Ryan Park of the Adventurous 500: Social Media for Small Business

“Local businesses are suffering and can not afford traditional advertising. ”

In the Fall of 2010, Ryan Park will launch The Adventurous 500.  This company seeks to support local business in their advertising endeavors by providing an incredibly cheap, social, and effective way to connect with students – through social media.

Beginning on November 15, The Adventurous 500 will be touring Colorado to discover the best, worst, and most adventurous people and places that it has to offer. The entire adventure will be caught on camera and posted online at www.Adventurous500.com. Along the way, they’ll do countless amounts of giveaways through social media platforms – YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

The focus of the Adventurous 500 is to support local business – large and small – while providing entertainment, gifts, and social value to the Colorado community. By selling advertisements at low cost, The Adventurous 500 hopes to provide an opportunity for companies to continue to advertise, despite the bad economy. Many companies are on social networks, but few actually know how to create a strategy, captivate an audience, and engage potential customers.

Ryan Park, the young entrepreneur behind the Adventurous 500 points to a recent Mashable article about Facebook strategy for small business:

“If you build it, they won’t come. There is an assumption among many marketers that Facebook is a free medium that will deliver hundreds of thousands of new customers. That’s not the case. It has a massive audience, but that audience isn’t necessarily on the site searching for brands. There are few brands out there with the clout to spontaneously generate an audience, so you need to think about how you’re going to proactively build your fan numbers.”

The Adventurous 500 seeks to be the type of story that brands can attach themselves to and use a part of their proactive social strategy online. In addition, a portion of the revenue from The Adventurous 500’s ad sales will be given to a local charity-  Ryan will donate 10 Cents for every person who “Likes” his Facebook page.

Want to sponsor a day? Daily sponsorships will be sold at “face value.” Day 1 starts on November 15 and increases $1 every day, until Day 500 on March 30, 2010 when the sponsorship price is $500.  In addition, companies who purchase a day before November 15th will receive 10% off their purchase. To book a day, please contact Wade@adventurous500.com.

The Adventurous 500 is an online story that helps local business and charities, and we were lucky to talk to Ryan about the motivation behind this unique locally focused endeavor.

WP: Why you decided to create this opportunity for small business?

RP: Small businesses simply don’t have the resources (personnel, money, time, knowledge, etc.) to run effective social media campaigns, so they settle for traditional media outreach like newspapers and coupons. I wanted to create an opportunity to integrate new media into their marketing efforts without costing them too much. It is my hope that the many people who “try The Adventurous 500 out” get more involved in social media – it is the most effective way to reach people on their time. I decided to create this opportunity for small businesses because I strongly feel they should use social media in a way that is effective. I’m passionate about social media and support local business, and this seemed like the natural path for me to take as an entrepreneur.

Most exciting for me is that my company is a small business, so my audience will have the opportunity to see my company grow online – as the video quality will get better and so will the adventures! It can feel overwhelming at times, but then the excitement comes in and I get pumped to be able to grow my small business and support other local companies too.

WP: What about small business or local business is important to you?

RP: Small businesses drive our economy. They will rebuild our economy, and they will continue to provide jobs for a majority of the population. Why wouldn’t small business be important to you?

WP: Why do you think they need to be capturing people through new media?

RP: According to numerous sources 97% of Generation-Y (born between 1980-1993) are using social media. Watch this video, and then tell me if you think not leveraging social media is a good idea. Social media isn’t JUST a medium, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate with each other. Companies HAVE to utilize it correctly.

Want more information about Ryan and the Adventurous 500? Check out this great video: