Small businesses doing well online.

(WORLD) I was asked recently by @RealTrevorLever what small businesses use Social Media well. The answer surprised me: I didn’t know. I know a lot of big companies that do things well, I know a lot of past clients in the Youth sector, I know a lot of individuals that also do great things. But small commercial businesses? I wasn’t so sure. I know Aardman Animation do good things, but lets face it, they are hardly small fry. I know the Watershed Cinema in Bristol are on Twitter, but I don’t think they particularly do anything strong in social media – and if they do, it doesn’t reflect on their website.

So I admitted defeat and posted a message out over Twitter:

I purposefully didn’t want to focus on businesses who are in easy reach of lots of people. If you are a nightclub, theatre or events space, you’ve got a ready made audience available for you to access. I also didn’t want to focus on the IT/design and creative industry. These companies are in abundance, their creative and technical nature makes it easy to populate online quickly, visually and dynamically. It’s much harder for ‘Dave’s Fish and Chip Shop’ to create a great online audience and even harder for an Accountant – but I’m sure there must be some out there!

Here’s a few good ones from my Tweet request:

@dirby5 came back with the wonderful Kogi BBQ These guys are fantastic: a really good blog with lots of visual content, tweets and focus on their customers and the fun around their service of good food. Occasionally I forgot they are in the Food Industry when scrolling through their posts. So please stop by and check them out for yourself.

@ChrisUnitt showed me UrbanCoffeeCo, and they blog well. Lots of videos, photos and staff profiles, plus creating loops back to their Twitter and FaceBook profiles – telling their story and showing how to present the company as well online, as they do when you pay them a visit for real. The most recent blog post for me right now, shows they are busy backing the Birmingham 2018 Olympic bid! Great stuff, go pay them a visit.

Chris also pointed me in the direction of wigglywrigglers. A more traditional site look, but making up for it in every other area. A blog, regular podcasts, social bookmarking sites in their footer and their own cinema! I love the idea, but was disappointed they are holding on to their content, when I discovered the same video’s appear on their own YouTube channel as well. Who would have realised worms could be so web friendly?

Though my current favourite is Maverick Industries. They are set up on the media focused Tumblr blog, using Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Vimeo, and Youtube frequently. But the most surprising thing about them is their industry: Concrete! Their spaces concentrate on the happy users of their facilities and not builders bum’s, grotty tools and problems with land and cement issues. Click through and discover why and how they get my top points.

The moral of this story my friends, is look at how these people love what they do and show it with their content and stories, from Worms to Coffee, Concrete to BBQs. Use the way these companies operate to look at your own online presence. Maybe you will have to shift focus from your products and services to how they affect your customers and clients? Maybe these sites will confirm that your are doing OK? I think we can all learn from these examples, which illustrate you don’t have to be in a creative people driven industry to develop a strong brand in social spaces. It doesn’t matter what your business is, there is always a great story to be told, shared and talked about.

Do you know of any small businesses which should be noticed and praised?

List them in the comments below, I’d love to hear about them.

Author: mark - 09/10/09