I noticed that is the big difference between a smaller town like Lubbock, Texas, and the Dallas, Texas area. Buildings and places in Lubbock are spaced out, easy to see, and mostly easy to find. Here in Dallas it is a maze of buildings and logos. I honestly, would hate to live in New York. I love media so much, but there gets a point for me where too much becomes noise and nothing but noise. I love the variety of new places here to experience, but I feel like I can't find them all on the same medium, so I have to look different places.
For instance, is every business in the phone book yellow pages? The answer is no, trust me. After searching the entire yellow pages for a certain business, I go to the internet. Limited information is there, and definitely not much of it for mom and pop places.
This lead me to thinking that smaller businesses need a bigger role in the social media and media worlds in general. Perhaps if they had a few tweaks to their Web site, a nicer Facebook page, more publicity somehow, that they could still compete with bigger businesses. So many small businesses do not have any kind of advertising. If someone sees Jimmy Johns, they just say, "Knock Knock, Jimmy Johns!" People know who that is, for the most part. I think businesses should invest in media, especially catchy jingles. There is nothing worse than getting a jingle in your head and it sticking there all day. However, it does stay with you when the subject arises!
So, the bottom line about my babbling is this: I think smaller businesses should invest more in new media and social media, and there should be an easier way to figure out what all there is to do in a town with so much noise. There are so many advertisements on buildings shooting out at people when they drive by, it doesn't give the ones buried behind them much of a shot.
Caleigh, I love the topic of noise that you've identified here. It is common for media scholars to talk about online noise, but I like the twist you've brought to the topic with the noise of the city.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I'm a little confused by the Jimmy John's reference though. Keep in mind that not all of your readers will be local, so you have to contextualize examples for them.
I would agree that small businesses do need to take the new social media outlets and run with it. I do believe alot of them have, and because of it, they are getting more business. There's a local cafe in Downtown Plano (called Daisy's Cafe off of Avenue K between 14th and 15th St.) that just opened up that I heard about through a facebook fan page that a friend of mine liked. I wouldn't have even known the place existed if it hadn't been for their company Facebook page. I think, Caleigh, you should be the social media expert for these little ma and pa places. Show 'em how it's done!
ReplyDeleteOwning my own small business, I can definitely relate to this post and admit at first I was naysayer of using social media outlets for my personal business. However, I did just recently create a facebook for my business and I've received 5-10 inquiries already for new business not just in Dallas but also from Arkansas. I don't think the word would've gotten out about my business, if it wasn't for facebook.
ReplyDelete