run! the giant man in the cardigan is back!
exec summ: mr. rogers said it long ago, and it’s still true. it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
houston, october 2008. a coffee shop accepts a to go order via twitter. a few months later, business has doubled. los angeles, february 2009. a purveyor of korean tacos (only in l.a., right) made the pages of newsweek – tweets lead the hungry around the city to the kogi truck. new orleans, april 2009. naked pizza erects a billboard to promote its twitter delivery service. cue twilight zone music? theme from jaws? no way – the world wide web has landed in your front yard.
let dell sell a million bucks worth of stuff @delloutlet – social media is the corner merchant’s new bff. Frank Days (@tangyslice) asked in his blog if social media was doomed, citing as evidence the absence of doctors, lawyers and “regular” business people. I commented:
The medical and legal fields are not ones I would associate with aggressive marketing (outside the ambulance chasers). I am looking for social media marketing successes to come for small to medium-sized businesses who use their money to zero in on specific local markets….
just a few days later, ad age came out with an article entiled “twitter proves its worth as a killer app for local businesses” (subscription required). naked pizza was featured for its success using twitter as a distribution channel for coupons and specials. the pundits at mashable laud npr for their survival strategy. a key element? going local! the ceo is quoted: “to me, local is the big play.”
the web brings the world to your desktop. social media brings your high school crush back into your life from her current location in tibet. but the same technology that lets you compare your gravity-ravaged physique to his receding hairline can also help you make the call on whether to try the new chinese place that just opened up. or turn you on to the cool jewelry the crazy neighbor lady wth all the cats is selling on etsy.com.