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!

CHEXNewswatch's Shares their Social Media Story

Television news stations have had to change their approach to distribution of the news,   CHEX TV shares their Social Media story, article, by Steve Guthrie!

Like all television stations in North America, CHEX TV has a website (CHEXTV.com) which was set up to promote its broadcast schedule. Later, the daily newscasts at 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 pm were recorded and uploaded to the website. A technological change a few years ago meant we could no longer post the entire newscast. Instead, we posted individual news stories in various categories on the website. About a year ago, I put forward the idea that CHEX should have both Twitter and Facebook accounts as the value of such social media platforms to local news was becoming obvious. For example, many people will send Twitter messages about upcoming events or even spot news they come across like fires or car accidents. This gives a news outlet a leg up on what may be happening in our community. From a professional standpoint, these messages are a starting point. Just because someone tweets about a ‘big car crash’ doesn't mean we will automatically broadcast it or ReTweet it. We will, however, send a videographer to check it out. If it turns into something, as well as shooting video of the scene and interviewing bystanders and officials, the videographer will Tweet it.

@CHEXNewswatch is the main Twitter handle but most videographers have their own. By including @CHEXNewswatch to their tweet, of course, it goes to the 3000 people who follow us. Social Media Consultant Sofie Andreou advised us to include a link back to the story on CHEXTV.com whenever possible in our Tweets. This drives traffic to our website, which is attractive to advertisers but also allows the online editor or videographer to write a story on the website that is more detailed than a 140-character Tweet allows. So for example, our first Tweet may say ‘House fire on Bethune Street, Newswatch has a crew on the way’. Subsequent Tweets from the videographer in the field may be along the lines of ‘Firefighters entering fully involved home on Bethune Street’. While this is going on, the online editor back at the station is writing copy for the website about the fire for those who have gone to CHEXTV.com for the story. Once that copy is written, the editor can now send a Twitter message, including the link to the story on the website. He will also create a hashtag for the incident, like #Bethunefire. As soon as the videographer returns with video of the fire on Bethune Street, the online editor puts some up on the website and Tweets that.

A new wrinkle that is rapidly growing in popularity due to Smartphones is the attachment of photos or video to individual Tweets. This is a very positive step, especially when spot news is concerned. However, we are still working out the technicalities of videographers using personal air time on their phones to supply material to the company.

When we have an exclusive, we will often Tweet a tease, rather than reveal the entire story. The local news business is very competitive and there is no point in letting the cat out of the bag with a Tweet you didn’t think through.

Facebook is a different story. Our software allows us to automatically send a link to Facebook and Twitter whenever a story is posted to CHEXTV.com. We have 600 people who like out Facebook page but we have not explored all the possibilities Facebook has to offer. One thing that has happened is our Facebook page has become a sort of clearing house for local news, which other radio and print agencies all post to.

Steve Gurhrie, Online Editor ChexTV

www.CHEXTV.com