I’ve been reading through my emails today and am getting caught up on the “goings-on” within my Twitter account that still loves me even though I’ve neglected her for 24 straight hours due to intermittent internet “Issues”. Comcast calls them issues. I call them other things.

Some of the things I read made me curious as to what communities, and the people within the communities, are doing to stimulate local spending. You can learn a lot from Twitter.

For instance, did you know that the Brookline Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce (@BrooklineChmbr) is on Twitter and they Tweet “What can WE do to help your small business. Please let us know.” They are stepping up to the plate saying TELL US how to help you.

If you live in Arizona, there is an entire web support system for local businesses with Local First AZ. (@localfirstaz) They educate their members on why it is crucial to buy local. Their web site states

There are people online, Twitter specifically, who tweet about local business support.
Steve Yager (@Steve_Yager) Tweets “Starting the weekend out by having brunch at a remodeled local restaurant; we like to patronize the locally owned businesses when we can.”

There are similar posts on Twitter, but maybe not enough. Just suppose…
Have you ever heard of the herding effect. The herding effect is instinctual. It is our tendency, as human beings to act and think like others. I know, I know when I state it like that it doesn’t seem that attractive. But think about this:

• What happens when the stock market rises and falls? Herding. People buy big or cash in.
• What happened in the dot com boom? Herding. Who didn’t flock to the net?
• What happened to the housing market? Herding. Everyone bought when we were told to buy.
• What happened when all the TV personalities, pundits, and politicians cried “the sky is falling” and suggested to their loyal fans that they stop spending money? Herding. People believed the sky was falling because their favorite star told them so. (insert *sigh* here)
  

What could happen if every single day we tweeted, blogged, mentioned, messaged, emailed and actually patronized 1 local business? What if on day 1 only 20 of us did that. And because of the herding effect, what if on day two 20 more people did the same. And what if on day three, 20 more people did the same. Can you begin to imagine what effect that doubling action would cause?

Today I’m going to Opening Bell Coffee (@openingbell) and have a Bluechip Cafe’ Mocha. My friend will drink what she always does, the Big Board which is an iced mocha. Ah, and the question arises… “Why not go to Starbucks?” that is another article for another day.

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