The following is the first in Mashable's "Social Media Eye for the Small Business Guy" series, which will look at how small businesses navigate social media marketing. If you're a social media consultant or a small business owner looking to take part in future installments, please contact us on our Mashable Business Facebook Page.
If you ever find yourself in the Bucktown section of Chicago and have a hankering for homemade sausage, then you might want to check out Sterling Goss, the kind of old-time butcher that the Food Network is always celebrating.
Until recently, though, you would pretty much have to be walking by the butcher's storefront to realize that it exists. On the Internet -- and on social media in particular -- Sterling Goss wasn't really cutting it.
Enter VineSprout, a social media marketing consulting firm that hails from the same area. Ben Pavlovic, founding partner of the agency, had been visiting the butcher for years and was a fan. In June, he talked Sterling Goss owner Terry Walsh into beefing up his social media presence. At the time, it really was pretty anemic. The brand had just 88 Facebook fans, ignored Foursquare completely and wasn't really on Twitter. (It still isn't. The person who handled Twitter for Sterling Goss forgot the password.)
Pavlovic and Nicole Duhoski, the other founding partner at VineSprout, decided to focus on Sterling Goss's Facebook presence. The first thing they did was give the page a vanity URL ("facebook.com/SterlingGoss") to replace its previous, nondescript one. Then, they updated the cover photo. After that, the consultants worked on a strategy for posts. "There hadn't been any posts for a month. We wanted to get some content up there," Pavlovic says.
Early going was rough. A photo-less July 2 post that asked "Steak, brats, barbecue chicken....What's on your Fourth of July menu?" got zero responses. Eventually, VineSprout settled into a rhythm of roughly five posts a week. Meanwhile, the content of the posts became increasingly visual and timely. "It's NATIONAL HOT DOG DAY! Stop in to grab a package of Tallgrass Beef Company hotdogs, mention this post and get a free side of potato salad to go with your dogs!" read a July 23 post that showed a dog smothered in relish, carrots and a pickle. That post got 11 Likes and two comments.
A breakthrough occurred on Aug. 3, when Sterling Goss offered the chance to win a $10 gift card for liking the post. That drew 97 Likes, 11 comments and two shares. Over the next few months, contest offers like that were interspersed with visual puns like one on Aug. 11 celebrating the Olympics by showing a female athlete throwing a shish-kabob spear that had been Photoshopped to replace a javelin.
An Oct. 3 also referenced the then-upcoming presidential debates with a cut of beef shaped like the continental U.S.
The work yielded some tangible benefits. By early December, Sterling Goss had 270 fans on Facebook. That won't break any records, but as Duhoski points out, most of those customers at least intend to visit the store. Since Sterling Goss is a modest-sized establishment (Pavlovic estimates it can fit about 15 people comfortably), that represents a potentially big boost for business.
Relatedly, Sterling Goss went from no Fousquare presence to 170 checkins. To encourage such activity, the butcher offers a free cup of Chili Con Queso with every purchase. (Pavlovic, by the way, is the mayor of Sterling Goss.)
VineSprout gets $1,000 a month for its services. Walsh hasn't done a cost-benefit analysis, but he figures that he's getting his money's worth. One key metric: The store sold 55% more turkeys this Thanksgiving than in the previous year. "Turkeys are a measurable event," Walsh says.
The boost in a Sterling Goss's social media presence didn't occur in a vacuum, though. The company does some print advertising. VineSprout also did some pr outreach for the business, a value add that netted this favorable article in The Chicagoist. The latter may have been a factor in the increase in turkey sales, but no one knows for sure.
However, Walsh, a former banker at J.P. Morgan, doesn't sweat the numbers. "I wasn't all that familiar with social media, but since VineSprout came on we've both kind of gotten into it, which is kind of nice."
As the end of the year approaches, Walsh and VineSprout have two major projects. One is to create stickers that will go on meat packaging directing consumers to the business's Facebook Page. VineSprout already contracted with a designer to create the sticker for $30. Printing 2,500 stickers will cost $128. Walsh has been on the fence, but Pavlovic says he believes in the idea so much that he's willing to foot the bill himself.
The other big task is getting that Twitter feed up and running. The guy who ran the page, a "fly by night" character in Walsh's estimation, hasn't tracked down the password. So Walsh wants to secure @SterlingGossMeats as a handle. "He is still trying to find it," Walsh says of the would-be Twitter facilitator. "He promised he'd get it to me by Dec. 1, but that's come and gone."
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/12/06/small-business-social-media-sterling-goss/
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