Memo #20: Rallying community support and spending through #AdoptAShopYEG
By Linda Hoang, Social Media Strategist and Blogger (Edmonton)
Source: linda-hoang.com
One bright spot in the past year living through a pandemic has been the surge in support for local business.
As restrictions were put in place to help bend the COVID-19 curve, many community members looked for ways to support their local restaurants and shops in a time when they needed it most.
As an Edmonton, Alberta blogger who pre-pandemic focused on highlighting local businesses and community events, it felt only natural to use my blog and social media posts during the pandemic to rally community support and spending for businesses across the city—and particularly in our downtown.
And you can too.
Use your social media platforms and voice to create concentrated efforts of support.
I created something called ‘Spin the Wheel of Local’ which was a fun way to randomize what local business you choose to support each week. I also started doing my own individual “support local” business crawls each week in the early days of the pandemic, sharing my stops and encouraging others to do the same.
My parents own a local business, a Vietnamese restaurant called King Noodle House Pho Hoang, which was among the many businesses struggling due to pandemic. My efforts at the time were meant to not only highlight and support other businesses in need, but also bring attention to my parents’ restaurant as well.
It was from those online conversations about supporting local that sparked a bigger idea—we should “adopt” struggling businesses during this difficult time.
But what could that look like?
Source: http://kingnoodlehousepho.ca/
#AdoptAShopYEG was born!
There have been three versions of #AdoptAShopYEG throughout the past year, each one inviting the community to support local businesses by spending specific amounts of money at specific businesses during a specific period of time. It was designed to feel like an event everyone could participate in, but safely—done on their own or with their own households and cohorts, for a good cause, and in a concentrated way to deepen potential impact.
The first #AdoptAShopYEG was in July 2020 aligned with my birthday
In July 2020, I invited Edmontonians to nominate businesses who they felt could use a bit of extra support. I curated a list of 50 businesses (out of 500 nominations) and asked Edmontonians to sign up to “adopt” a business—that is, spend at least $20 at the business you adopt during the week leading up to my birthday. 173 people collectively spent more than $8,000 at 50 businesses as a result of this first initiative. (Learn more)
The second #AdoptAShopYEG was in November 2020 and themed around supporting neighbourhoods
In November 2020, for the second #AdoptAShopYEG, I teamed up with ATB Financial, a local financial institution that had been running a number of their own support local initiatives since the pandemic, who I felt could be a good fit to partner with and increase the impact of my initiative. We were fully aligned in keeping businesses we love in business! The twist to this version of #AdoptAShopYEG was that the businesses would be selected in specific neighbourhoods across the city. Edmontonians were asked to nominate businesses in eight Edmonton neighbourhoods, then sign up to "adopt" a neighbourhood which meant spending at least $20 each at three of the curated businesses featured in the neighbourhood. Nearly 250 people spent over $17,000 at 64 small businesses across 8 neighbourhoods in Edmonton! This version of #AdoptAShopYEG also included bonus gift card incentives from ATB, so people could spend even more at selected businesses. If we factor in ATB’s additional cash, over $22,000 was injected into these businesses as part of the initiative. (Learn more)
The third #AdoptAShopYEG was in February 2021 and themed around showing love to our downtown
In February 2021, I teamed up with the Edmonton Downtown Recovery Task Force to put on a version of #AdoptAShopYEG that specifically focused on downtown (main street!) businesses. We called it Love Downtown! I once again teamed up with ATB Financial who would again help make this version of the initiative even more impactful for businesses involved. In this most recent version of #AdoptAShopYEG, over 100 people spent nearly $10,000 to support 50 downtown Edmonton businesses and in addition, ATB gifted $10,000 to select businesses to keep the love going. Businesses who received bonus cash are finding creative ways to share with their customers, and using social media to continue spreading the word and rallying support. In this third version of #AdoptAShopYEG, more than 400 social media posts were shared, posts reached over 500,000 people and there were more than 2.3 million impressions (post views). (Learn more)
Source: linda-hoang.com
The funny thing is that you don’t have to have an initiative to sign up to support local businesses, you can just go and support local businesses. But people really like being a part of something, which I think is a lesson anyone can take with them and apply to their own Main Street initiatives wherever you are.
I intentionally made the “asks” (minimum spends) lower to make these initiatives more realistic and accessible. I also encouraged people to share about their spending on social media as a way to encourage others to sign-up. It was also important for me to ensure that at least 50% of the curated business lists featured BIPOC-owned businesses. This also helped create a more diverse list of businesses to support (not your usual suspects who may already get a lot of attention). I also tried to have a new ‘angle’ to each version of the initiative to keep things new and exciting. And I hoped that even as each version of #AdoptAShopYEG came to an end, the spirit of the initiative would carry on. Local businesses continue to struggle.
I do consider #AdoptAShopYEG a success and I hope to do more versions of it as the pandemic stretches in Year 2—and even when the pandemic is over.
I also encourage you to plan your own ‘spend local’ project!
Here are a few questions to consider as you plan:
Why do you want to do this? Do you have a clear message and goal?
If you don’t have a large or engaged social media following (which makes rallying support a bit easier), can you team up with someone who does?
Who are the current community leaders, cheerleaders, or organizations that are already doing work to highlight and support businesses? Can you partner with them?
What are you asking people to do? Is it too much? Not enough?
Are you prepared to promote the heck out of your project? And “walk the walk?”
(I won’t tell you how much I spent on each version of #AdoptAShopYEG myself!)
Another big focus of my blog is travel content, and as restrictions ease and vaccines roll out, if you are interested in teaming up with me to highlight local businesses in your community, or help you plan or spearhead your own support local projects, reach out to me via email.