Why Small Businesses Matter in Ridgefield: Local Social Media

 

Why Small Businesses Matter

Shop small, do big things for your community

Why Small Businesses Matter puts a spotlight on the local merchants who donate their time, talent, goods, and services for the betterment of our community. The shop local movement spreads virally as local businesses who are “tagged” have the opportunity to share their story!

You're IT Local Social Media!

Three questions with Birgitta Stone, founder of Local Social Media.

Why did you start your business?

Local Social Media was established in 2011 to help businesses maneuver the “new” world of social media. As one of the first marketers to put social media and advertising together, I soon became known as the "social media lady" and a local business was born. My prior experience in television, radio, and finance marketing led me to create the concept that businesses may need help managing their social media advertising.

Very quickly, I started working with local businesses like Dimitri's Diner, Pamby Motors, and many others. Local Social Media has now worked with over 300+ local and national accounts with their online marketing strategies. I am so grateful to our community for their support over the years.

Local-Insta.com was started in 2019 with our flagship Instagram @ridgefield.ct. Building on the tremendous success of Ridgefield.CT Instagram, we now manage over 40+ town-based Instagrams in Fairfield County, Westchester County, and the Hudson Valley to help advertisers reach and cross-promote per town.

Each town is unique and Local-Insta.com helps keep residents up to date on local events and fun happenings with a sprinkling of advertising. Other local towns include; Wilton, Weston, New Canaan, and Danbury.

What is your best-selling product/service?

Local Social Media’s best-selling service is social media management and consulting. As a full-service marketing company, we also help your business reach potential customers in many different ways including email marketing, outside advertising recommendations, marketing plans, and keeping your website active and engaging.

We focus on your unique business needs. For Local-Insta.com, our monthly branding package is the most popular. Businesses are targeting their audience by town and the monthly package is a good way to keep their brand and business “top of mind”. We offer single posts for sidewalk sales and special events, as well as bundle packages of posts. These days advertisers can’t rely on just their social media alone, the algorithms just aren’t working like they did even a few years ago. Businesses need to leverage other accounts’ followers to grow.

Have you reimagined your small business?

In 2011 when I began Local Social Media, we managed only social media pages for local businesses, but shortly thereafter, our clients started asking for more help, so we added more services; website design, marketing consulting, blog writing, press releases, email marketing, and professional graphic design. I started my second social media business, Local-Insta.com, by reimagining Instagram hyper-locally by town.

Business owners love it because we are town-based, they have the flexibility to add additional towns, engagement is very high, and they reach potential customers directly where they live. The feedback has been incredible, and our followers LOVE our pages because we focus on them.

Visit Local Social Media online here, and check out their Facebook, and Instagram pages as well!

HamletHub thanks Fairfield County Bank for making our Why Small Businesses Matter series possible!