How Small Businesses Can Show Their Charitable Side

Go to a large corporate website and click open their site map. You will be inundated with a multitude of boastful links and phrases, all in the same vein: “Community & Giving,” “Helping Society,” “Giving Back,” “Doing Our Part,” “Corporate Philanthropy,” “Social Responsibility,” “Charitable Giving,” etc. The effect is humanizing. Suddenly, the corporation seems a bit more friendly, a bit more caring.

I certainly won’t begrudge a corporation for promoting their philanthropy, good deeds deserve good press. However, corporations don’t hold a monopoly on charitable work. America’s small businesses are certainly no stranger to helping others. Yet, many don’t capitalize on the opportunity to promote their involvement in charities. They should.

Small businesses are usually local entities. They hire locally, market locally and give back locally. While a large corporation may be impressively involved in a well-known, national charity, small businesses will win more fans because they are in-tune with the community. They know which charities mean the most to the area and they invest their time, money and effort into those.

So, how do small business owners go about showing off their charitable side? The same way corporations do, but on a smaller scale. Corporations use their website as a soap box because they need to be found nationally, in the organic search results. Small businesses only need to be found in the areas they serve, in the local search results. As a result, they should optimize their local business profiles with a few details regarding their charitable involvement.

Most local search sites allow you to enter a description when you claim your business profile. Tuck a few well crafted sentences that detail your business’ involvement with local charities into this section. You could even mention your willingness to sponsor local teams or host certain activities, events or fundraisers. Imagine the rapport you could build with your community when they stumble upon your business profile.

At EZlocal, we take the idea of being a charity-friendly business a step further. Our “charity-friendly” zuluz is a searchable profile attribute that provides business owners a specific area to talk about their charitable involvement. Take a page out of the big corporation’s playbook and claim your zuluz today!