I will act as a mime and juggle your logo for $5!!

Yeah...I won't, but this guy on fiverr.com will!

A rising number of start-ups centered on the idea of sharing, bartering and collaborative consumption are popping up everywhere.  These website services allow individuals to interact online locally for the purpose of trading, borrowing, purchasing and offering a number of goods and services, anything from household tools to running your errands for you (TaskRabbit, AgentAnything).  One of the first mainstream examples was Ashton Kutcher backed Airbnb.com, a website that allows travelers to list or rent their apartment at a price of their choosing and often posted for half the price of a nice hotel.  You may cringe at the idea of a stranger staying at your apartment (and in your bed, gross), however, a large group of people say it’s good with them with, in September AdWeek reported 100,000+ active users and 80,000+ listings. With such a large number of active members, who’s to say this group won’t continue such a movement on to other industries? Well, they are.

There have been multiple articles covering the giant spike of bartering taking place on Craigslist and other sites since the start of the recession and continually over the past few years.  One could make a point that these shared economy websites are appearing for some of the same reasons, except these could potentially turn a significantly larger profit.  It makes sense.  If we’re going to openly share music, movies, pictures and files with one another, why not share a car (JustShareIt), a parking spot (ParkingPanda), your neighbors tools (ToolSpinner), skillsets (SkillShare) and more in the offline world?  It’s convenient, cheap and a cool way to meet your neighbors, and your neighbors neighbors. 

I’ve put together a list of these types of websites and a few recent articles; some of them are REALLY cool. If I'm missing any other ones, please comment and "share" them with us. 

Now go ask Siri where the nearest dry cleaners is, I'm going to have my neighbor drop it off and pick it up for us. 

Update on Monday, February 20, 2012 at 04:31PM by [Your Name Here]

Thanks for the comments! Here are two more sites for everyone to check out:

Fun2rent.com

A peer-to-peer recreation and powersport rental site. Now you can rent your neighbors boat with insurance.

Also:

www.goodkarma.co

A new subscription service for right-sized baby clothes delivered right to your door. Check it out! 

Small Business Tips From A Punk Band

Clepto.net

Like many small businesses, resources and funds available can be scarce leaving it up to the creative improvisation of the owner to "optimize" his/her own destiny.  You might have a great product or service, but without the money or specific web skills only a small portion of your intended audience will ever know you exist. What are some other things a small business with limited resources to dedicate to marketing can do to get their brand out?  Here is what a punk band, Clepto, has been doing on a minimal budget, all great tips you should be applying to your business as well:

1.) Branding and Consistency:  Whether it's their logo, website, album cover, artwork, Facebook page, brand style or band voice, it is ALWAYS consistent.  There is never confusion as to who these guys are or what music they play. 

2.) Social Presence: The band can be found on every social network and each of these websites is updated daily.  Whichever site the fan (or your customer) prefers, Clepto is on it and you should be too.

3.) Providing Content Longer Than 140 Characters: If you have a small business, you're going to need to provide content longer than a Tweet, even if it is only once a month.  Clepto sends out a monthly newsletter with stories, articles, news about local bands and industry updates.  They also put together a monthly recap video on their YouTube Channel (again, appealing to each customer no matter what vertical they may prefer).

4.) Establish a Network, Make Yourself a Leader: As a small business owner, you need to set yourself apart from the rest and become the expert in your community. Clepto is presently doing this with their label, Olystis Music and Productions.  By organizing shows for other bands in the area, helping with their merchandise and offering to record people at extremely minimal rates they established themselves as leaders.  Something every business owner should strive to do.

5.) Events: Even if it's a simple happy hour excursion or light educational dialogue, a successful small business hosts their own events.  Clepto makes sure to do this by organizing a monthly themed event out of their studio and local venues.  Attendance is free and often exceeds 75+ people, establishing the Clepto brand even more each time.

6.) Appreciate The Small Victories (Avoid Complacency): As with any small business you’ll encounter the big wins and the not-so-big wins; learn to appreciate the small victories.  Consciously appreciate the daily accomplishments to keep the company moving forward. 

7.) Maintaining Quality and Enthusiasm: Whether you’ve just lost a big potential contract or numbers are down for the month, remember that regardless YOU are the representative and the face of your business. The attitude toward your own product/service is inevitably going to decide your success or failure. Clepto sometimes will step on stage with only 4 people in the audience, and other times 100, no matter which night they’re up there, every fan is getting the same eclecticism and enthusiasm.

Always remember the first 2 times you talked to someone about your business.  The enthusiasm you exuded, how excited you were and the plans you made.  This list is a To-Do list to get back on track for 2012. 

Let us know which point hits most strongly with you and why in the comments!

The Path to Social Sanity

Just for fun, let’s take a minute and rewind to 1982 (if you need some help transporting your mind to the 80’s, see my footnote).  After a days work, you barrel inside your house, drop your things and hit play...on your answering machine.  “You have 1 new message,” robotically murmurs like a prehistoric ancestor of Siri.  

“First message,” “Hey John, it’s Ashley, we talked last week about meeting for a drink tonight, I’ll be at Paddington’s at seven, it’s on Clark, see ya there.”  Your Casio digital watch reads 6:30, no time to try her at home, you change and head out.

There’s a lot of reasons why this wouldn’t fly today.  For one, who makes plans a week ahead with someone without double or triple confirmations via Facebook, emails and texts? Nobody.  Surely nobody heads to a bar alone without same-day confirmation from the other party.  To that point, most of us will even go as far as sending a final smoke signal, “in a cab!” when we’re only five minutes away.  How did we get to this point of communicative reliability and when will it reach a point of individual refusal and rejection? It has started to for some, while others have completely started giving up altogether.  If you’re sick of checking in, no need to check out.  Let’s take a closer look at how we ended up to where we are today and what you can do to keep sane.

The 3 Stages of Social Evolution:

First Stage: Sitting at the cool kids table: The first with a cell phone. The first with a flip phone. The first with a smart phone. The first on Facebook.  As humans, we naturally strive to fit in and be apart of the conversation.  If you remember, signing up for Facebook was to find out what everyone else was doing and to relate to what everyone else was talking about.  You checked your Facebook once a day, then ridiculed those who logged in more than once a day.  Before you knew it, you were doing the same.  This was followed by the social network craze. After enough friends exclaimed, “you’re not on Twitter yet!?” you didn’t know how to really use it, but you signed up.  

Second Stage: Keeping up with the Kardashians:

Let’s be honest, you’re signed up with so many different websites you probably couldn’t even name them off.  You struggled through stages of deciding what to share with your network and where to share it.  Soon, things stabilized, you even started checking-in at local restaurants wow! For those a little more socially savvy, you implemented applications like Hootsuite to aggregate your social feeds into one.  Websites started incorporating share buttons and Facebook logins.  With the exception of an unnecessary last minute appendage (cough! Google+), life was good.  For some they moved one step closer to a meltdown.  Step back. Deep breath. 

Third Stage: Checking-out before you’ve checked-in: To some it’s been a gradual process, the problem is for many it hasn’t been easy and by no means gradual.  In a recent article, a writer shared her problems with staying focused and keeping productive.  There are apps now that literally limit your internet usage, the sites you visit and the amount of time you spend on Facebook or Twitter during your work day.  Talk about will power! (who’s got any?)  It’s ironic, but this is where we are.  Here are some tools to help you cope before you eject:

1.) FocusBooster: Separates your tasks into 25 minute increments, with 5-minute breaks.

2.) FocusWriter: Blocks out everything on your screen, menus, the date, timer, etc are are put away.

3.) Anti-Social: Create your own black-list of distracting websites.

4.) StayFocusd: Google Chrome app that allows you to set a period of time in your day dedicated to time-wasting websites.

5.) TrackTime (for macs only): Audit how you’re spending your time on your computer.

1982 (more here):

Technology

• First CD player sold in Japan

• The Weather Channel airs on cable television for the first time.

• The Soviet Spaceship Vanera 13 lands on Venus and sends back color Photographs

• 20 million Elm Trees die in the UK through Dutch Elm Disease

• The First Commercial use of Genetic Engineering is Launched when human insulin produced by bacteriais marketed

• Times man of The Year is THE COMPUTER

What Can The Social Pig Do For Your Restaurant?

1) Feedback and insight on service, events and menu items

2) Targeted promotions for events or new menu items and specials

3) Encourage trials by offering specials and discounts, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly

4) Utilizing employees and current customers as your ambassadors to spread the word about your business

  5) Engage in full conversation with your current customers and potentially reaching new ones

6) Keep your customers and the community up to date on new projects, such as new openings or remodels

7) Increase excitement and foot traffic by sharing information, such as contests, secret words of the day and giveaways

8) Use social media to connect with your other stores and create an online support community

9) Find employees

10) Monitor reputation and provide complaint resolutions in real-time 11)Ensure your brand is represented professionally when a search is made near your restaurant for specific cuisine, happy hour deals, specials, etc.

Damage Control for Your Brand

Marlen Komar, contributing writer to The Social Pig

No matter how many Tweets you send out or how many “likes” you get on your Facebook promotions, the number one way to get your brand out there is through word of mouth.  Sure a potential customer can glance at your e-mail flier while cleaning out their inbox, but they would be more inclined to give it a serious look if their friend raved about it.  That right there is called advocacy…but what happens on the opposite side of the coin?  What do you do if that potential customer’s friend has had a bad experience with your brand and now goes on mad rants?  Here are some steps to put a band-aid on the problem and flip his opinion.

1) Understand the problem: Read the negative comment that the unsatisfied customer left and try to figure out how he had the bad experience.  Look for the root of the problem.

2) Reach out: Contact the person and show them you want to fix the situation.  Not only will this give him the sense you care about him as a customer individually but also appreciate his business.

3)  Don’t wait: If you ignore the problem then it will only escalate and get worse.  Don’t let the customer stew until he finally pops and publically slams your brand; reach out and solve the problem personally and quickly.

4)  Don’t lose it:  Never lose your cool, even if the customer starts making it personal and starts really bringing the heat.  Remember that whatever you say in social media will stay there forever, there is no wiping it clean. 

5)  Seal the deal: Once you take action, inform the customer even if he will be able to see the results on his own.  It’ll close the loop of the transaction, close the book on the problem, and make him feel like you personally took on the problem to help him.

For more tips, read the article that inspired this post.