At the start of September I agreed to work with Cork BIC to boost the profile of SOHO Solo in West Cork.
As well as tapping all the usual local media channels for exposure, we also agreed to explore the potential of social media to engage with SOHO Solo members. One of the big issues in West Cork in the past has been the lack of connection between the monthly meetings, coupled with the geographical spread of the membership across the region. By developing an online community around the SOHO Solo West Cork “brand”, the hope was to mitigate some of those factors.
The first step was to set up a dedicated blog for the SOHO Solo West Cork chapter – a medium for keeping members up to date with SOHO Solo developments, delivering interesting, relevant content and of course encouraging engagement both through comments and the contribution of blog posts by SOHO Solo members.
Even though it’s only in its infancy, the new blog is showing tremendous promise. It’s only been up and running for about two months (and only actively promoted for just over one of those). From a standing start it now outranks the West Cork Enterprise Board for the search term “small business west cork” on Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s quite an achievement.
At the moment there’s only myself and one other member posting regularly, but we’re encouraging more SOHO Solo members to sign up for an account and start contributing. We’re pretty hopeful that we can attract a core of regular contributors in the near future.
The more people start to engage, the more valuable the blog will become and the more people will want to engage. The trick now is to build the critical mass of regular contributors to reach that self-sustaining point.
So please drop by and check out the new blog when you get chance – let us have your feedback in the post comments and via the contact form, and if you’re a SOHO Solo member and would like to start contributing, simply register for an account (click on the link in the blog sidebar). As long as your profile is active on the main SOHO Solo Ireland website (i.e. you’re a bone fide SOHO Solo member) we’ll promote you to contributor status and you can start posting to the blog
(NB. all posts are subject to administrator approval… and at the moment that means me – but as long as they’re relevant and genuinely adding value there should be no problem 
).
You can also follow @SOHOSolo on Twitter for regular news and updates, and join the SOHO Solo group on LinkedIn.
2 Comments
October 4, 2008 at 6:26 pm
This is a great example of using technology to defeat distance, to benefit rural small businesses. I especially am impressed at how you’ve chosen to focus on a particular segment within your larger group. Thanks for sharing your results.
October 6, 2008 at 9:34 am
Thanks Becky, it’s great to get your feedback!
It’s still very early days — but I’m really happy with the way things are going. I really believe that staying connected online will help to bridge the geographical divide in West Cork.
I also hope that the content we produce and the conversation it generates will add value not just for West Cork but for the entire SOHO Solo membership, and even for Solo entrepreneur and home workers much further afield.
It’s dynamic, exciting and something I’m delighted to be involved in.