Shop local.

Support small businesses.

Order from your favourite local restaurant tonight.

We keep sharing these sentiments and encouraging one another to spend our money at our local businesses, but some Manitobans might be feeling a little financially stressed right now. This is an extremely important time to ensure our local favourites have support—and the good news is that along with supporting them with our purchases, we can also do so by lending out our voices and introducing them to our online communities.

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Here are six ways you can help local businesses succeed through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Follow Them on Social Media

The pandemic required a lot of businesses to quickly pivot and innovate their methods of connecting with their customers (see my recent social post about an international website that’s showcasing some excellent examples).

For many businesses, this meant joining the world of e-commerce, curbside pickups, and social media.

If you know of a local business that deserves some love, following them on social media is a great way to give some. When you follow a business page, you’re more than just a number in its list of followers—your “like” then gets shared with other similar social media users, who might never had made the connection without you! Not to mention, following a business means a greater likelihood of getting the inside scoop on promotions, discounts, and other important news.

Write A Positive Review

A picture might be worth 1,000 words, and a positive review might be worth 100 customers!

We consumers research everything these days, which is why so many organizations are becoming more mindful of constantly improving the customer experience.

If you like what a business is doing, or even if you just had one positive experience there, share your thoughts! Seeing your review might be the deciding factor in another customer’s decision to support that business, which could make a big difference.

Engage With Their Posts

You don’t have to spend hours online every day in order to help out Manitoba businesses—in fact, you can help a business succeed in under five minutes!

Once you’ve followed its social page, help a business out even more by

• sharing one of its posts
• leave a comment about a product or service you liked or are interested in
• tag a friend in the comments

You can do all of those things within about two minutes, and that’ll be worth HOURS to that small business.

Tell A Friend

For those small businesses that may not yet have an online presence, word of mouth is a powerful tool in your toolkit.

People love what other people love—this is why social media influencers have become so successful. When you hear that someone absolutely loves a product or service, you’re a lot more likely to consider purchasing it yourself.

Marketing mega platforms like Socialmediatoday.com and Forbes have both recently discussed how important word of mouth is as a marketing tool.

So, don’t feel like you have nothing to give if all you’ve got is your thoughts!

With gift-giving season upon us and many Manitobans looking to support local, share your suggestions with friends and family via social post, phone call, or however you choose to connect.

Sign Up For Their Newsletter

Although a newsletter is known to help businesses drive sales, it also can significantly help them with non-sale successes as well.

When you sign up for a business’s newsletter, you’re telling them that you want to stay in the loop; that you want to support what they’re doing; and that you want them to succeed.

Increasing newsletter recipients has been proven to help businesses increase social media followings, drive traffic to their websites, and stay connected with their customers.

Give Them A Shout-Out

Possibly the most effective point on this list, giving a business a shout-out sort of combines every one of these tactics.

When you give a shout-out to a business, you’re sharing its information, leaving a positive review, and telling a friend all at once!

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So, if you’re short on cash this holiday season, or if you’re simply looking to scale back a bit, remember that you still have a lot of power when it comes to helping out our local businesses.

And when you help out a local business, you’re supporting the entire community.