Everyone says that social media is necessary to make a company grow, but many people and companies falter because they recycle content or blindly post the same content that appears in their print and TV ads without creating new content that is focused on the interactivity of social media.
Recently I was lucky enough to watch a boutique custom guitar builder make the leap into full manufacturing. They did this by leveraging their social media and growing their brand.
How did they leverage social media?
1 – Interaction
As digital marketers, we know that this is key; however, there is a difference between having someone who can catch problems or answer simple questions versus interacting at a personal level with clients. They created a Facebook group just for this production run and presented all decisions to the group for its input. The use and growth of the group resulted in a massive amount of interaction and questions. All ideas were considered, and all questions were answered promptly. Additionally, all other major social platforms were used to drive potential clients to the group.
2 – Focus Group Feedback
By bringing all of their clients into a single group and giving them ideas and product decisions to discuss, they gained an in-depth and searchable focus group interaction. Every product detail was open to discussion, and no topic or product decision was taboo. Some discussions led to future run developments while others determined color, hardware, and other element preferences for the initial run. Potential clients became paying clients as their feedback made itself known, and their voices became a part of the overall design, allowing them to feel that they “owned” their guitars before they were ever made.
3 – Responsiveness
This may seem to be similar to interaction, but there is a difference between simply interacting with someone through social media and being responsive to their questions and ideas. No matter what time a question was asked, an answer could be given. Some of this back and forth led to changes in the overall plan or additional options for the guitars. The number of threads and discussions that happened at all hours made this an active group, and the responsiveness increased the satisfaction of the clients and gave them a feeling that the company was there to support them.
In the end, by increasing their interaction, responsiveness, and by using the collected focus group elements, they leveraged their social media presence and increased their brand recognition, sales and profitability moving from a boutique guitar maker into a manufacturer role.
By Patrick Sanger, CEO of WAWD Consulting.
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