How powerful social media can be for local

Driving with my wife down one of the busier roads in Bend we get caught by a red light. Coming to a fast halt I see my freedom on the other side of the intersection. I know it will be a long wait as we are at the “punishment light”. My wife and I call it the “punishment light” because if you get caught at this particular red light you are in for a bit of wait! As we wait for the green light to flash I hear my wife let off a chuckle and then smiles. I turn to her and see her bright eyed smile looking past me out the window. I look over and see a sign holder advertising for Little Caesars Pizza on the corner of the intersection.

Now this is no ordinary sign holder! The story could have easily ended here as we have all seen sign holders on a common occurrence. In fact we see them so often that we almost train our eye’s to ignore them. Yet this sign holder was more extraordinary. The woman has shorter blond hair and is well advanced in her years. She holds a big guitar shaped sign with an even bigger smile on her face. Atop that fluffy blond hair is a set of big headphones, a pair you might see right out of the 90’s, and a long cord plugging into what looks to be an old cassette or CD player.

I can only guess as to what she is listening to, perhaps some Pink Floyd or Jimmy Hendrix, but one thing is for certain…it makes her wanna boogie! She is rockin out with that sign like she is performing on stage. Her dance moves rival that of moves seen in Flash Dance. Watching her for those brief minutes put a smile on both my wife’s and my face.

From time to time when we arrive at the “punishment light” now we look for her. In fact we no longer dread this busy road but look forward to seeing if she will be dancing. Honking as we go by her and seeing her wave back.

A month later my wife was curious about her and actually found that she had her OWN Facebook fan page! I was astonished and to make my surprise even bigger she had over 1,700 Facebook likes! 1,700!? Now my town of Bend’s total population is roughly 70,000 people. So in a few short months she was able to generate 2.5% of the entire city to follow her on Facebook. (Talk about power)

Her Facebook page is quite active as she has taken a cold business front and has made people become friends with her. People stop to get pictures with her so they can upload it to her profile, people have made CD’s for her and my favorite quote on the page is, “My husband and I just tried Little Caesars for the first time because of YOU!”

So if you have ever been skeptical if connecting with your customers on a more personal level can really help your local business please take a lesson in life from the Bend sign lady. She has made 2.5% of the city fall in love with not just her but with the company she promotes.

If you already have a website then I encourage you to immediatley figure out how to connect it to your Facebook profile or Fan Page!
If this sounds hard don’t fear….I have shot a Youtube Video for you on How to Integrate Facebook’s Features into your website.

Keep on rockin on sign lady….keep on rockin on!
Her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BendLittleCaesarsLady