Small businesses in Bay Area, California, had been helplessly witnessing a steady decline in business as big name retailers opened local chapters and also offered a relentless flow of tempting online offers at their websites. This was till Jason Sutherland a web designer opened the web-based community portal called Peninsula Shops. Sutherland had envisioned Peninsula Shops as a ‘chamber of commerce on steroids’. He intended to help local businesses stay relevant and improve their profits with the help of latest online marketing ideas.

One of these ideas which he has used with much success is devising treasure hunts on Twitter. These treasure hunts involve trivia based questions about local businesses, and winners are usually rewarded discount coupons and freebies at local outlets. Sutherland charges an annual fee of $180 or $20 a month and has signed up 80 businesses since he opened last year.

One of his clients Debby Icide has a small boutique at Bay Area called Gaia Essentials where she sells homemade organic soaps and natural skin care products. Icide had never used Twitter, but a single enticing Tweet sent by Sutherland on her behalf ended up increasing traffic to Gaia Essentias’ website by 400% in the duration of a few hours. Peninsula Shops has also helped reinvigorate 55 year old Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park which had closed down last year due to competition from national book store chains like Amazon before being resurrected with help from local communities.

Source: Inc. Magazine