Calling All Small Businesses: Meet the Bloggers

Hello! My name is Emma Matthews and I’m a libertarian social democrat (say that three times fast). Most people just call me a liberal. That’s not meant to be a disclaimer. It’s just a few words pieced together that better describe my political views and it’s a part of my online personality. I have a blog that gets a good amount of traffic because of that personality. In other words, if my blog was a storefront, I’d have a lot of customers. Unfortunately, if I sold things there, it would lose a lot of credibility.

My political views are not the topic that I want to discuss with you though, actually, I have a great concept that I think you all should know about. And, I swear, so far, no one has paid me to write this.

What do small businesses have to do with politics and the media? “Nothing, hopefully” would be a common and understandable response. You all have opinions that you express privately but it’s likely you’ve encountered some of your colleagues’ political opinions lately, too. Whether that made you smile or cringe, it’s a reality that we have to face.

A more important reality is that what they do in Washington and in the local political arena these days has a lot more potential to affect the small business owner. What are the issues? The economy, infrastructure, health-care, minimum wage, taxes, the list goes on. I’m sure you’ve complained about at least one of those topics in the last few years.
I want to re-introduce myself now and tell you how this ‘blogging stuff’ could really help you out.

The Blogger & the Business Community

As one of those kids with the privilege of watching her parents pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and become successful entrepreneurs, I have a special appreciation for how much work it is to run a small business. And as one of those adults that has worked in small and medium size businesses for a long time, I have a little insight as to what a challenge it is to be changing and growing and reassessing all the time. It’s a lot of work and these days it seems like the flexibility it takes to be successful is more challenging than even before.

I set out last Saturday morning with a few questions in mind for the community, a little notebook, and all the backing that telling people you will be reporting for the Reisterstown Patch as a blogger could give you. That is: not much, but enough. Patch had clearly been out around town as I could tell by the many little square green stickers on storefront windows reading, “Find us on Patch!” Thank goodness for that because as soon as uttered the word “blog” it was obvious that I’d made some people nervous.

Who is this young woman and what exactly is she getting at? A blog, politics and local small business = no, no, no. I understand. So, I adjusted my approach a little. Here’s why:

We do not need a highly politicized small business community and that was never my intention.

I do think, however, that communities of small businesses tend to lose their voice in the media if they do not communicate enough with each other and don’t build for themselves media advocates. And a voice in the media these days is a powerful thing.

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably remember a time when everybody was urging you to get online, create a business presence on the web or you won’t be in business very long. So, everyone took their turn in dealing with that issue and now most people at least have a Facebook page. We’re here because we have to be.

The new problem? The 2-dimensional sales and marketing experience is now highly suspect to the consumer. People want to find companies online that they can trust. And a secure website is just not enough anymore. They want to know that the people they are doing business with are solid and reliable and accountable. But how do you do that online?

I propose that having a personalized media presence is the next evolution of that idea. At first it was marketing and sales presence, then administrative, though they have sort of gone hand-in-hand. Now the most powerful businesses are the ones with dynamic online personalities.

The integration of marketing, sales, public relations, administrative and social tools is what gives a company web-credibility. The better they personalize this process, the more successful they seem to be at doing it. Great idea, right? But how are small businesses that can’t afford all that time and all that staff and all that web-presence ($$$) supposed to accomplish this? That was the next great question and this is the next great frontier.

In sweeps hyper-local media to the rescue. What’s that? Patch is trying to be this. It is a news & media service that is designed to deliver all the tools and features that the big publications like Huffington Post, a sister company to Patch (both owned by AOL), but on a uniquely local level with a uniquely low-budget view of the enterprise. Hence, Reisterstown Patch. Not bad, not bad.

But not many people go there to find things out. Why? It's not very social... yet. It’s a growing platform. It’s a start-up with a great idea, doing a lot with a little. How will it grow? By working with you, the local communities, to help you develop that voice in the best way you know how: by being a community of businesses that trade ideas and support each other. You and the bloggers... to the rescue? I think so.

As a small business, your business relies heavily on your community involvement. Whether that means sharing ideas at local business and networking meetings, scheduling workshops and seminars, or reaching out to sponsor sports teams for the local schools, your community involvement directly affects your customer base and your bottom line. If the least you do is being open for business, having an attractive store-front, and talking to costumers that walk in, you are involved.

Here’s the catch, people are relying more heavily on online communities to get and trade information and many of you are not very well represented there. If you are, you may or may not be connecting well to the local community.

So, when I say politics and media, that’s what I mean. I want to help you with your web-presence; I want to help you to be heard as a community on topics that directly affect your bottom-line and I want to get and keep you in touch with each other in a new way. I want to help you expand on your online ‘personality’. Most importantly, I want to help you develop that personalized feel that we get when we walk up to your store-front and go in and speak to you, in the online environment.

This was the idea for my approach and it grew out of an interesting concept and a lot of conversations with you guys about what you care about. It grew during a walk down Main Street Reisterstown, shopping, talking, taking pictures, and learning.

It’s a public conversation, let’s chime in and help to establish the distinct and potent voice of the Reisterstown business community together, online and with [gasp] blogging?

SNEAK PEAK at the next post:

I started out at Santoni’s since a delicious ½ pit ham, ½ pit turkey sandwich was on my agenda. I also stopped a Reter’s Crabhouse,  The Grill at Harryman House, Java Mammas, The Elephant’s Trunk, Constellation Books, Icedgems, Bay Country Rentals, , American Kenpo Karate, Tonino's, Main Street Appliance, and a few others. Needless to say, I got a whole lot of pictures, some loot, and, in a few instances, some excellent conversation.