Social media in business

As a Facebook addict pre-Poco Nido, it was an organic development for me to use it as a business tool when the brand was founded, in August 2011.

The additional parallel communication it affords a non code-savvy e-shop owner like me is superb - a way to upload photos and communicate mutterings, new product and competitions with customers on a daily basis, for zero cost.

Facebook suits the Poco Nido company ethos. We made a pledge not to bombard our customers with emails. When we’re offered a database, we actually turn it down.  Facebook allows us to communicate with our existing customers, on their terms.

Our Facebook faithful are engaging, interested and global, We didn’t press-gang them: They came on their own. It’s like having a support network permanently on tap. I could post a photo of tumbleweed and they’d comment with their rapid-fire response.

These are the fans that are worth their weight in gold. They’ve seen us through our first delivery arriving, our eccentric measuring with breadsticks, our new season previews and the announcement of our first craft competition prize.

It’s a great platform to reward their loyalty by offering codes and competition details. We ran a ‘spot the queen competition’ over the Jubilee, to win a medal t-shirt. Photos of royal play-people were posted and when the queen appeared, the first to comment won.

I ran this the Saturday before the Jubilee. Obviously very spur of the moment and too late to include anything on the site, but thanks to the simplicity of using the FB page it could still be done.

I love Twitter, too. There are times I have to restrain myself, remind myself that I have two small children and I am tweeting on behalf of a brand name. Twitter is great; fast paced and immediate, although more transient than FB.

If you want a reaction to something, you know there are always people there. And if people choose to re-tweet, the reach of what you say can be huge. We have 500+ followers and counting, which is not bad considering we only started tweeting three months ago.

Together with our Facebook faithful that’s about 750 who listen to what I say, which is pretty brilliant when you think about it. It’s effortless to maintain, unlike having to put a newsletter together.

I suppose you could say social media networking is like marketing for the lazy...or more accurately an essential tool for a small business start-up that’s run by a time-poor sole trader who has two kids and big ambitions.

Anything that helps you grow gets my vote but I won’t be attending a seminar to maximize optimal use. We don’t follow back; we’re a business, ultimately, so the follow backs are left mainly to my personal account.

There are rumblings of charging business page owners for Facebook. But in this modern age it seems many won’t pay. There’s no integrity in taking a free social networking model and then charging for it.

I for one will be keeping my options open. After all, there’s always something new coming along, there’s always Pinterest…

Catherine Lobley, owner of baby footwear brand Poco Nido x

Find us on FB: Poco Nido or on Twitter: @poconido