The Power of @

Right now, we’re seeing a wonderful wave of people supporting local businesses even in the most challenging economic times.

From the start, chambers came out encouraging gift cards. There are Facebook pages devoted to who has take-out menus. We’re seeing some businesses totally pivot and they’re making face shields or donating masks. People who still have jobs and income are promoting how they are buying local for everything from meat and cheese to what is going in this year’s Easter baskets.

You know how I know this, even as I’m confined to my little world at home? They are sharing it on social media! 

Even if you can’t stand one more second of COVID-19 posts or coverage, social media is where we can support each other as a business community and come out stronger. 

Thank goodness for the social media channels we can all connect with to continue to communicate. To uplift other businesses, to boost your own, and to further the work of our amazing non-profits, we need to tag, tag, and tag the folks we are connecting with!

As a marketing company, a big part of our work is community relations for our clients. We 100% encourage tagging the non-profit or local business you are helping. It’s not self-serving, it is highlighting that entity within your social media following, which is the new word-of-mouth for today’s brands.

So many of you are doing amazing things to help, despite their own business worries piling up. Be the light in someone’s newsfeed today and tag that local business or non-profit you’re helping. Get the word out to your network on how they can help, too. When you post, it triggers the memory of the user on the other side of their screen to do the same!

Buying something local? Take a photo and tag away! Your simple “@” sign is powerful. It will create an inspiriting and uplifting ripple!

Sarah Stokes and Chris Herzog, who are both former WEAU television news anchors, started STOKES|HERZOG, an advertising and public relations agency in 2014. The agency assists both local and global clients with all of their corporate business consulting, advertising, public relations, and marketing needs including video production, website management, graphic design, social media management and overall marketing and advertising strategy.