3 Local Business, 3 Different Social Media Approaches

I had the honor of being asked to choose 3 local businesses for @TeresaKaszuba (to feature on) @CHEX5OCLOCK .  So, who did I believe applied superior use of Social Media.   Well, it was a tough choice as there are 100s here in Peterborough, so, we choose three in walking distance of each other, and hope to do this again in a months time with three different businesses in maybe a different area. 

So, the three businesses we chose included a women's fashion boutique, a bakery and a non-profit environmental organization store.   Here the full video coverage, watch the beginning, middle and end to catch all three Social Media spots! 

Our first stop, the clothing store www.TiaStar.com interesting enough started as an online clothing store and then evolved into her new physical retail location, carrying clothes as well as locally made jewellery and other accessories.  It`s defiantly one of the funkiest stores in Peterborough, very New York.   Tia`s style and personality comes through on her store, blog & Facebook   She says the biggest thing that differentiates her is her personal customer service. She is always sharing HOW TO do certain things, like wear a hair band, or such on her blog.  This store owner said she finds her website, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TiaStarOnlineBoutique and her blog http://blog.tiastar.com/ very useful business tools.  Tia`s fashions were used recently in a Strutt 4 Kids fund raiser, Tia posted a photo as the girls were hanging around in her shop. The post of those girls received higher than normal engagement levels, showing her community loves that she supports them, and that people love seeing themselves and friends in posts.  All of her posts are very Photo driven, which also increases her visibility and reach.  More than not, her Facebook posts link back to her blog or website, increasing both her traffic and her website sales.

The second company we visited was http://www.blackhoneydesserts.com/.  Our Bakery and Coffee Shop owners, Lisa Dixon, has two locations, the coffee shop on a busy street and the bakery which is tucked behind the busy street. She first started her Twitter efforts to bring people into her shop. She says it works! She now sees her smart phone and the few seconds it takes to take a photo and upload it as her marketing budget and marketing effort! She loves it. People often come into her bakery,  take a photo of what they are about to purchase, and tweet it.  Lisa says this leads to people dropping in asking to purchase what that last person had tweeted, showing her the photo they just saw mentioning @blackhoneycake.  Of course, as a business owner, she`s thrilled.

Finally,  we visited  @ptbogreenup, these guys were selected because of their online supportive nature.  They are always LISTENING to & supporting their online community.  Matt Higgs from Peterborough GreenUp says they don't listen at 3am and no one expects them to be. They respect and support their online community, they are always retweeting and mentioning appropriate peeps.  They are an excellent example of Twitter excellence. 

He too uses his smart phone as his online marketing weapon!

In summary, all three of our outstanding businesses see that their efforts are noticed and grow when:

1) they use PHOTOs in their posts vs just text.

2) their current followers shares or mentions them.

3) they share photos of their community involvement.

4) they mention or share others`relevant online tweets or articles.

5) they link back to a visual page on their own Blog or Website.

I would like to thank Kevin & Teressa from the @CHEX5OCLOCK show, this was a BLAST.   It was interested to see how shy our cameraman, Kevin, is! KEVIN, good luck in your Iron-Man November 25th!
@TeresaKaszuba I hope we do this again next month and a few times next year, each with three other outstanding companies. You are a BLAST to work with, everyone in this community LOVEs you!