Small Business Saturday

Shopping Small Becomes a Big Deal

Challenge:

How do you spark a movement that gets Americans to "shop small" on the busiest shopping weekend of the year?

Creative Solution:

Drive participation in Small Business Saturday by communicating the critical importance of small businesses to the U.S. economy, couple it with incentives - including a $25 Amex statement credit for pre-registered consumers and $100 in free Facebook advertising for thousands of business owners – and add a heavy dose of social media to create a community of like-minded consumers and small business owners.

"Awesome - love what you guys are doing!"
- Sheryl Pieroni(Blogger, My Atlanta Mommy)

Results

With the backing of numerous small business advocate groups, including The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Initiative and 41 elected officials who declared November 27, 2010 “Small Business Saturday”, the movement acheived the following successes:

  • 1.2 million people "liked" Small Business Saturday on Facebook quickly creating an audience for small businesses to showcase their wares.
  • Nearly 30,000 tweets were sent using the hashtags #smallbusinesssaturday and #smallbizsaturday.
  • More than 100,000 small business owners downloaded promotional materials from the Small Business Saturday Facebook page
  • "Small Business Saturday" was the fastest rising US Google search phrase associated with the term "small business."
  • More than 500 million Americans were reached through media outreach