Q: How do you manage your store’s social media?
“We’ve been managing social media in-house for many years. When the person that used to do our advertising went on maternity leave, she asked if she could manage our social media platforms part time. We were open to that proposal and quickly found out it was working well for us. The main reason, she gets us. She understands what we’re trying to do and what we’re all about. Also, it’s [social media] never about hard selling, but more about content that is conversational and fun. We upload product shots, but also content that shows our Facebook and social media followers’ content that allows them to better understand the store and the staff. A favorite series of postings on Facebook was a profile image of staff members with a caption that detailed favorite pieces of jewelry in the store, along with some work experience and personal information. Also, real success is measured by those that follow our store’s social media platforms. On Facebook, since June 2015 we expanded our fan base from 4,000 to 6,700. And, our social media manager is always curious about how these platforms are constantly changing, allowing us to keep content fresh and interesting.”
Ricky Bromberg, president
Bromberg Co., Inc. (two locations)
Mountain Brook and Birmingham, AL
“We have 50,000 Facebook fans so we’re doing pretty good by most measures by handling it in-house. Ware Jewelers has four stores, so each manager from each store took on the social media responsibility three months out of the year. We live in a college town, so last year we hired two college students to manage social media for us. It didn’t work as well as we would have liked. They didn’t know the industry all that well and we still had to feed a lot of content to them. And, we assumed they’d monitor the social media activity of other jewelry stores in the area to get an idea of the content that should be provided for us, and that didn’t even happen. That agreement ended in January. Starting this year, we’re back to the managers overseeing social media – that includes Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – three months out of the year. We’re certainly looking at industry-specific social media management companies at trade show and buying events, but nothing has shown us that they would manage social media better than our in-house management methods.”
Ronnie Ware, owner
Ware Jewelers
Auburn, AL
“We tried hiring a high school senior to help us out, but he didn’t want to work. That experience taught me it’s better to handle social media in-house because I know what’s being uploaded and when, and don’t have to worry about it. We have a Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest account, but I only maintain the Facebook page of the three. Again, we’re a very small store and there’s only so much time in a given week to get this done. For online work, I concentrate on Facebook and maintaining and updating our website. My approach is to keep Facebook content fun and entertaining with images of women with their new engagement rings. Some of these have really reached a lot of our fan base and beyond. I also upload new jewelry arrivals and ideas for gift giving at certain times of the year. In the two weeks before Valentine’s Day, I uploaded new product images each day before the big day. People liked and purchased some of the suggestions. I’ve been serving the South Bend market since I was 20. Now I’m working with their kids and even grandchildren. I would like to continue to develop our Facebook content with the goal of expanding my fan base, but the website will continue to be our primary focus.”
Rosanne Kroen, owner
Rosanne’s Diamonds & Gold
South Bend, IN
“I’ve been managing our social media and digital marketing for more than seven years now. The reason we manage our social media in-house is really to engage the client and be responsive to their questions, comments and interests. This provides us the best opportunity to replicate our in-store experience using technology and social media outlets. I manage social media, SEO (Search Engine optimization) and website development better on my own. Uploading relevant and timely content to my Facebook page is a small part of it. I “like” about 800 to 1,000 posts a day, post between 100 to 200 comments each day, and follow roughly 5,500 businesses to stay current on all things social media and digital marketing. Overall, it’s a very ambitious approach, but my goal is to have 1 million visitors to my website each day. With multiple channels on social media websites, including YouTube, to maximize SEO helps us exceed our website traffic goals. On Facebook, we started with zero fans, like everyone else, and today we have about 60,000 fans. Social media is one part of digital marketing that drives traffic to my website and my store.”
Ted Pittman, internet sales manager
TQ Diamonds
Madison, WI
“From the very beginning, roughly four to five years ago, we’ve outsourced our social media management to an outside company. They have a good knowledge of the gem and jewelry industry, including retail promotions, marketing and product knowledge essentials. What has changed is going from just Facebook, but adding Instagram and Pinterest to the social media mix. We don’t bother with Twitter as it’s too time consuming and requires a large group of followers responding to frequent postings. That’s not us. The [social media management] company we work with has created a number of templates to promote products and events. We have an idea of product announcement, contact them for a template, and we have a graphic to upload to Facebook and other social media websites. Our input, their execution. It’s the best of both worlds. And, it’s not a matter of skill sets to outsource social media. It’s just as much about time management. With social media management done by an outside firm, I have the time I need to manage day-to-day operations and plan for the future of my business.”
Jim Langolf, owner
Alexander Fine Jewelers
Fort Gratiot, MI
SJN wants your opinion for our Retailer Roundtable. To participate simply e-mail your name, store name and location, and a picture of yourself to bill@southernjewelrynews.com. We’ll e-mail you a question and you e-mail us your response.
