You've Already Employed Your Small Business Marketing Consultant..Use Them!

That's right... That part timer or full time staffer who is texting and probably even surfing on the businesses internet connection during slower hours? They are the absolute best small business marketing consultant you have at your disposal.

There are obviously times (maybe more so now than ever) where your store front is just simply not busy. Times of the day a few months or even years ago where you were seeing an increase in traffic. But It just doesn't seem to be happening consistantly anymore. If your like a lot of the local Dallas small business owners I talk to, you may even be worried about how the Obama administration's plans will effect your small business.

Even more pressing to you, may be the plans you've heard of about another "Big Box" store going up near your shop.

Outside of the political climate. You know you have to do some serious advertising in the Dallas area outside of what you're already doing to keep ahead of your competitors.

Believe it or not, some of your employees are already more than aware of the means by which to promote themselves through all of the different social and display networks online. What you would be asking them to do is to more or less extend there knowledge to promote your business and hopefully keep their paycheck coming in.

The one that's tweeting, texting, liking, and updating her status on Facebook while things are slow? She is your best bet into the local or global audience you need to reach for your store front and/or website. They are in fact, your small business marketing consultant.

Why not take the way in which your younger or more internet savvy employees are currently communicating, and allow them to do some Dallas internet marketing for the shop during the down time?

I started working with a friend who works at this Lewisville, Texas Tire and Service Center to become my first case study to be used as content for my hosted local Dallas advertising site. Within it, I detail steps small businesses and individuals can take with already available, free and/or low cost tools they can use to grow there online presence. Here are just a few to start:

• Shot a photo of the shop from his smart phone with GPS enabled to embed the location of the shop for potential customer navigation from Google Buzz and Google Places

• Claimed their business listing for location based local review sites Yelp and Foursquare

• Created check-in app promotions specific to only online & mobile discounts for customer tracking

• Created an individual Google profile to act as a piece of web real estate in lieu of a website for now

• Updated their location markers and operational hours in Google Places and began navigating Google's Hot Pot site to get acquainted with how it works.

These online tasks, with just a little direction, took the employee less than a day to complete. My friend is so dedicated to growing a customer base for the shop and himself, that he did majority of the above items on his lunch break.

His boss, after seeing the promotions and updates was needless to say a bit impressed with his initiative, and has asked for him to continue our efforts.

If its something that your employee does all the time anyway why not see this as a talent rather than a time and resource waster. Utilize their knowledge to benefit the both of you. Busy work only achieves so much during slow periods. With some good judgment about the staff member chosen, and some direction to the right info. Your in house small business marketing consultant can start doing more of what they love, while helping to market the shop at the same time.