HOW MANY FRIENDS (and FAMILY members) do you have that own or work for small businesses?

FREE WAYS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES > star parties, pin parties, watch parties, sharing, reviews, recommend...

Using the internet for searches and social media have become part of "daily life" for most people. And with hundreds of thousands of businesses on the internet, it is extremely difficult for small business owners to be listed on the first few pages of the search engines. Additionally, search engines are giving more and more weight to "popularity" in determining page rank, which again, puts small businesses at a disadvantage just due to numbers. However, they also give weight to reviews, recommendations, and ratings. If you notice, when you do a search, the first several websites listed are ads, not actual "organic search results". Many small businesses have little or no budget for advertising - either time or money!

Star Parties, Pin Parties, Watch Parties

Most of us have heard of "Watch Parties" which is currently popular on Facebook to watch videos "together" - at the same time, but at different locations.
How about organizing a watch party with the watch list being videos of your friends' businesses?

So, I haven't heard of a "Star Party" or a "Pin Party", but since I'm always looking for ways to help my website clients increase their business exposure and reach news customers, these "parties" are something I've been planning to suggest and organize, but haven't yet. The idea is...

Star Parties: Google and Yelp are two of the most frequently searched websites when people are looking for consumer/retail goods and services. And both figure the rating of a website into where the website is listed in the results.
On Google.com, typically, if you add a location or the words "near me", a map will display. If you don't see your friend's business in this initial list of 3 businesses, right under the map, click on the "More Places" link. (View sample search results - search phrase and "More Places" have a red box around them) To add a review, click on the business name, then look for the "Write a review" button in the company information displayed.
On Yelp.com, you enter what you're searching for and where as part of the standard search. Again, just click on the business name, and look for the "Write a Review" button. Ratings shown in Yahoo and Bing search results use Yelp's Reviews.

Pin Parties: Same idea, get together with your friends, and find pins (and pages) of local small businesses and your friends' and families' businesses on Pinterest.com. Follow them, and pin their posts on your page, and pin to any public boards. You can also share pin posts from Pinterest to Facebook...
DigitalGyd.com's annual report on search engines has listed Pinterest as the "world's best image search engine" for at least the last three years.

Win/Win?

You get to help someone, and it doesn't cost you anything. In fact, you can make a party of it! As Zig Ziglar said, "You will get everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”