View From the Phlipside Radio - Small Business Media

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, in the midst of all the Black Friday shopping madness, I came across something that I had never heard of before.  It was “Small Business Saturday”, a promotion to remind people to shop with their local smaller retailers during the hottest shopping days of the year.  I have to admit it was great to hear a campaign about shopping locally because the smaller retailers remain an important part of all our local economies.  Even better the campaign was aimed at a reasonable goal.  All they were asking you to do was make one of your purchases on that weekend with a local small business.  Pretty cool.

When I did a little research I discovered that the campaign is actually underwritten by the folks at American Express.  Which is both kind of cool and perhaps the tiniest bit ironic all at the same time.

Then I started to think about the changes in our economy brought on by changes in technology and the media.  It used to be that our local business people only had to worry about their competition down the road.  Today they are competing in a worldwide market.  And that means that small business people probably need to start thinking on a bigger scale.  The sound you just heard was small business people throughout our area sighing heavily thinking about one more problem on their plates and the inevitable extra costs they’ll have to cover.  Even if they know it’s true it’s not the kind of news they really want to hear.  So the challenge will be to think outside the box.  That may mean new challenges and roles for business associations like the Chamber of Commerce.  Or it may mean finding new ways to attract business like Domino Pizza’s app that turns pizza making into a game and then offers you the chance to actually order the pizza you make.  There are some real challenges for local businesses as they make their way through the maze of Twitter, Facebook and all the other media of the new age.  It will also be a great opportunity for local media specialists to help with those challenges.

Only one thing is certain.  A one day ad campaign, even one funded by a major corporation, isn’t going to be enough all by itself to help small businesses in the next couple of decades.

Call that the View From the Phlipside