Local Business News | The Seattle Umbrella

May 3 2010Posted by: Dana Silverman

Is your Local Business Getting the Most Out of Social Media?

Guest blog written by: Dean Richard of Compass SEO We are excited to share with you the following blog post that was written by Dean Richard, Owner & Founder of Compass SEO. You can view more of Dean's work on his site here and on twitter - @deanfortythree It seems somewhat contradictory on the surface to say your local business should be marketing on the world wide web. But why should you use social media to promote your small business, and how can you get the most out of those avenues? If you’ve been to the multimedia page, you may have watched this video (if you haven’t, you should- it’s excellent). Make no mistake, social media is here to stay. I’d venture to say that if you’re reading this, you already use social media personally. So while it connects people all around the globe, why do you need it for you local business? Actually, you need it because you are a local business. One of the great things about social media is that it works every bit as well- or even better- on a small scale as it does on a large one. Take, for example, the brand that everyone associates with our lovely city of Seattle- Starbucks. Their Twitter is approaching 900,000 followers- and their feed is littered with replies to customers. Your business probably does not have 900,000 people following it- so take advantage of that. Reply to everyone you possibly can. Interact with them, get to know them- that’s part of being a local business, right? Giving your ...

Social Media and Small Business

We wanted to take some time to explain our take on the importance of Social Media (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc.) for small businesses. As you can see at The Seattle Umbrella we make social media a large part of our business, and use it as a tool to promote all of the businesses on our site. The primary value that we see in social media for business is that it levels the playing field for all different types and sizes of businesses to compete. What we mean is that a lot of smaller businesses don't have the time or budget to put on large advertising campaigns. Without proper advertising, it is impossible for businesses to reach consumers. With social media today businesses are able to reach their target market and have conversations, discussions, promotions, and whatever communications they desire instantly - and free! This is invaluable to many businesses, and when used properly can be extremely advantageous particularly to those who don't have the time or money to spend on traditional advertising. As a matter of fact, there are many schools of thought that would say traditional advertising will vanish for small businesses due to the progression of social media. With over 400 million people on facebook and over 18 million people on twitter, it is obvious that these are places that businesses need to be. There are many techniques that small businesses can use once on these sites and having a strong online presence has never been more important than it is today. At The ...

The Economics of Local

Excerpt from: The Importance of Buying Local, Independent Businesses Unite By Evan Rytlewski The following is taken from an article written for a Milwaukee Newspaper in 2007. It contains some very pertinent facts about the economics involved with supporting local businesses and some encouraging news about local business around the nation. Enjoy! The Economics of Local A 2002 Economic Impact Analysis in Austin, Texas, was one of the first major studies to examine the impact of shopping at local businesses versus national chains. It found that for every $100 spent at a local bookstore or CD store, $45 stayed in the local economy. For every $100 spent at Borders, however, the local economic impact was only $13. Astudy in Maine the following year yielded similar results: Shopping local kept three times more money in the local economy than shopping at chains. The studies cite several reasons for this. Proportionally, local merchants tend to employ more local labor and buy more local goods than national competitors, which operate from remote headquarters. Local business owners keep their profits in state, and contribute more to local and state taxes. Local businesses are also more likely to promote local artists and authors. Those findings may seem intuitive enough—of course local businesses keep more money in the local economy— but less obvious is just how much difference shopping local can make. This year’s San Francisco Retail Diversity Study found that even ...

“Certified Local” Restaurants in Seattle

Hey everyone, As The Seattle Umbrella moves forward, we are receiving an overwhelming response from restaurants in Seattle that are interested in being a "Certified Local Business." It is a great selling point for restaurants to be easily recognized as a local business, because there is such a strong urge from consumers who want to eat locally. Most people don't have the time or resources to grow and prepare their own food for every meal, or simply just want to go out to eat once in a while, so eating at a local restaurant that gets their food from local farms, is the next best option. Here are some great quotes and profiles of some of the various reasons that people like to eat local. With such a strong urge and push from the community to support local businesses, and to eat local food from local restaurants, the challenge becomes finding these local restaurants. That is why our goal at The Seattle Umbrella is to take the research out of this process for consumers. When people see our logo in a restaurant window, they know that the business is "Certified Local" and is a great place to eat. Also when they come to our website online by searching for example, "local restaurants in Seattle", they will have an entire directory of certified local businesses in Seattle. With that being said, we encourage you to check out a few of the first "Certified Local" restaurants in Seattle. The first is actually a meal planning and delivery service called My Chef By ...

Our First Members

Hey everyone! First of all, we want to thank all of you again for the overwhelming support we have been receiving. We are pleased to announce that we have had our first three businesses sign up and join up for our services. We have also received over 100 fans on facebook, and 100 followers on twitter in just a few short days. The three businesses that we are proud to be involved with are Tattva's Herbs, Attractology, and Seattle Sound Carpentry. Please check out the above websites and support all of these businesses as they are great local companies. We are very honored to be involved with such wonderful local businesses and be able to help promote their services. We are going to keep this short and sweet, but just wanted to thank you for your support and remind you to support local businesses in Seattle! ...

Hello Seattle and thanks for your support

Hello Seattle, and thanks for visiting The Seattle Umbrella! We are a new company focused on promoting and bringing awareness to local businesses in Seattle. We are confident that you will all enjoy the experience of partnering with us as a business, or using us as a tool to find local businesses to support as a consumer. We have many new and exciting ideas in store, and are genuinely looking forward to meeting all of you and helping your business succeed. Buying local is important for many reasons, and as we are learning we are also gaining encouragement to focus our efforts on promoting local businesses in Seattle. We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful and diversified city, and we at The Seattle Umbrella are deeply committed to keeping it that way. Local businesses are what gives our city character and we are proud to be in Seattle. To conclude our first blog post, we again just want to thank all of you for your support and for visiting the site. Be sure to stay tuned for the many exciting things to come and sign up for our Free Local Buying Guide. Wishing you all the very best Seattle has to offer, The Seattle Umbrella team ...