How Local Businesses Can Crush It On Social (And Keep Customers Coming Back... Without Spending a Dime)

August 13, 2020·17 min·1 clip

Dave reveals that over half the world uses social media, with a million new users joining daily.

Host Dave Chapman opens with a promotion for Buffer's audio-first conference 'Built to Last,' then frames the episode around a July 2020 statistic that more than half of the world's population uses social media, with over one million new users starting every day. The episode centers on a listener question from Lisa Stone of Lisa is Social, who asks whether social media genuinely helps local businesses. Dave speaks with Ash Reid, Buffer's head of content, who prepared by researching thriving local businesses before the interview. Ash's opening argument is that local businesses depend on community and return customers, and social media allows them to build and maintain those relationships online after in-store interactions end. He notes that word of mouth has gone digital and that customer service increasingly happens on platforms like Twitter and Facebook Messenger — so businesses that aren't present are simply missing those conversations. COVID-19 is a running context: Ash notes that businesses previously operating purely offline have been forced online and will likely stay there even after reopening. Ash cites Wax Watergate Bay in Newquay as a strong example — a bar with 22,000 Facebook followers that shares behind-the-scenes content about its staff. A post promoting a team member to general manager drew congratulations from the local community, showing how human stories build loyalty. He then describes Harper and Blom, a Melbourne cheese shop that uses long-form Instagram captions as educational pieces for each cheese — detailing origin, production, and taste. This strategy sets expectations before customers arrive in store and signals a level of expertise that must be matched in person. Dave shares a personal anecdote about working from a local pub with his dog during a UK heatwave, where staff photographed him and posted it to Instagram highlighting that the pub is laptop-friendly and dog-friendly. Ash notes this one organic post communicates the pub's atmosphere to the whole community without a formal campaign. On platform selection, Ash recommends a Facebook page as a near-mandatory baseline for discoverability, along with a Google Maps listing for service businesses. Beyond that, he says platform choice should depend on knowing the demographic of your target customer — ideally confirmed by asking them directly in conversation. For encouraging engagement, Ash returns to the theme of online/offline consistency: whatever the in-store experience is like, the social presence should match it. He recommends bridging the two through receipt CTAs, follower discounts, and exclusive online events like Zoom sessions with founders or in-house experts. He references a case study with Callie's Hot Little Biscuit as an example of bringing offline customers to online channels. The episode closes with Dave summarising that repeat customers are the key to local business growth and that the online opportunity for local businesses is larger now than ever following COVID-driven digital acceleration.

As heard by us

Practical ideas for using social media to keep local customers close.

This episode treats social media as a way for local businesses to stay in touch, not just push announcements. Dave and Ash point to a bar in Newquay that leans on Facebook to keep people close, and a cheese shop in Melbourne that uses long Instagram captions to explain its…

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Turn social posts into a way to stay memorable with local customers, using real behind-the-scenes stories instead of polished ad copy.

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