Social Media? What’s that?
Like you, that was my response up until three years ago, when I received an email from my brother with the subject line, “Josh would like to connect with you on Facebook”. My brother, only twenty-six at the time and three years my junior, had been on the social media bandwagon from the get-go. Within my first few days of signing up on Facebook, I had connections with 62 high-school chums; some of whom I hadn’t seen or heard from for nearly 10 years. The world, as I had known it, had just shrunk before my eyes and I was convinced that this was not a flash in the pan fad. As a retailer, one question kept nagging at me. How could Fitness Town, your A-typical brick-and-mortar retail company, participate and benefit from social media?
Before I could answer that question I had to figure out what is “Social Media”? According to Wikipedia, social media is “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio”. Social Media, symbolically speaking, is a conversation shared between communities of online people and supported by tools like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Wikipedia and Twitter, just to name a few. Many websites have been integrating social media aspects into their sites for years with the use of fancy flash videos and other programming tricks; but now with the prevalence of video hosting sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, adding video is as easy as 1-2-3. No longer were people required to have years of programming experience – social media tools were allowing the masses to share information with the cut, paste and click of a button. How could we not get on the social media bandwagon?
Marketing Fitness Town ’s brand & social media revenue generation
My venture into the world of social media and online networking started with Facebook. It was incredible how easy it was to connect to communities of people with similar interests. A simple keyword query and – voila – you can connect to people, businesses, and interest groups. I created a Fitness Town Facebook group allowing others to share videos, blog posts, newsletter articles, pictures and other fitness-related information with people who joined the group. I kept my approach simple, not using the group as a means to advertise products or services. I didn’t want to ever get labelled as a spammer. We maintained our brand promise – “to share information to help and inspire people to lead healthier, more active lifestyles”. Our group ballooned to about 900 people, most of which are previous customers, friends of staff, and people who are genuinely interested in the brand and the information contained within the group.
“Show me the money!” – Words immortalized in the film Jerry McGuire, but as retailers, I’m sure it’s front of mind for you when contemplating the idea of undertaking yet another marketing initiative. Between the months of September 2008 and March 2009, we spent $1,644 dollars on Facebook ads. A very unique service that allows you to target people based on very specific criteria. We targeted a demographic which took into account the individuals’ age, gender, marital status, education, and geographical area where they lived. We were able to generate $39,600 in revenues from that advertising campaign. So, do you want on the wagon yet?
The next steps…
During our venture into the realm of social media, we started delivering a free monthly health and wellness E-zine (7,500 customers and growing) to our customers, started the Fitness Town blog (which is now one of the top 5 drivers of traffic to our website), set up a Twitter account which has ballooned to 38,000 followers, and have also created a Facebook company page. All of these avenues are doing one thing: building an online presence and community surrounding the Fitness Town brand.
My advice
You cannot afford to be a bystander in the social media marketplace. Figure it out, take the time to learn and get involved - no matter at what capacity - or you will be left behind. Your staff, which are likely comprised of mostly of Gen Xers, Yers and Millenials, are speaking the social media language. You had better figure out how to speak their language and engage them, or they will move on to someone who does.
Information sharing has reached a new level of sophistication. With the simple push of a button consumers can share an opinion about your brand with thousands – whether it’s positive or negative is up to you. One tweet, one email, one blog post is all it takes.
Do you know what people are saying about your brand? Don’t just jump on the bandwagon. Plan to hunker down, take some time to learn and plan to engage. Your business will thank you in the long run.
Dai Manuel is the Chief Operating Officer for Fitness Town
