Every week, I write a story for the Business Spotlight in www.whidbeylocal.com.
The stories evolve from personal contacts, observing new or existing businesses or having someone ask me to do a story. These stories cover a broad array of Whidbey Island businesses; many are sole proprietorships or small businesses and some are more extensive business ventures that employ a significant number of people.
Every few weeks, my editor sends me the numbers for how many people have viewed each of the stories. What has surprised me is the wide variations in these numbers. Some stories will only have 20 or 30 openings, and some, like the stories I did for Comfort’s Winery on 4/20/18, Michael Corradini on 5/21/18 and Whidbey Doughnuts on 5/28/18 have hundreds of views.
The differences, apparently, relate to how many connections, especially social media connections, used by the business. Some business owners have large business and personal email lists. The owners of Whidbey Doughnuts used emails, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media connections.
Many in my generation (OK, I admit to being a senior, senior citizen) are still learning about these new marketing tools. It seems to me that social media provides some great communication sources for building a business.