Monday, November 21, 2011

The Mom and Pop Store's Social Strategy

I recently put together a deck describing in basic words why this small family owned jewelry store should consider a social strategy. The grand-daughter of the store owner has started the trip down this path but wanted some additional ideas. 


Below are the highlights of the presentation and I invite more tips if you have them.



Why Create a Social Strategy


  • Customers who know you like to see what you are doing. This gives them a reason to visit the store and get excited about their next purchase. 
  • New customers who do not know you, will do their research and will want to understand how you do business.  
  • Create excitement and buzz (i.e. coupons, customer polls) •
  • Create a forum for loyal customers to visit and comment about the service, product and recent purchase 
  • Gives businesses insight on their quality of service and product 
  • Showcase the brands that you carry 
  • Low cost marketing and advertising 
  • It is not just for the young and the older demographic is using social strategy to connect to friends and family. 

Some Useful Tips about Social

  • Ensure messages are consistent and updated at least weekly 
  • Highlight your customer base and ask them to find you online.
  • Consider promotions to attract walk-ins and returning customers.
  • Post pictures of the store, products and customers frequently
  • Highlight staff and make suggestions about products
  • Link to brand pages and relevant articles
  • Provide customer tips
  • Reply to customer inquiries as soon as possible
  • Track your site metrics 
Proposed Social Roadmap

  • Make sure your website has interesting information and is not just a site for basic hours of operations.
  • Make Facebook customer central
  • Use Twitter to highlight upcoming events and activities
  • Use YouTube to make customers famous
  • Create a LinkedIn company page
  • Blog about your store and industry using Blogger or Tumblr
Facebook Tips

  • Update the logo with the picture of the store
  • Ask walk in customers in the store to go home and “like” your page and offer an incentive to do so.
  • Ask to take a picture of the walk in customers and post to FB. Tag the Customer so their friends can see that they were in the store.
  • Email customers your Facebook site and ask them to “like” the page.
  • Make this an exclusive site for offering contests and coupons.
  1. Sponsor monthly favorite fan contest where they can get $100 coupon (good up to one year)
  2. Give coupons for trunk shows ($25 - $100 off)
  3. Give away an item every month to a lucky FB fan (i.e. charms)
  • Launch customer polls for topics such as favorite brands, favorite piece per brand (i.e. showcase three sets if earrings and ask which is most fabulous), or other hot topics.
  • Ask customers what products they want
  • Talk about hot topics in town and collaborate with other retailers on Facebook Events
  • Highlight staff and their recommendations. This is especially great for holiday gifts 
Twitter Tips

  • Add the storefront logo 
  • Anytime FB, Blogs or Linked In is updated, tweet an update. 
  • Tweet when there are significant happenings in the store (coupons, contests and community events) 
  • Tweet about customers coming in (ask permission) 
  • Tweet about brands 
  • Highlight staff and their recommendations. This is especially great for engagement rings and holiday gifts 
Youtube Basics

  • Ask customers what they love about their purchase and experience
  • Make this a place where customers can check out each other and then send these links to their friends
  • Make the customer famous! 


LinkedIn Basics
  • Create a company page 
  • Ask each employee to sign up and connect with their business associates 
  • Connect with local merchants 
  • Connect with friends 
Sample Schedule for the Week


  • Mondays: Schedule tweets and start a hot topic of the week 
  • Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Join one hot trend conversation on Twitter, if appropriate, and add new content to Facebook (new items you are selling, photos, discounts and other promotions). 
  • Tuesdays and Thursdays: Respond to blog comments. 
  • Fridays: Check traffic at your blog or website. 
  • Saturday: Post a new blog 

Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

To a short, holiday week!

Michelle
the customer experience factory

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