mayor and a board of supervisors. The mayor and the board of supervisors also appoint people to boards and commissions and all are responsible for guiding public policy. The board of supervisors and the boards and commissions all hold public meeting which the public is allowed to attend and speak to the board about issues that are important to them. At it’s face, it sounds like a great system. Meeting are open to anyone and you can voice your opinion about issues that are important to you. In reality though it doesn’t quite work like that. Here are my suggestions for making local government more open and transparent.
For most of us when we need to see a doctor it means visiting a multi-story hospital somewhere that feels like an office park. Gone are the days when your doctor had their own office in a small building and you knew the receptionists name and the doctor seemed to know your name and you got a lollipop when the visit was over. Ok, maybe visiting a doctor was never really like that for most people or maybe only kids get a lollipop. Either way, going to the doctor these days stinks. It usually means lots of waiting, high costs, and lots of corporate art on the walls. While I’m generally happy with the care I get and have always been pretty healthy there are a few simple changes we could make to improve the experience.