Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend the Chautauqua Chamber of Commerce breakfast learning event called, “Put our County on the Google Map.” In short, you are missing a great marketing opportunity if you are not listed on Google Maps. This even includes service businesses working out of a home when you do not want your address listed. Let me tell you more.
Sheila Webster, Director of Marketing Communications and Governmental Affairs at Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, began by discussing the importance of your brand. Basically, your brand is your reputation and consists of your vision, values, and quality of service. You must be on the alert for comments that affect your brand. You may have bad reviews and you do not know about them. This could be detrimental to your brand.
Sheila stressed the importance of verifying your business as a Google business. You could claim your business at GYBO. Here are some free lessons for your business that will explain how to get on the map.
Bruce Isaacson talking about specialty tours at @chautauquachamb presentation. #wny #chq
A photo posted by Stan Skrabut (@tubarks) on
Bruce Isaacson from JM Bruce discussed the importance of getting your business listed. However, before he began, he talked about being a Google Photographer and the services he could provide for businesses. I was fascinated to see the products he was able to produce. He provided some excellent examples such as the Bemus Point Inn, Jamestown Rubber Stamp Company, and the Steamtown Scranton Train station.
Bruce encouraged us to Google our business to see if we were listed. You could improve this by getting listed on the following sites:
I would also recommend getting listed with Yelp.
Justin Hanft from Dream It Do It, Western New York, gave some great examples of making social media work for your business. I especially like his crowdsourcing example. He also shared one of my favorite social media videos that I will also share with you.
A photo posted by Stan Skrabut (@tubarks) on
Jason Toczydlowski, Owner at CHQ Local Food Inc., closed the event by focusing on hashtags. He provided some great tips on what to consider for using hashtags. For widely used hashtags, it is important to also narrow the field with geographical hashtags. Here are some additional articles about using hashtags:
- How to Use Hashtags on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram
- How To Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying
- How To Use Hashtags Effectively In Social Media Marketing
I really enjoyed this event. I had some great discussions with other chamber members and learned a lot from the presentations. Go out and network with your chamber of commerce.
