Teddy Shoes has been part of the heart of Central Square since 1957. The shop’s owner, Steven Adelson, joined the family business in 1978. On most days, you can find him in the shop talking to customers and tending to inventory. As of recently, you may also find him scripting, rehearsing and filming videos for his growing social media accounts.
Thanks to a digital bootcamp created by Cambridge Local First and funded by the city of Cambridge, Adelson and several other small business owners across the city were able to attend classes and receive individual guidance on how to create, produce, and post social media content. For Adelson, 71, Instagram and Tiktok have become new avenues for customer engagement at his shoe store.
Andrea Taylor Dunkley, architect of the bootcamp and an executive board member at CLF, described the program as an all-encompassing opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to learn to navigate the digital landscape. “There’s just so much out there that a lot of small business owners are really overwhelmed,” she said. The goal for CLF was to give small business owners a comprehensive approach to how they could use digital media to promote their businesses, across social media, their websites, optimizing for search engines, and building up their brand.
Aimed at promoting “digital era readiness,” the 10-week bootcamp was free to participants thanks to city funding. It ran three separate cohorts of six to seven people, tailored to specific types of business sectors: food and beverage, business-to-business professional services and health, wellness and creative. Teddy Shoes fell under the creative category, because it is focused on dance.
For Adelson, the bootcamp equipped him with skills that go beyond just digital production. “It got my content going, all of the creative juices going, and my ability to speak in front of the camera,” Adelson explained. “It allowed me to be creative and find different ways to connect to the community.”
Each cohort used the same structure consisting of one workshop, designated coworking time, and the additional opportunity to meet one on one with a program professional to work on business-specific needs. For the workshops, Dunkley brought in different lectures based on expertise, with weekly workshops focused on storytelling, digital marketing and social media strategy among others.
In addition to providing Adelson with a new way to reach people online, the workshop also offered participating businesses the ability to connect with each other. “My favorite part would be having the opportunity to meet so many great people around the city of Cambridge,” Adelson said. He met other local business owners, the Mayor and other members of the community, including financial professionals who could help with grant opportunities and funding more generally.
Using what he learned from CLF and a few local volunteers, Adelson has posted several short-form social media videos ranging from shoe of the week to shop tours. He is also preparing for a shift in focus. “We’re doing TikTok now and we may go on to TikTok Shop once we have enough followers,” Adelson said.
For Dunkley, mentoring Adelson offered a full circle moment. “I used to get my tap shoes and my ballet shoes, from his store,” Dunkley said. “My mother would bring me to Teddy’s Shoes when I was in elementary school, when I did my dance classes. I used to get my leotards, like everything, through Teddy Shoes.”
CLF isn’t the only organization in the city sponsoring digital forward bootcamps for community members. CCTV has also begun offering classes dedicated to online marketing and plans to introduce a similar social media workshop.
Ose Schwab, an educational facilitator with CCTV, has been in charge of coordinating its technology workshops. In the past, CCTV has offered a digital fundamentals course that offers community members basic technology guidance on topics such as how to use email effectively and creating websites on the Square Space platform. Schwab said CCTV graduates have asked it for more individualized learning opportunities.
Both CLF and CCTV plan to host more workshops on digital readiness. As for the future of Teddy Shoes, Adelson already has several upcoming video ideas in the mix, including some collaborations with other Central Square businesses. He said the whole experience has “really been extremely gratifying.”
Brianna Earle is reporting this summer for Cambridge Day as part of a partnership with the Brandeis University journalism program.
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