1. Reveal Your Process
What makes your product or service more desirable than a chain or mass-produced product is talk-value. Few people see shopping at Wal-Mart or buying something from the Gap as a badge of honor. That's just a fact of life. If they're going to shop your small, independent, and probably more expensive wares, you need to provide the customer with the expertise to differentiate their purchase from their peers.

If they can become an expert on your business model, production process, even speak about you as a person, then they will brag about their purchase every chance they get. They'll even brag about things they don't buy if it means they seem interesting simply by knowing about you.

And your process doesn't have to be all that unique. Just by revealing a typical process for manufacturing a simple chair design, for example, makes it seem like you're the only one that does it that way. Educating people about mundane products makes your product seem more special and worth their loyalty. Especially lost-tradition processes like knitting, brewing and farming.

Examples of great process story-telling:
Flocks Sweaters - Each item is made from a single sheep's wool and tracked from shear to sweater.
Cut Brooklyn - A local knife maker makes the mundane seem magical.

2. Exhibit the Impact of Your Customers' Purchases
A growing number of consumers want to know how their purchases affect a business or organization. Consuming, in these people's eyes, equates to support. This is more than a "support your local business" model; it's extends globally to smaller, developing countries and artisans abroad.

The catch, is that when people feel like they are supporting, instead of purchasing, they expect a return on their good karma. This doesn't have to be costly. For you, it might simply mean keeping them updated on the growth or plans of your business, or connecting them to other organizations that are relevant and represent the same values. Again, it's education and talk value.

This could also work directly in your favor. Someone who feels like a supporter might not just be looking for a payback; they're often looking for more impactful ways to "give." Offering someone a chance to help your business get over a hurdle, such as purchasing a new space or new piece of equipment can give them an ownership mentality in the future of your business, which results in a customer for life that takes on  the responsibility of evangelizing your product or service to others. 

Examples of great purchase-impact storytelling:
Tom's Shoes - Creating a "one-to-one" impact for your purchase.
Kiva - Microlending through social networks for small businesses in developing countries.

And chances are, you already engage personally in social Web circles. Talking about your business should come naturally in those arenas as a welcomed, relevant topic that your customers would feel connected to. It's like running into a friend on the train.

Examples of great partnership and social media extensions:
Threadless - A t-shirt company that understands its audience becomes its audience's biggest fan.
Tamale Tracker - A guy that sells home-made tamales at bars that close their kitchens early, suddenly finds himself with a customer-imposed business plan via Twitter.

These components — Process, Purchase Impact, and Involvement — should be part of any social Web strategy for a small business. While there are ways to measure ROI in these areas — impressions, hits and clik-through transactions — the real signs of impact will be the increased level of interaction with your customers and the industry as a whole, and your story taking on a life of its own. While it might initially seem like a burden to a small business to produce this level of interaction, in the long run, it supports itself through those customers and partners that rally around you, indefinitely.