Feel like you need to be heard?
Social media marketers are always looking for a hook for this, and national awareness days are like catnip to them.
I will accept Halloween, and Christmas. Even if it starts around September.
But National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day? Or National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day (this Sunday, if you fancy trying it)?
However National Be Heard Day – which uncoincidentally is today – did spark my interest.
It was established in 2004 by a lady in the US called Shannon Cherry. She wanted to help entrepreneurs, small business owners and solo professionals find their voice, tell their story and be heard.
Shannon does this by celebrating small businesses’ own unique marketing efforts. She highlights that marketing is a key element in any small business, but it doesn’t need to break the bank.
Be Heard
We’ll ignore the fact that she is a PR professional who set up a national awareness day, which I’m now talking about and you’re now reading about, thus proving the power of PR.
Where we do agree is in that with the right amount of exposure in the right places, any small business can flourish and succeed. You just have to think a little more creatively.
And that’s what National Be Heard Day celebrates: creative tactics that helps the little guy grow and thrive.
It is an interesting and useful sentiment. Small businesses have many challenges to be successful. It can be an exciting experience to start a business and do something that you love. But you need to get your message out and your paying customers in.
And this is where the genius (and free giveaway) bit comes in.
Warning: free giveaway
Shannon’s goal for National Be Heard Day reportedly is to make it a “giveaway day”, a day where she and other business and marketing professionals offer their services and knowledge for free.
So Hoolet is happy to join in. If you have any specific questions about marketing your business, we will give you some advice for free.
It could be the platforms you are using or your frequency of posting, testing out a new product name or how to get your name in the papers.
Whatever it is, drop us a line at hello@hoolet.co.uk at any point this week and we will do our level best to give you our honest and expert advice, all completely free of charge.
This can be a daunting thought so another way to mark the day is just to spend half an hour thinking about how you market your business.
Sit down and objectively look over the marketing plan you are currently working with (of course you have a current marketing plan).
See if you are being creative enough to cut through all the other marketing going on in your area. Should you try to use different types of marketing? And you never know, after a short period of reflection, you might have a question for Hoolet after all.
Fresh ideas
In the spirit of transparency, it was Hoolet’s new golden boy Colin Fraser who pushed this occasion under my nose.
I guess I get what he must have thought – PR, small businesses, mouthy woman with courage of her convictions – but mostly it makes me proud of my new colleague.
It perfectly shows his altruistic urge to help make businesses memorable. He will fit in well, as soon as I get him to dial down the altruism…
And in the meantime while I gaze expectantly at the inbox, I’ll be mulling over my plans to mark National Lost Sock Memorial Day (9 May, so get knitting).
We look forward to hearing from you.
#BeHeardDay #NationalBeHeardDay
Hoolet is a strategic communications consultancy. Come say hello on Twitter at @hoolet_hoots, or follow us on LinkedIn. You can read more blogs here.