Is your business involved in the local community?

Business and community are interwoven – whether it’s a global community or a local community, your business is part of that identity, and sometimes you need to look beyond the desk and your computer and interact with the community outside.
 
Even in this digital era, you still need to build your brand. Building a strong social media presence will ensure that your business holds its own, however going out and building those personal relationships will push your brand forward. Face-to-face marketing is still an essential part of business, even if it is sometimes forgotten amongst all the new technology. Online, print and broadcast advertising attempts reach a specific audience through a generic pitch, but when you have the opportunity to actually talk to someone, you can direct your pitch to meet their needs.
 
Getting your name and face out into the community can help to build brand recognition on a more personal level. Whenever a person engages with a new business they like to know who they are dealing with, so they tend to look online for reviews and testimonials. They may even look to find the profiles of employees to try and place a face to who they will be dealing with.
 
Expos are one avenue that can be used to maximise community involvement. Interacting with the crowds and getting your face out there allows you to connect to potential new clients. In this new world of work, its critical to combine old and new approaches, so use social media and digital marketing to build awareness of the event, start conversations and raise questions, and then provide the answers face to face. This allows you to read the body language and openly communicate, you can see where you hold their interest, what confuses them and what questions they have that you hadn’t even considered answering.
 
It also provides you with an opportunity to ask your potential clients about themselves. Learn about their business, the services they provides, learn what they value and what they expect, discover where you can help them, them specifically and not the generic sale of what you offer.
 
Getting involved with your local community is also a good way to increase the awareness of the brand. Sponsoring your local sporting team or donating prizes to a fundraising event allows you to connect with people and other businesses from around you, as well as building good will around your brand.
 
If you’re able to become a member of your local chambers, or join a group of like-minded individuals, you should take the opportunity. Chambers often organise events where you are able to network and build connections in a more sociable environment.
 
The equation between business and community can be summaries as – the local community invests in the local business and the local business employs local people and the local people spend again locally… for now. What the future will hold will be interesting.
 
If you don’t spend local, don’t expect to keep any business locally as eventually business will move away