We often get asked "how can I help?" by people when they first hear about us. Here's a few easy ways you can help, even if you're not a sales expert or big-time social networker.

The Quick Ask

Since Shire Silver cards fit easily into wallets, just make sure you always have a couple in yours. When you go to your favorite stores, as you check out simply pull them out of your wallet and ask the cashier if they accept them. Chances are that they have never heard of Shire Silver and will say no. That's OK, just put them back and use cash or your debit card like you normally would.

Be sure to not pressure them or try to get into a long discussion about sound money and the evils of the Federal Reserve, especially if there's other customers waiting. But if there is no line and the cashier is interested then go ahead and have a friendly conversation. Perhaps point them to this site for more info, or if you have some brochures then promise to bring one the next time you shop.

Every time you show someone the cards you make them that tiny bit more legitimate in their eyes. You also let them know there's a demand for their acceptance. When enough people in an area ask a store owner to accept them, they will consider it thoughtfully. The more other places they can use it, the more likely they will be to say yes. So hitting up as many stores as you can in your area will help.

It might take some time to find that first merchant in your area with the foresight and wisdom to sign on, but after that it gets easier.

Share Socially

Armchair activism is easy, but it doesn't help a lot. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't help at all or isn't worth doing. If you like something we post on your social network of choice, please share it with your friends, family, circles, groups, whatever. Try not to do it in a spammy way or in ways that are inappropriate, but we're pretty confident that you're smart enough to figure out how to be a good sharer.

You can also help by commenting in forum threads, letting your online communities know that there exists a legal and sound alternative currency. Every time you post somewhere, especially if you link to ShireSilver.com, you help elevate us in search engines as well as get a few more eyeballs seeing our name and brand.

Create Your Own Content

We've really enjoyed some of the user generated content we've seen, and really appreciate it when we find it. Whether its a nice review of our products, a picture of them "in the wild", or even just a short sentence about them shared on a social network; we often like them so much we re-share them.

This sort of content often comes in quite handy for us. Sometimes its something we can use in our other promotional efforts. Sometimes we simply re-share it, spreading the message of sound money to more people. Sometimes it gives us an idea for improving our marketing or even the products themselves.

So feel free to create your own content promoting Shire Silver. Or even better, if you are creating something for a totally unrelated reason, consider placing Shire Silver in the piece as just a natural part of it. Product placement is a big part of marketing these days because its so effective.

Other ideas?

If you can think of other ways people can help, we'd love to hear about them. You can add them below as a comment, or you can join our insider community at ShireSilver.org and discuss it in the forums there.