I have been seeing a lot of posts, videos and articles about ways to help support small business during the coronavirus outbreak. Things like ordering online, buying gift cards and ordering take out food. All of these are wonderful things to do to help support local businesses who are being effected by closures due to COIVD-19.
However, many people are hurting financially right as they wait for unemployment, economic impact payments and just for things to reopen. Even though you might not be in a financial place to help local business with your wallet, you can still help!
Here are 5 simple ways your can support your favorite local small businesses without spending money.
1. Leave a review
Reviews are so incredibly helpful for small businesses and for their future clients searching for their services. I know it takes a few moments to sit down and write reviews but other than spending money this is one of the best things you can do.
Search for your favorite business on any of these popular review sites: Facebook, Google, Yelp, Wedding Wire, The Knot, Trip Advisor, or any other favorite review site.
2. Refer
Probably the next best thing you can do is refer business. Know someone looking for a service? Have a past vendor you loved working with? Introduce the two!
Someone posts online saying they are looking for something? Tag the vendor.
Or just offer the referral if you see someone in need. You can also help friends network by connecting people you know with like or complimentary businesses.
3. Like/Follow/Subscribe
Find your favorite local small businesses on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest or other popular social sites and show you support them by liking, following and subscribing.
4. Leave a comment
Sites like Facebook and Instagram use algorithms to show posts in feeds. They start by showing your post to a small group of your Friends/Followers/Subscribers, then if those people like and comment they show your post to more people. They also give the most weight to comments of 4 words or more.
5. Share
Sharing is caring! Share a post by your favorite small businesses, share it to your page or stories. You could also create your own post about their business, give them a shout out, make sure to tag them. You could even just post the review you just wrote. You could also pin something on Pinterest.
Any small business will appreciate it greatly if you even do one of these things!!!
Do them all and you will be our champion!