Small Business: From Local To Hyperlocal

One of the truly unique parts of being a small business is the fact that you become a part of your community, getting to know your customers, suppliers and fellow businesspeople on a closely knit basis. At Merchant Advance, we believe that communities are built on the participation of businesses like yours: that's why we launched the Good Cents Loan to help promote business as a force for local good.

The community can be your ally, but it's important to reach them effectively. We're also big fans of technology at Merchant, and we would be remiss if we didn't reflect on its ability to help small businesses expand their reach beyond the limits they once thought possible with the aid of tools like e-commerce, social media, and low barrier payment processing. However, technology can also help you take your efforts to reach the local community to the next level.
Location tools on social media are a great way to make an impact on a very specific audience, whether you want to drive foot traffic to a specific location, encourage people to phone or contact you, host an event, get the word out about changes and opportunities, or rally the community around your message.
The Facebook team has put together a comprehensive guide about Local Awareness Ads that you can take a look at here. Technology has experimented with mobile and location-specific ideas over the past five years in many forms - "check-in" apps like Foursquare, for example. These types of interactions experienced their minutes of fame, but the significance of local targeting purely for business-to-customer communication is far less likely to diminish over time.
The power to choose both the location and area that is most effective for your business allows you to create some really inventive ways of communicating with your local audience. What can your business create?