Social Climbing

Social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, et cetera – has drastically reshaped the way that individuals, organizations, and companies interact with one another in a remarkably short span of time. For those retailers who fully grasp and embrace the nuances of these new and emerging forms of communication, social media platforms can be powerful marketing tools that drive sales and build both brand recognition and customer loyalty.

However, the notion of tweeting a photo or posting a Facebook update sends many MI storeowners running for the exits – “It makes no sense to me!”; “That’s just for kids!”; “What does it have to do with my business? Nothing!”

Nick Averwater of Memphis, Tennessee’s Amro Music has been sharing his extensive expertise on all things social media-related with his music retail brethren, leading and participating in panels on the topic at NASMD and NAMM and we asked him to chime in with some key points in this month’s installment of “Small Business Matters.”

What are some common misconceptions amongst MI retail owners when it comes to social media?

• “Social Media is a fad that will soon leave” – With 1.35 billion users, you could now measure Facebook’s active users as a percentage of the entire world’s population (19 percent). Social media is continuing to grow both in total users and how companies are utilizing it.
• “Build it and they will come” – Creating a Facebook page will not generate 1,000s of Facebook “likes.” But having a dynamic and interactive social media presence will. Social media is definitely one of those activities that requires a “plant, nurture, harvest” mentality.

What would be your “top-4” actions for a music store just getting started with social media campaigns?

1. Define your purpose – There are a lot of companies “doing” social media, but not getting any substantial benefits for their business. What are you trying to accomplish with a social media page? Do you want to sell products, grow your lesson studio, offer a second web page, interact with your customers, highlight community events? The list can go on forever, but I have found it very helpful to spend time defining what we wanted out social media pages to do for our company. It offered a great deal of clarity as to what we wanted our social media presence to look like and what we expected it to do for us.
2. Utilize a scheduling program – We have found that the best hours to post on social media is not always (and rarely is) during normal business hours. Scheduling occasional posts to go up during non-business hours – maybe 6:30am or 10pm – is a great way to change it up. Hootsuite is one of the more popular programs available for this and the one that we use at Amro. 
3. Invite others in your company to participate – Most companies have someone on staff that is pretty good at social media and does a lot of it on their own. Inviting them to participate is a great way to utilize your company’s talents. Even if they don’t write the posts or have [administrator] privileges to your company’s page, they can seek out content and turn it over to someone else.
4. Follow everyone in the industry you can find – Take 30 minutes to follow everyone in the industry you can find: friends in the industry, manufacturers, similar dealers, competitors, industry publications, whatever it may be. There is a lot of great content and ideas coming from within the industry.  Many of the things we do on our social media pages originated from someone else within the industry.

What do you see as being the biggest upside of launching and maintaining an effective social media presence?

Social media is a powerful tool to connect individually with your customers. People want to feel as being “in the know,” or a part of the group and social media offers that. During marching band camps, we get pictures via Twitter and Instagram of bands. The kids think it’s awesome to tweet with a company and the directors like the shout-out. 

To a certain extent, I believe people are beginning to expect a strong social media presence, as well. Almost daily, we get asked a business-related question via social media. Do you have this particular model? Can your repair this instrument? What are your hours today? While the questions are simple, I believe it shows that people are turning to social media to have their questions answered as well.