Shop Local. Shop Small. Shop Rolesville NC
Our History
In October 2014, local business owner Melanie Diehl, decided to work with business owners in the Rolesville NC area to promote them on Small Business Saturday. Diehl applied for and was approved as a Neighborhood Champion through the American Express Small Business Saturday website. Being a neighborhood champion gave her the tools and marketing materials necessary to provide to the local business community and help them promote their goods and services. Armed with flyers, reusable shopping bags and balloons, Diehl set out to educate these local business owners about how to participate in Small Business Saturday and “get in on the spending action taking place during this holiday shopping weekend.”
Diehl partnered with the local weekly newspaper, The Rolesville Weekly, and the participating business owners advertised their specials to help spread awareness of this first event to take place in Rolesville.
Melanie and friends supporting Small Business Saturday
On the cold morning of Saturday, November 29, 2014, Diehl and two friends set up shop on Main Street, in front of the local coffee shop, The Coffee Lodge, and passed out shopping bags, shopping lists and other Shop Small branded products to the shoppers, in hopes of sending them on to the business owners.
Several shoppers visited ALL 10 participating businesses and took “selfies” while there, and those businesses got even more exposure when the pictures were uploaded to social media sites and tagged #ShopRolesville.
Several of the participating business owners were so excited about this opportunity to promote the Rolesville business community they decided to make this a quarterly event, not just an annual event. So, a handful of business leaders started meeting in January of 2015 and launched Shop Local Rolesville, All Year!
As a Neighborhood Champion, Melanie has continued to promote Small Business Saturday throughout Rolesville and the surrounding areas, including Granville County. As of December 2019, she’s rallied hundreds of businesses, thousands of shoppers and countless volunteers in the annual Small Business Saturday Events.
For more details on participating in the Shop Rolesville events, contact Melanie Diehl, at 919.395.1366 or email hello@melaniediehl.com
In 2019, Jeanne Eury joined Melanie’s efforts to promote the local business community. As Grow with Google partners, they share a passion for supporting the local business community.
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Grow With Google Partnership
June 2015 – Melanie Diehl partners with Google’s GYBO program.
Google’s latest program version of “Get Your Business Online” centers around their “Grow with Google” rollout.
Google is trying to get every local business in 30,000 cities worldwide online, utilizing a variety of tools, videos, and by engaging Google Certified Partners to work with business owners to navigate and simplify the submission and verification process for their Google My Business listing.
Get Your Business Online
According to Google’s research, businesses that have accurate online listings grow 40% faster. In addition, consumers are 38 percent more likely to visit and 29 percent more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with complete listings. However, not enough companies have set up a local business listing on a search engine, Google says.
Getting Your Business Online with Google
In an attempt to remedy this situation, Google has created a series of small business focused videos, and the chance to build a free website, and offer local resources where business owners can ask questions and find solutions to issues that community members encounter.
Google includes individuals by offering them the opportunity to create postcards to support their favorite local businesses that are shareable on Google, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Google has also joined forces with certified partners, and local business organizations to offer Google My Business workshops, enabling local businesses to learn how to edit and control the information listed about them on Google Search and Maps.
Ultimately the “Why” for Google’s initiative can be summed up from a quote from the FAQ page:
“Now more than ever, Americans need digital skills to land the jobs they want, advance their careers, and grow their businesses. Grow with Google aims to help by providing free training, tools and expertise.
Since 2017, more than three million Americans have grown their businesses and careers with help from Grow with Google’s trainings and in-person workshops. And through a network of more than 6,000 partner organizations—including local libraries, schools, and nonprofits—more people across the country have access to our free online tools and flexible programs.
We believe that technology has the power to unlock new opportunities for growth. When those opportunities are available to everyone, communities across the country can achieve their full potential.”
Is your business online? It’s not a question of “why?” but “why not?”
Melanie & Co is a marketing agency and Grow with Google Partner, able to advise and facilitate changes needed to increase your local, regional, or national presence online. Since 2015, we’ve helped 1000’s of small businesses get online with Google through large conferences, small workshops, one-on-one training.