If you are having the same experience as me, you may have noticed that some of your favorite local shops have gone out of business. Others may be on their way out soon. It’s sad to watch a small business shut down, especially if it’s a place you enjoy, such as your favorite Thai restaurant, the used book dealer, or the coffee place that has great muffins.

I love shopping locally and supporting the small business owners in my town. It’s to everyone’s advantage to have local businesses survive the downturn in the economy. Why? Because they keep your town from turning into a generic strip mall or getting ‘Wal-Martized.’ They support the tax base.  They add character to your neighborhood. They may provide unique merchandise or services.  They help drive foot traffic, which makes a town nice to live in. After all, who wants to walk down a deserted block when going for coffee? It’s much more fun when others are also walking around – providing needed life and energy to your neighborhood.  Plus, it’s convenient — you don’t have to go far – saving energy/gas and your own precious time.

Photo by Jessica Diamond. Click to get more info

If you are a small business owner who might be at risk, here are 10 things you can do right now that are essentially free and don’t require a deep knowledge of technology:

Super easy: little or no education required

1. Listen and Learn

Are you listening? Do you have Google alerts set up for your business? Do you read the reviews of your business on Yelp, CitySquares.com, Sidewalk.com or the dozens of other sites that gather customer reviews? Has some disgruntled customer blogged about you recently? What are people saying about your business? About you? If it’s not good, then you’ll need to figure out a way to get your fans to speak up, help you out and correct any misperceptions in the marketplace. If no one is saying anything about you, then this is a clear indicator that you need to get more exposure!

2. Get Publicity

Got something to talk about? Call the local papers and see if they will do a story about you.  Also, subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO) http://www.helpareporter.com/ and scan the daily emails for interviews that pertain to your business or to your personal interests or lifestyle. You might just end up getting profiled in an article, which could lead to a lot of other publicity opportunities.  Do #3 and put out a press release.

3. Have a Party

Parties may not be 100% free, but what better way to get in touch with your customers than to throw a party? If you have a gift shop, invite your customers over one night for wine and cheese. If you have a restaurant, hold a happy hour and offer free apps and drinks. Make a presentation and tell them about your buying philosophy and the history of your business. Hold a question and answer session. Circulate and get to know them. Give everyone who stops by 10% or 20% their purchase. Tell them about your new blog, Twitter account and Facebook page!

4. Research Your What Your Customers Want

What better way to help your business than to get your customers to tell you what they want or need.  Whether you post a survey online or print one out on a sheet of paper, it will serve you well.  At the very least, ask your customers a few questions when they stop by or call you.  With the exception of unwanted telephone surveys, people generally love sharing their opinions and will feel good about being asked.

What to ask? What do you like best about my store? What do you like least? What other products or services would you like to see me offer? If I did this [insert your idea], would you shop here more often? Do you tell your friends about my store, why or why not? Etc.

5. Join a Meetup or other Networking Group

Anyone can benefit from in-person networking. There are probably dozens of networking groups in your area – either through professional associations, local groups, LinkedIn groups, or Meetup.com. Scour these groups, make a few calls or send out a few emails and determine which ones might be worthwhile for you.

Not too difficult, but get educated first

6. Start a Blog

Anyone can start a blog. If you haven’t blogged before then make sure you understand blogging before you start.  Spend some time beforehand reading others’ blogs, articles about blogging and familiarize yourself  with the tools that are available. Before you commit to any blogging platform, get familiar with the terms of service and the capabilities of each. Some platforms offer more flexibility than others.

What to write about: Write about being local, what it means to you to be part of the community. Talk about how you started the business, post pictures from the past, talk about your plans for the future, showcase your merchandise, etc.  Talk about the activities that your business is involved with – organizations you belong to etc. Link to other businesses and local groups in your posts to help drive additional traffic. Over time you will develop a following and more people will get to know you.

7. Get on Twitter

At a most basic level, Twitter is a conversation. As a technology it’s considered microblogging. In other words, like a blog post but shorter. In fact, each “tweet” is only 140 characters — which forces you to be succinct. The ”tweets” that you post can be seen by the public.  The more people who ‘follow’ your tweets, the more potential you have to spread your message. 

There are many ways to use Twitter. You can become part of a larger conversation with people “like you” who have the same interests, you can use it purely as a broadcast tool to talk about your business or promote your web site, you can use it for listening and gaining knowledge, or use it to establish yourself as an authority on a particular subject matter, or some combination.

For local businesses, once you have an account, start by conducting geographic based searches and following the people in your area – many of them will follow you back.  Find everyone you know personally and follow them as well. Provide the URL to your blog or your main web site in your Twitter account.

What to talk about: Being too promotional on Twitter is annoying to your followers. So start by adding value and gaining trust.  For example broadcast out helpful tips and other facts related to your industry or business.  If you have a restaurant, post recipes to your blog and then announce or post a link to these recipes on Twitter.  Talk with people – not at them. Show interest in their activities, and they’ll be interested in yours.   Be helpful — post links to interesting articles. Engage people in philosophical discussion.  If you have a very focused audience, then you can even blast out your specials and promotions.  For example, if you have a dry cleaning business – how easy would it be to post the following:  Get three sweaters cleaned for the price of two, or now that spring is here – don’t forget to bring in your winter coat for a cleaning. Mention this post and get 20% off. 

8. Create a Facebook Account

Join Facebook and get your network going. First, join at the personal level. Get a feel for what Facebook is all about and start making friends. Once you are comfortable, create a group or fan page for your business and blast out an email to your friends to have them join your page. Offer discounts and tell them about your newest merchandise. Get people talking about your store or business. Answer questions and make authentic connections.

Tip: As with blogging or almost anything you might do, get online and learn about it before jumping in blindly.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and blog posts about how to use Twitter and Facebook wisely. 

What else?

9. Broadcast Your High Tech Efforts the Low Tech Way!

Once you’ve done the tactics above, tell everyone who comes into your store about your new blog and Facebook and Twitter accounts.  If you’re reluctant to print up new business cards right away, then just hand out a sheet of paper – even a half sheet, with the URLs for your new Internet accounts. Ask everyone who stops in if they blog, have a Twitter account, or Facebook account. Get their screen names and email addresses and add them to your friends/followers lists.

10. Barter Your Products and Services to Get Marketing Support

If this all seems a bit overwhelming, you might need some help.  You may already know some people who can show you some of these solutions – like Facebook, Twitter or how to set up a Google alert.  Enlist the help of your employees. After all, it’s in their best interests to keep the business as vibrant as possible. They may be able to help you generate content for your online activities or they might help broadcast your message.  At the very least, they might be able to show you how to get on Facebook

If you don’t have anyone to turn to but you can’t afford to pay someone out of pocket to help you with your marketing, perhaps you can barter your services for marketing support. Trade drying cleaning, free food, housewares or books, plumbing services, painting, or car repair for marketing. Why not? There is no shortage of social media and marketing consultants. There are probably a few in your town who would be happy to barter.  

Remember, these solutions don’t necessarily generate huge revenues over night. But with a little work, you could see an uptick in sales. And, at the very least, you will have created a strong base of supporters and be very well positioned for when the market bounces back and people start buying again.

I saw Karl Fisch’s Did You Know/Shift Happens video for the first time this past weekend at PodCamp Boston.  Wow. How did I miss this one? If you haven’t already seen it, just watch it, and you’ll know what I mean.

One of the more interesting social media ideas that I’ve come across is for an eco-friendly clothing startup called nvokh.  The twist is that the community members run the company and get to make all the decisions — from what the logo will look like to what designs will be sold on the t-shirts to what partnerships they will take on.  For the privilege of doing this, members will pay $50 (a year) and have to do the work (e.g., submit their own designs, participate in voting, etc.)  The company is geared toward the surf community, but also musicians, artists, designers and business people.

I’ve been waiting for the company to launch since January and it’s finally happening. Now that nvokh has secured “2650 future members from 20 countries” they are going to launch the company. 

So, what’s gonna happen? Your guess is as good as mine.  I’m very curious about what the conversion rate is going to be once prospects have to pony up the $50.  If everyone converts, nvokh raises a quick $132k.  Likely? No.  I suspect that number will be a good deal smaller. However, compared to many social media start-ups who are struggling to figure out a viable business model, this one, at least, is going to generate some cash from the start.  And, the cash will continue to flow in as more members join and then, subsequently, renew their memberships in year 2 and beyond.

Fortunately – if you’re feeling insecure about parting with your $50, you do get an immediate return –  an nvokh t-shirt, member sticker and a plant-a-tree seed pack to start.  

Once the products are available, members receive 35% of the net profits back in the form of rewards points, and 10% goes to environmental charities.  Plus, members get discounts on the actual products.

There is a red flag (maybe tiny maybe not) – I’d like to know who, exactly, is running the company – without having to go digging for the information. They call it a “closely held private company” but no specific names are revealed, even in the terms or contact us page.  Am I missing something? Hey nvokh! I suggest you fix that before you ask us for money.  I’d like to know who you are and get some guarantee that you’re gonna stick around after you collect the membership fees.  How about beefing up that about us page? Prominently displayed sponsor logos from a surf magazine called Transworld Surf and Robb Havassy, who’s a “surf artist” just don’t cut it in terms of establishing credibility. Why so secretive?

Anyway, will these small doubts prevent me from forking over my $50? Probably not — that’s a small price to satisfy my professional curiosity