By David Alan Venable

Small Business Saturday is a recent tradition that began in 2010 as the headline of an American Express Campaign. It has been termed by its creators “dedicated to helping small businesses get more customers through their doors on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.” The tradition is a push for consumers to invest in local small businesses during the biggest shopping season of the year. Amidst other “shopping holidays” like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday inspires community and camaraderie, not unlike what we do right here at Joynture!

How can you get involved?

First and foremost, in order to truly honor the holiday, you should support local businesses and take some time to reflect on the resources just outside your door. Many people treat Small Business Saturday as a sort of “Market Day” and travel happily from local shop to shop. It’s typical for small businesses to offer discounts or specials to honor the occasion.

Implementing certain hashtags on Twitter have found to be an effective way to raise awareness of your business as well as the local ones you choose to support. Entrepreneur tells that the most popular hashtags during Small Business Saturday are  #SmallBizSat, #ShopSmall, and #SmallBusinessSaturday, and that last year “more than 126,000 tweets were sent in support of the initiative.”

If your online presence is strong, you might consider sharing a little limelight with the companies that may not be as well-resourced as your business. You may develop a partnership or gain entry through association into a marketplace you never thought you’d have access to. If you’re feeling exceptionally celebratory, you might consider volunteering to support local businesses by handing out flyers, posting signs, directing traffic to shops, and performing other productive odds and ends.

In the end, if you’re goal this Small Business Saturday is to focus on promoting your own business, incentivize customers to visit your store or support your cause with rewards and events. Creating promotional check-ins and handing out rewards or discounts for social media mentions is a sure way to spread awareness. Nielsen reports that 83 percent of global respondents “say they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family.”

Take advantage of Small Business Saturday this year and look for ways to better the local small business scene in your area!