I was in old downtown Edmonds, Washington June 1st doing #mobilecomcamp. I’ve mentioned it before. It’s a field trip scavenger hunt type class where we go into a neighborhood business district and engage the local shop owners. It’s a blast!
We’re armed with our smartphones and give the local businesses as much social buzz as we can generate in 3 hours via Yelp, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. My goal is to demonstrate, if done right, what a powerful local marketing strategy this can be for real estate professionals. It puts you in the hyperlocal community conversation, you get lots of Google Juice, and it’s a great way to kick start relationships and to get traffic to your blog.
More about the class in future posts, today I want to share something that happens almost every time we do this class and it’s why I love teaching it so much. After all, we’re using social media to actually meet and greet people in person, not to hide out somewhere avoiding personal contact.
“So what are you guys up too?” I mean here’s a group of about 10 real estate professionals walking around taking lots of photos with their phones and madly typing away with their eyes glued to the small screen posting to the social channels. It always makes for some interesting conversation. I think sometimes we look like a group of tourists from a foreign land.
I love Edmonds. It’s one of those quintessential old Pacific Northwest waterfront towns. We’re on Main Street several blocks up from the Ferry Terminal on Puget Sound. There’s a turnabout with a fountain in the middle and we’re headed for a refreshment. It’s a beautiful day, a little after 1:00 pm when I hear some cool jazz wafting across the way. I’m thinking the Starbuck’s is piping the music outdoors, but no, it’s Roberto.
I spot him on the sidewalk playing his alto sax, totally engrossed. He’s got a tape player for the background and his charts are neatly arranged with tabs on his music stand.
I say hello and after chatting for a few minutes I learn Roberto is a local hair dresser with a long time love for jazz. About 5 years ago he finally decided to do something he has always wanted to do. He bought a saxophone and taught himself to play. After a while he started showing up where local jazz players get together a few times a month so he could play with others. Later he decided to attend Edmonds Community College and learned how to read music and studied music theory.
Roberto just loves to play and performers do need an audience, so now that the weather is warm he often hits the streets to play. He was obviously proud to let me know he has 6 paying gigs coming up for private parties etc. and his enthusiasm was contagious.
As I say above, this almost always happens. I love engaging shop owners that love their craft and share their passion, be it antiques, clothes, hair, art, or small restaurants with a unique flare for an ethnic food or a contemporary fusion. And I really enjoy just running into people shopping or in the neighborhood that are curious enough to spontaneously join in our conversation. You hardly ever find this in a big box store.
To me, the small local shops are the soul of any community and I really believe our ROI is here. They want to make real and meaningful relationships. Like us, pretty much everything business is on the line everyday and no one better understands the power of word of mouth than they do.
So I’m a #bigfan of #shopsmall... These little local spheres serve and engage real individual people as their clientele. You’re not just an anonymous customer waiting in line. Roberto’s passion is an excellent reminder of this today.
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