Small and local businesses in America don't have much time for fluff. They want real leads coming in consistently; and many don't care how those leads come in so long as everything is ethical. Whether it is a word of mouth referral, leads from a ribbon cutting at a Chamber of Commerce event, ranking #1 in the search engines, paid ads in the local city magazine, or social media sharing -- most local businesses care about getting new customers or clients first & foremost.

Keeping the above in mind there now are a handful of Earth-focused, geo-relevant metaverse platforms. Unlike fictional video game worlds or just generic metaverse office environments, these platforms focus on real world locations instead. All of them likely have some digital representation of the small business' town or city.

These can look like metaverse platforms where your character (avatar) walks around, be represented in a manner similar to an online map, or even appear in Augmented Reality -- accessible by just a smart phone anywhere on Earth. Many of these platforms also permit a user to buy the representation of that land (in the form of squares, rectangles, hexagons, actual property lines, or even sections of a town) which then permit certain benefits.

Instead of typing about theoretical aspects of these platforms, let's get into some real world examples of what has been done already - or easily can be done - by a range of small and local businesses across the United States.

This piano bar has several locations in Texas and in other states. One way it can generate new business via the metaverse platforms is to place a 3D building (bar) on one or more of its locations in the map. They then can invite those who already are fans on social media & email lists to a monthly or quarterly "show" where attendees can sing along to known songs, regardless of where anyone is in the world. They all can attend a show in their metaverse bar based on a real location, and then they can tell their friends that they sang along at home. This turns into referral traffic as it engages the existing fan to promote the brand to those who haven't yet attended a live show at one of the locations.

This small business offers state-approved online driver education courses in 3 states. Students don't have go to a physical school anymore to "take drivers ed", as they get state-approved driver education which constitutes passing the written test in these states.

Earth based metaverse platforms allow the owner to drive a car on real world streets anywhere in these states. The owner then can give specific driving safety tips and optimize for hyper-relevance to parents and young adults who will be making buying decisions for these geographic areas. While it is ideal to be on location and do professional quality video for each city, it just is too cost prohibitive in most cases. The metaverse option allows the business owner to scale quickly - being able to create 20+ city-specific videos, each with hyper-specific content, in a single day.

If someone runs a marketplace for a particular niche, such as a SEO marketplace, then creating helpful videos in the metaverse can appeal to business owners in a large city. The online marketplace owner can show business owners how various services being sold on the marketplace relate to large number of businesses in that city. This help grow the nationwide acceptance of the marketplace on a large-population city-by-city basis.

There tends to be a significant amount of competition in the large cities and their suburbs for professional videography and other video production services. One way to differentiate is to place examples of videos done on location in the metaverse.

For example, if a company did event videography at a city's large conference hotel then it can create a 3D building in the Earth-based metaverse platform at/near the hotel's location. Then the videos can be put on the 3D building's wall like a gallery, and metaverse visitors can watch the videos to see what was done for that specific geographic area.

Even though this is a physical business, a plumber still can use the metaverse to help increase new leads. For example if a prospective customer is having flooding in one's home due to proximity to a nearby body of water (stream, river, lake, etc.) then the plumber can place his own avatar at that body of water. He then can record the "journey" of how the water is entering the homeowner's structure and what might be able to remedy the situation. The video then would be sent to the homeowner for him/her to make a decision on whether or not to use the plumbing company's services.

The same principle would apply to a local heating and cooling contractor discussing issues which affect rooftop units.

A local auto dealer, such as one which has multiple manufacturers & models that are pre-owned, can place a 3D version of the vehicle at the prospective customer's driveway or office parking lot. That way the prospective customer can get an idea of how the car may look on high-emotion locations based on the customer's values. The cars even can have clickable links on them so that they produce some indirect local SEO benefits, and the metaverse-recorded videos can be shared via private YouTube or other video-sharing methods.

Should the customer have an avatar for the metaverse, then he/she can walk around the car on location. Some platforms soon may allow the auto dealer to "drive" the car from the dealership to the prospective customer's location so that they can test drive the car around town. This also is good for dealers who ship cars out of state so that the prospective customer can drive the car in the metaverse around his/her town such as on highways and major roads.

Using the example of a small business which sells high-end lasers for equine and veterinary therapeutic use, the business can place videos about the lasers' benefits on locations of importance to the horse owners. This can be a well-known horse racetrack all the way to the owner's equestrian farm. That way the horse owners will feel more connected to the laser company since it shows that the business is willing to meet the horse owner on places of high emotion. The same principle would apply to veterinary clinics which handle horses.

This company already does advanced augmented reality (AR) for major companies at big trade shows. However, the content's life cycle typically ends at the end of the big trade show/expo.

The company can get more longevity by adding the same AR content, reformatted for metaverse and virtual world environments by placing it in high-emotion locations tied to the desired audience. This could be prospective customers, those who couldn't attend the trade show, and other audiences.

Many high-risk local businesses (adult, canna, gambling) often get censored or blocked on major social media properties. There also often are local marketing channels blocking them due to stigmas. However, the Earth-based metaverse platforms are wide open and can help such businesses have a local presence.

Prospective customers can visit the shop, talk with a shop representative (such as an AI agent inside the 3D building) to answer basic questions, and even place orders for pickup or delivery (if local laws permit). The same would apply for the other businesses which don't offer physical products, such as a local casino or similar establishment.

Keep these ideas in mind as we head into the era where businesses, including small ones and local businesses, will consider taking action in metaverse platforms so long as they have direct, and some indirect, ways to generate new leads and build trust in their companies.

Small and local businesses in America don't have much time for fluff. They want real leads coming in consistently; and many don't care how those leads come in so long as everything is ethical. Whether it is a word of mouth referral, leads from a ribbon cutting at a Chamber of Commerce event, ranking #1 in the search engines, paid ads in the local city magazine, or social media sharing -- most local businesses care about getting new customers or clients first & foremost.

Keeping the above in mind there now are a handful of Earth-focused, geo-relevant metaverse platforms. Unlike fictional video game worlds or just generic metaverse office environments, these platforms focus on real world locations instead. All of them likely have some digital representation of the small business' town or city.

These can look like metaverse platforms where your character (avatar) walks around, be represented in a manner similar to an online map, or even appear in Augmented Reality -- accessible by just a smart phone anywhere on Earth. Many of these platforms also permit a user to buy the representation of that land (in the form of squares, rectangles, hexagons, actual property lines, or even sections of a town) which then permit certain benefits.

Instead of typing about theoretical aspects of these platforms, let's get into some real world examples of what has been done already - or easily can be done - by a range of small and local businesses across the United States.

This piano bar has several locations in Texas and in other states. One way it can generate new business via the metaverse platforms is to place a 3D building (bar) on one or more of its locations in the map. They then can invite those who already are fans on social media & email lists to a monthly or quarterly "show" where attendees can sing along to known songs, regardless of where anyone is in the world. They all can attend a show in their metaverse bar based on a real location, and then they can tell their friends that they sang along at home. This turns into referral traffic as it engages the existing fan to promote the brand to those who haven't yet attended a live show at one of the locations.

This small business offers state-approved online driver education courses in 3 states. Students don't have go to a physical school anymore to "take drivers ed", as they get state-approved driver education which constitutes passing the written test in these states.

Earth based metaverse platforms allow the owner to drive a car on real world streets anywhere in these states. The owner then can give specific driving safety tips and optimize for hyper-relevance to parents and young adults who will be making buying decisions for these geographic areas. While it is ideal to be on location and do professional quality video for each city, it just is too cost prohibitive in most cases. The metaverse option allows the business owner to scale quickly - being able to create 20+ city-specific videos, each with hyper-specific content, in a single day.

If someone runs a marketplace for a particular niche, such as a SEO marketplace, then creating helpful videos in the metaverse can appeal to business owners in a large city. The online marketplace owner can show business owners how various services being sold on the marketplace relate to large number of businesses in that city. This help grow the nationwide acceptance of the marketplace on a large-population city-by-city basis.

There tends to be a significant amount of competition in the large cities and their suburbs for professional videography and other video production services. One way to differentiate is to place examples of videos done on location in the metaverse.

For example, if a company did event videography at a city's large conference hotel then it can create a 3D building in the Earth-based metaverse platform at/near the hotel's location. Then the videos can be put on the 3D building's wall like a gallery, and metaverse visitors can watch the videos to see what was done for that specific geographic area.

Even though this is a physical business, a plumber still can use the metaverse to help increase new leads. For example if a prospective customer is having flooding in one's home due to proximity to a nearby body of water (stream, river, lake, etc.) then the plumber can place his own avatar at that body of water. He then can record the "journey" of how the water is entering the homeowner's structure and what might be able to remedy the situation. The video then would be sent to the homeowner for him/her to make a decision on whether or not to use the plumbing company's services.

The same principle would apply to a local heating and cooling contractor discussing issues which affect rooftop units.

A local auto dealer, such as one which has multiple manufacturers & models that are pre-owned, can place a 3D version of the vehicle at the prospective customer's driveway or office parking lot. That way the prospective customer can get an idea of how the car may look on high-emotion locations based on the customer's values. The cars even can have clickable links on them so that they produce some indirect local SEO benefits, and the metaverse-recorded videos can be shared via private YouTube or other video-sharing methods.

Should the customer have an avatar for the metaverse, then he/she can walk around the car on location. Some platforms soon may allow the auto dealer to "drive" the car from the dealership to the prospective customer's location so that they can test drive the car around town. This also is good for dealers who ship cars out of state so that the prospective customer can drive the car in the metaverse around his/her town such as on highways and major roads.

Using the example of a small business which sells high-end lasers for equine and veterinary therapeutic use, the business can place videos about the lasers' benefits on locations of importance to the horse owners. This can be a well-known horse racetrack all the way to the owner's equestrian farm. That way the horse owners will feel more connected to the laser company since it shows that the business is willing to meet the horse owner on places of high emotion. The same principle would apply to veterinary clinics which handle horses.

This company already does advanced augmented reality (AR) for major companies at big trade shows. However, the content's life cycle typically ends at the end of the big trade show/expo.

The company can get more longevity by adding the same AR content, reformatted for metaverse and virtual world environments by placing it in high-emotion locations tied to the desired audience. This could be prospective customers, those who couldn't attend the trade show, and other audiences.

Many high-risk local businesses (adult, canna, gambling) often get censored or blocked on major social media properties. There also often are local marketing channels blocking them due to stigmas. However, the Earth-based metaverse platforms are wide open and can help such businesses have a local presence.

Prospective customers can visit the shop, talk with a shop representative (such as an AI agent inside the 3D building) to answer basic questions, and even place orders for pickup or delivery (if local laws permit). The same would apply for the other businesses which don't offer physical products, such as a local casino or similar establishment.

Keep these ideas in mind as we head into the era where businesses, including small ones and local businesses, will consider taking action in metaverse platforms so long as they have direct, and some indirect, ways to generate new leads and build trust in their companies.