The internet gives today’s businesses a powerful advantage: With just a few clicks of a mouse, your small business – perhaps run from a spare bedroom or your dining room table – can compete with the megacorporations for clients from around the world. The web makes your business a globally focused business. It’s a thrilling, borderless time of business: We can start our day doing some work for a client in Germany, then collaborate in real time with a vendor in Brazil, and finish our day by talking to a prospect in Singapore… all from the comfort of our home. That’s a business environment that includes billions of people.

The concept of having billions of people in your supply chain – whether vendors or customers – would have shocked our forefathers. Hundreds and even thousands of years ago, commerce was a local effort. Products were created and services were offered to the clans or tribes or villages or towns nearby. But constraints of time, shipping, wastage, bandits, and the unknown (summed up nicely in the phrase “here be dragons”) kept people from going farther. Over time, shipping played a greater role but there were plenty of middlemen to make importing a costly endeavor. So, business was done locally, which brought its own challenges and opportunities.

It’s interesting that we’ve moved to the other side of the spectrum today – many businesses feel compelled to have a global focus at the expense of a local focus. But it’s changing. To borrow a term: “Local is the new global”. Here’s where we’re seeing the shifting trends:

SOCIAL MEDIA: The local business succeeded because it built solid relationships with a few suppliers and a few prospects. Those relationships became more than business relationships; personal friendships were built.

Case in point: your grandparents or great-grandparents could probably walk down to their local bank and borrow money based solely on their reputation and relationship with the bank manager.

Another case in point: No one puts things “on your tab” anymore, but that was a service offered by local businesses and based entirely on relationship. When the web introduced the concept of global business, plenty of small businesses created a façade of big business with flashy websites and professionalism. But today’s social media marketing is going back to the concept of relationships as people create a network of friends (i.e., Facebook) or followers (i.e., Twitter) or readers (i.e., Blogs) or contacts (i.e., LinkedIn) and do business with those people.

Additionally, Facebook uses the concept of Networks to help users find each other. And Twitter users who Tweet about local topics use the #cityname hashtag (i.e., #NYC for New York City).

GOOGLE GOES LOCAL: Another area we’re seeing a resurging emphasis in local business is in local marketing efforts. Google AdWords give users the option to drill down a target audience to the local level and Google Analytics can help users see who visits from what city. Google Maps help to pinpoint where you are so that someone who types “Restaurants in St. Louis” will find your St. Louis-based restaurant.

CRAIGSLIST: Craigslist is a popular marketing tool but it is most useful in the local market – its structure is set up that way and the local aspect helps to mitigate some of the scam risks that are present in that marketing channel.

I could go on and on. These are just some of the web-based marketing opportunities that are trending back toward doing business locally. And add to this list the local marketing channels that never went away, like networking and Yellow Pages.

Businesses need to be global, but let’s not ignore our next door neighbors as a potential client as well! How do you use social media to find local contacts? Leave your ideas in the comments.

photo credit: loop_oh