Nobody can deny the power of social media. <\/span>Bloom & Wild<\/span><\/a> and Livia\u2019s Kitchen are just two examples of businesses who have used social media to boost awareness of their brand at an extraordinary rate. Across Facebook and Twitter, Bloom & Wild share photographs from customers, positive feedback and testimonials. Livia\u2019s Kitchen have been using Instagram and Facebook as their main channels for building their community, including regular competitions using the \u201clike this post and tag a friend\u201d technique. Is a family or friend starting a new business? Share their business page on Facebook, invite friends to engage with them, or retweet their latest offer. One tiny action can result in a flood of new customers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best ways to support small businesses is to shop locally. Rather than heading to your regular shopping centre, take some time to explore your local independent stores or farmers market. You\u2019ll be supporting your local area, often finding new and interesting products at the same time! Have you heard of <\/span>FarmDrop<\/span><\/a>? They connect people with producers who make a conscious effort in regards to health, animals and sustainability – check \u2018em out!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before social media, businesses relied on word-of-mouth recommendations to spread information about their services. Are you impressed with a new independent restaurant<\/a> that\u2019s opened? Tell your friends about it! Write a Google review so people can find it when they\u2019re surfing the web. People are always more likely to believe recommendations from people who have actually experienced the business. <\/span>Trustpilot <\/span><\/a>is a great tool for leaving and finding reviews. Have you ever come across a Facebook ad and been unsure whether to trust it? Trustpilot will allow you to find honest reviews from customers who have engaged with the business. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sporting celebration parades, Saints days, or festivals, are great ways to meet with local business owners. Organisers of music festivals often use local companies to provide food and drink – when you buy that burger and fries, you\u2019re supporting your local community. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Improvements can only be made when people know where they\u2019re missing the mark. If you\u2019re visiting a new businesses and notice some Customer Feedback cards at the till, pick one up. Taking the time to provide valuable feedback for a business will allow them to improve on what they\u2019re offering, bettering any future experiences you have with them. The routes to provide feedback are endless; email, social media, Trustpilot, Google reviews – just pick whichever method you feel the most comfortable with. Don\u2019t forget to mention positive feedback as well.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have your own special ways of supporting small businesses? Let us know on <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a>! <\/span>If you\u2019re ready to take the leap and start your own business, head over to <\/span> swoopfunding.com<\/a> and find out how we can help you. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Get social Nobody can deny the power of social media. Bloom & Wild and Livia\u2019s Kitchen are just two examples of businesses who have used social media to boost awareness of their brand at an extraordinary rate. Across Facebook and Twitter, Bloom & Wild share photographs from customers, positive feedback and testimonials. Livia\u2019s Kitchen have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","category":[1371,1362],"class_list":["post-296","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-funding-resources"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-300x195.jpeg",300,195,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"image_blog":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-408x252.jpeg",408,252,true],"image_blog_full":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"image_podcast":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-397x298.jpeg",397,298,true],"image_banking":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-31x20.jpeg",31,20,true],"image_blog_internal":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-768x480.jpeg",768,480,true],"image_blog_medium":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1.jpeg",768,500,false],"image_single_banking":["https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/small-business-saturday-uk-2018-logo-english-blue-hi-res-768x768-1-768x500-1-80x52.jpeg",80,52,true]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":" Get social Nobody can deny the power of social media. Bloom & Wild and Livia\u2019s Kitchen are just two examples of businesses who have used social media to boost awareness of their brand at an extraordinary rate. Across Facebook and Twitter, Bloom & Wild share photographs from customers, positive feedback and testimonials. Livia\u2019s Kitchen have been using Instagram and Facebook as their main channels for building their community, including regular competitions using the \u201clike this post and tag a friend\u201d technique. Is a family or friend starting a new business? Share their business page on Facebook, invite friends to engage…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Blog<\/a>, Funding resources<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"root","url":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/author\/root\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33114,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/296\/revisions\/33114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Shop local<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Spread the word<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Participate in community events<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Provide feedback<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n