Even wonder how to gain local market leadership to tap into the many opportunities you have in your local area? If you’re an entrepreneurs who wants to become influential in your local market, you’re going to love this new case study series that all about the steps it takes to achieve Local Market Leadership.

Here’s the deal.

While I do have some clients locally here in Chicago, most of my clients are around the world and I serve them online. After I got out of the mortgage industry, I decided I’d like to be able to coach and train entrepreneurs using the internet which opened up tons of opportunities for me.

However, one of my goals for next year is to do workshops, events and masterminds in Chicago so I figured the easiest way to go about becoming a local business leader is to begin connecting with local influencers who already have an audience of entrepreneurs in Chicago.

(I actually teach this strategy through my Audience Attraction training.)

The question was, how can I reach them easily and speed up the trust building process, especially since I’m starting this initiative from scratch. Like I said, I haven’t focused my marketing efforts on targeting local people, so this is not an area that’s already established.

I decided to do interviews with local business experts and ask them to invite their followers to listen in on the interviews. What I’m completely certain about is that most businesses want more traffic, exposure, leads and clients. If my interview series helps these experts get more visibility, then they’ll be inclined to agree to an interview.

With this in mind, I came up with the name of the interview series; Chicago Business Experts.

With the name in mind, my first step was to establish a presence for C.B.E. (Chicago Business Experts) on the major social platforms since I knew the experts would most likely share about the interviews using social media.

I went to a site called Knowem.com where you can enter a profile name and see what social sites the name is available on. I tried about 10 different variations since Chicago Business Experts is pretty long, and while there were some great options, it was important to me that the same name was available on all networks to make it easy for people to follow.

After about 10 minutes of trying different options, I finally decided on ChiBizExperts (get it, Chicago Biz Experts).

That name was available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest so it worked perfectly.

Once You Choose A Business Name For Your Profiles, Open Your Social Media Accounts

After the search, I wanted to secure the names right away so that I can start using them. The great thing is, it took about 20 minutes or so to get all the accounts established and how that groundwork was laid.

If you want to check out the profiles, click on the links below.

Some I’ve already posted on, others (Pinterest and YouTube), I haven’t yet which is ok, because at this stage, all I wanted to do was secure the profile names.

http://www.facebook.com/ChiBizExperts
http://www.twitter.com/ChiBizExperts
http://www.instagram.com/ChiBizExperts
http://www.youtube.com/ChiBizExperts
http://www.pinterest.com/ChiBizExperts

Side note, below you’ll find one of the Instagram posts I made from this brand new account.At the time of me posting this, the post has 36 likes all from strategically using hashtags like: #chicagobusiness #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #bizowner.

 

Build a #business that inspires and brings out the best in you or you might fall into the trap of creating just another job for yourself. #Chicago #entrepreneur #smallbiz #smallbusiness #inspiration #entrepreneurs #chicagobiz #smallbusiness

A photo posted by Chicago Business Experts (@chibizexperts) on Oct 10, 2014 at 11:41pm PDT

It’s only been about 6 days since creating these social profiles but I already have likes on the Facebook page and followers on Instagram and Twitter.

Before I end this first post in the Local Market Leadership series, let me just say that once you establish these social accounts, start following local people in your area.

Some will follow you back but you’re really interested in finding out what other local businesses are doing on the social networks.

Those that are doing great on social media who have a following that’s very engaged are the ones you want to connect with.

They already have a following that you can serve with whatever it is you do or provide. All you have to do is begin engaging with them and their profiles so you show up whenever they post updates. Then when you’re ready to ask, they already see you’ve been connected and supportive of whatever they’re up to.

That wraps up part 1 of the Local Market Leadership series. Stay tuned in the next week for Part 2 where I’ll be sharing how I’m reaching out to local experts and requesting interviews for my new show.

Got questions? Leave them below in the comments. I’d love to help you implement these strategies as well.