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The holiday weekend has finally arrived. And there are a number of important social media lessons to be learnt. Yesterday, I wrote a post on how your business can make the most of social media this holiday season. Today, I’m going to write about “Small Business Saturday”, a unique promotional event for independent merchants and how it’s using social media to create a buzz.
The idea behind ‘Small Business Saturday’ is simple yet unique – get small business owners to sign on to a national movement aimed at ensuring consumers make Saturday a day to remember for local businesses. The event is being promoted through social media and has already shattered numerous records. I’ve always believed that Facebook is one of the best viral marketing and campaign promotion tools of modern times. And I’m glad that big enterprises like American Express think concur with me on that.
What is Small Business Saturday?
American Express is actively driving a “buy local” movement this year, aimed at encouraging users to deal with local businesses rather than opt for multi-nationals or foreign firms. The objective of this movement is to help in the revival of fortunes for cash-strapped local businesses in a recession-ridden economy.
As part of this ongoing movement, Small Business Saturday is a marketing campaign to encourage shoppers to spend at locally owned independent brick-and-mortar stores.
To make the deal sweeter for customers, American Express is offering a $25 credit to cardholders who register on the campaign’s website and use their cards on Nov. 27 at American Express merchants. Retailers can earn $100 worth of Facebook advertising to the first 10,000 small business owners who sign up to participate.
The role of Social Media in ‘Small Business Saturday’
Small Business Saturday is being promoted actively in social media circles. The Facebook page for Small Business Saturday has over 1,00,000 Likes and the count is expected to further rise significantly during the holiday weekend. The event has also managed to feature as the “YouTube Video of the Week!” on several websites.
The response from Facebook community has been astonishing. So much so, that American Express was forced to double the number of cardholders who can use the credit in response to the overwhelming response.
Using social media as a launch pad for Small Business Saturday has been a blessing in disguise for the organizers as well as the customer fraternity. It is yet another example of how to create a hub of activity for small businesses using a social media channel such as Facebook.
There is no shortage for public support of programs like these, which let customers send the message to large institutions that small is profitable for all. However, the use of social media has added a ubiquitous appeal to this promotion.
There is no doubt that Small businesses have a new marketing opportunity with the 2010 launch of Small Business Saturday in the U.S. I believe that the event do a world of good to promote consumer patronage of neighborhood merchants, retailers and local neighborhood shops.
Do you think that events such as “Small Business Saturday” are the need of the hour? How can social media help small business owners? Are you a small business owner who uses social media? Please share your social media experience by leaving a comment below this post.
So exciting to see this movement happening. Seriously. Also, please encourage your readers to check out http://www.the350project.net about shopping local and independent.
Hats off to AMEX for creating this event. As a small business owner, I plan on supporting my fellow small businesses today. I think it will help our local economy and remind consumers that if you buy local, it supports local.
Nice information.And now a days there are a lot of facilities offering by different banks so that to increase the user rate.And recently military credit cards are offering the best facilities.The best thing about this card is it automatically pays you the rewards in your account monthly without the usual $50 minimum like most credit cards.
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