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Closely and the Perch app are now part of ThriveHive, a leading provider of digital marketing services for local businesses.

If you’re using Perch on your Android phone, you now get to enjoy a redesigned version that is much quicker to use and offers some important stats. Perch 2.9 for Android completely changes the way you view the social activity for your business and your competitors in a couple of ways: 

Quickly access your watched businesses directly from the Perch Home Screen. 

Always get back to your Home Screen quickly with the new My Perch button. 

See social stats for your own business from up to 14 days ago and instantly compare the audience size, engagement and chatter of your own business to any competitor.

Filter the posts for any business by what’s most important to you - posts by the business, activity by customers, or reviews.  

This exciting update helps you save you even more time as you keep tabs on the social activity in your marketplace. Our team has worked very hard to improve Perch for Android, and we sure hope you’ll enjoy it! 

Your watched businesses are now right on your Home Screen.

Perch now compares audience size, engagement and chatter numbers when you pick a competitor from your Watchlist.

35 years ago in Palm Beach county, Florida, Rose Kish started Kish Events & Décor out of her garage. Thanks to her natural talent and outstanding taste, the business became very successful. Today, she still handles the décor end of things, and her son Vincent runs the business operations, including marketing.  

Kish has an arrangement with about 20 different venues including the Marriott, Hilton, Embassy Suites, and local golf courses, which recommend Kish for many of their events. Kish’s other methods of public outreach are bridal trade shows and social media. That’s it.

“The first thing a bride does when she gets engaged is to go on social media and start looking at wedding designs and flowers and creations,” says Vincent. This is the first point at which Vincent can attract customers. When it comes to wedding planning, “Pinterest is probably number one, Instagram right behind it, then Facebook & Twitter. When a bride comes in and follows us on social media, she might not book right away. But when she sees something on one of our social feeds and loves it, she may call us and book.”

Vincent learned about Perch from a Facebook advertisement. “I always try everything once, so when I see something interesting I’ll download it and see if it works for me, and if it doesn’t I delete it quickly…but Perch was interesting. When I first downloaded it, I started watching some of my competitors, which was awesome. Then I developed it more and started watching the venues I work with and some people who are the leaders in our industry, so I can watch trends.”

He also uses Perch to assure the allegiance of the venues he has referral arrangements with. “Whenever a competitor in my industry takes a picture and posts it, they always tag the location. So I always see where they are. If they’re infringing on one of my venues, I know I have to call that venue and give them a friendly reminder.”

Brett Hemphill has built a very successful business in a high-end residential neighborhood near the water in Southern California. He founded Hemphill’s Rugs & Carpets twenty years ago. Brett runs the store, manages his installers, updates the website, and handles all social media himself.

Hemphill’s relies on two things to bring in business: word of mouth and social media. There are no print ads bought, no late-night TV commercials, no billboards, no coupons sitting in the local pizza shop. Hemphill’s needs only its reputation and some effective communication to bring people through the doors.

About a year ago Brett ran across a mention of the Perch app in a blog and decided to give it a try. He immediately recognized the usefulness of the app, and began following a handful of local competitors, along with his own business and his friend’s furniture business.

When watching the competition, Brett started to notice that his competitors’ social media posts tended to be impersonal – more like advertisements written by the brands they carry than something that came from the company itself. Brett realized that he could stand out by crafting more personal and casual messages – that are less “canned” than the competition.

Brett considers Facebook to be by far his most valuable social media outlet in terms of gaining business. Most of Hemphill’s Facebook followers are designers, so posting new products or recently completed jobs can inspire ideas for their work. Also, customers (and potential customers) often post their questions on the Facebook page. Because he receives Perch’s daily alerts, Brett doesn’t miss an opportunity to reply to these posts quickly.

Perch notifications help inspire and notify Brett’s team when a customer posts a review or tags the business in a photo. He uses those moments to share positive reviews and repost customer photos to Hemphill’s Facebook page. Just another way that he keeps content engaging and authentic.

Hwy 55 is a classic American 1950’s themed casual burger chain that started with humble beginnings at a single location in small-town North Carolina in 1991. It has since franchised to over 100 locations across eight US states and multiple countries.

At Hwy 55, Area Operators oversee the individual store locations. Preston Davis is an Area Operator of two locations in Texas. Making sure a restaurant is running smoothly and meeting customer expectations can be like performing a juggling act. Try doing this for two restaurants!

Preston first learned about Perch while on Facebook. He quickly downloaded the app because he, “thought it was cool that you can keep track of businesses in your area.” He didn’t have a plan for how he would use it, but he started following his two locations as well as a handful of  other local businesses. He soon realized the goldmine he’d stumbled upon.

It is clear that more and more consumers are using social media and review sites to praise or complain about their experiences. Gone are the days where you would get a call or an email about an issue. Because public complaints are now highly visible, it is critical for a business to not only be aware of these posts, but also address them as quickly as possible. For Preston, this is by far the most useful benefit Perch offers. In addition to social posts, he also appreciates the ability to track and respond to reviews.

Of course, responding to positive reviews & posts is important as well. Part of Hwy 55’s appeal is its personal touch. Connect with customers, make them part of the family, and you have a healthy business.

Preston gets Perch notifications and checks in at random times during the day as well. Perch also allows Preston to be notified of reviews from both Yelp and Google and all in one place. “Perch helps me keep track of what’s going on as far as the reviews that the stores are getting,” he said, “and the fact that I can do it on my phone makes it even better. I can just click on my phone at any point in the day, and if I see, for example, a new review on Yelp or Google for our North Richland Hills location, if it’s a good review, great, but if it’s a bad review I can send it to the store manager and let him know that we need to try to get in touch with this person and make it right. Let’s do what we can to fix it.”

Perch not only helps keep the customer happy, it helps keep the boss happy as well. “Perch keeps me on top of things, and I’m not blindsided if corporate contacts me about a complaint. I already know about it and have taken care of it.”

Small Business Saturday is on November 28th this year. At Perch, we work with small businesses year-round and whole-heartedly support the idea of promoting small businesses during the holiday craze. 

Here are some ideas on how your small business can stand out during Small Business Saturday:

If you have not done so already, definitely take advantage of the marketing materials and ideas provided by American Express for Small Business Saturday.  Download the free promotional tools, such as email templates, ideas for social posts, logos and signage. Members can also get on the map and take advantage of other free advertising.  

Do something special. This is a once a year opportunity to stand out and promote your business as part of a highly publicized and well-received national campaign. Some things to consider:

Open early – stay open later than usual to show it’s a special day and make sure your customers can reach you. Offer candy, water, donuts other treats. Free refreshments always draw in visitors and don’t have to be expensive. 

Run promotions for the day – discounts, BOGO, etc.

Offer merchandise that’s not typically available. Perhaps you can launch a new product or product line by a local artist or supplier.   Create a fun, celebratory atmosphere – even hire a musician, DJ or band. After all, the day is about celebrating small businesses.

Be creative! There are countless ways to do something special.

Collaborate with your friendly business neighbors. Talk to your business neighbors and see if they are interested in working together. Even something simple as entertainment or treats for the kids (think balloon animals, ice cream) get families excited for some local shopping.

Spread the word. Let your customers know what’s planned for Small Business Saturday and even help them get the word out. Communicate with email, on social media (use #SmallBizSat on Twitter), on your website and in the store. Be sure to include information of your special offers, hours, event, etc. Boost some posts on Facebook and target the audience in your neighborhood to spread the message to a wider audience.

A little over two years ago, Anand Patel and his friend Spoorthi Kumar faced the reality that after four years of working for a large corporation they needed something more from life. So they quit.

They knew they wanted to start their own business, but didn’t know exactly what it would be. The pair found a retail space for rent in a residential neighborhood in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where many of the businesses in the area had been around for decades – in fact, the space sits right across the street from the Olde Queens Tavern, est. 1933. One thing the neighborhood didn’t have was a quality coffee shop.

Soon, the space was transformed into a high-design café with long, rustic wooden tables and piping gas fixtures, and Hidden Grounds Coffee Shop was born. The idea was to build not just a coffee shop, but a community. Hosting events and music nights helped to create a good vibe and engaged clientele.

Now, two years later, Hidden Grounds has been such a success that Anand says they intend to expand, both in terms of location and retail product offerings – notably, their now famous cold-brewed coffee.

So how did they do it? How did a new business get so big, so fast? As is becoming more and more common these days, the answer isn’t in traditional marketing. Hidden Grounds built their playbook on two contemporary themes: events and social media.

Early on, Anand recognized the importance of understanding the neighborhood businesses in relation to his own, but found that manually tracking all of those social media accounts was far too tedious to be realistic. Using many different methods, Anand tried to construct a program to automatically pull all of these account feeds into one place. Ultimately, he wasn’t able to come up with anything that worked well.

He discovered the Perch app about two years ago and found that the app helped him to do exactly what he had tried to create himself. Now he is able to track the activities of local businesses across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Google reviews and never miss a special, event or marketing opportunity that may be sitting right outside of the shop’s doors.

In the past two years, social media has been instrumental in growing the business. Hidden Grounds has gained over 4,300 Facebook followers and over 2,700 Instagram followers. Perch helps Anand and Spoorthi track their own accounts, interact with customers, share positive reviews and stories and keep an eye on what’s going on around them. Using Perch has become a big part of their process for engaging and connecting with current and future customers and allows them to be on top of their digital footprint. And as we see more Hidden Grounds shops pop up on the map and Hidden Grounds Cold Brew Coffee six-packs start to appear on shelves, Perch will be there to help make it all happen - in a big way.