Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Connect… Give… Grow… Community


It’s a novel concept, doing something that not only benefits you but also benefits others around you.  You may have heard of it as a ‘win-win situation’ – designed to benefit all participants.  People have heard about it, but not many of us have seen it in practice.  It’s more like some unachievable goal in a distant far off land, it’s possible, but takes too much effort.  Often times the mindset is something like this: for everyone to benefit – I’ll need to benefit first and then I’ll help everyone, which can results in a perpetual ‘me’ state.
SoRewarding helps you, your business, or your organization to make a positive and long-lasting impact for everyone in your neighborhood.  For this blog entry, let’s elaborate on how Businesses can use SoRewarding.

Connecting

For businesses, the goal is to make connections with people.  As a business, you make connections with a positive, kind and generous audience by creating a page on SoRewarding.com.  Individuals, fellow businesses and Nonprofits will see your business page on SoRewarding.  You’ll want to make sure your information is complete (links to your website, FB, etc.) so that users are able to explore who you are and make that initial connection.

Giving

To give… is easier said than done.  How can my business give?  I’m sure it’s something that every successful business owner has put some thought into.  After all, we’re here because of the loyal support of our friends, family and community… It’s only natural to want to give-back. 

How about offering your product or service at less than the normal rate?  This rewards your current customers and attracts new ones to try your business.  How about giving a percentage of the sales to a local non-profit?  … ready for the Matrix moment? 

What if I told you that you could do both, through SoRewarding.com and it’s easy.  It doesn’t take more than a couple minutes if you have your business page set up.  As to not detract from this blog entry, you can learn more about publishing discounts, here. 

Growth

I’ve connected with a new audience by having my business page on SoRewarding.  I’ve published an offer that rewards my customers and that also gives to local Nonprofits.  My question is this, has this really helped the growth of my business? 
Well, let’s look at the numbers.  In 2011, 65% of households donated to charity.2 As a household that donates to charity, you should assume that that same household will also be more inclined to support businesses who donate to charity versus those who don’t.  A study conducted by Cone Inc. in 2010 found that 90% of consumers (about 278 million people) want to know what cause your business supports. A whopping 79% of consumers would switch to a brand associated with a good cause and 83% wish more of 
the products and services they purchase and retailers they use would support causes.3

Community

If you’ve followed along up until this point, I hope you’re able to paint a picture of how everyone in a community benefits from socially responsible businesses.  Focusing on philanthropic work as a local business has the added benefit of being able to see the people you are helping too.  So now that you’ve been given the information and the tools… get to giving! I invite you to use www.SoRewarding.com for an easy-to-use site that connects with kindness.

  1.              http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42
  2.              http://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics
  3.              http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2012/01/31/philanthropy-and-small-business-win-win-situation/