Guest post by Rachael Seda
I’m drinking the Port City Brewery kool-aid (or beer, rather) and I wish other small businesses would give me the same buzz.
It all began on a Saturday afternoon. a friend had told me about a $5 beer tasting and tour at a relatively new brewery called Port City. Luckily for me it happens to be a hop, skip and jump from where I live, so a few friends and I decided to check it out.
The beer was awesome, the people were down to earth and the tour was fascinating. Needless to say by the time I left, I had a newfound appreciation for “hand-crafted” beer.
As a social media nerd, I immediately wanted to give them a shout out and share the experience with my friends and followers. I was also interested in seeing what type of social media business users they were (if any) because I categorize businesses into three types of social media users:
Business Type 1: The annoying person who only likes to talk about himself or herself at a networking event (yawn).
Business Type 2: The anti-social person who comes to the networking event, doesn’t say a single word and barely utters a response to anyone (can you say awkward?). It makes you wonder why this person even bothered coming at all.
Business Type 3: The outgoing person everyone wants to talk to at the networking event because he or she seem genuine, interesting and are easy to carry a conversation with.
I was really hoping that Port City Brewery wasn’t about to give me a buzz kill. As a communication professional I can’t help but lose respect for a small business (or any business, product, you name it) that decides to blindly join the social media bandwagon because everyone else is doing it (this gives me visions of the Twitter fail whale).
When I come across businesses that I categorize as the anti-social type 2 social media user, I can’t help but wonder… would you pay to have a telephone in your business and purposefully not answer the phone when customers call? NO.
What about the annoying type 1… could you imagine answering the phone only to shout about how awesome you are and then hang up without even asking why the person is calling? NO. That doesn’t make any sense, right?
So why are you on Twitter if you aren’t going to respond to your customers (cough, Netflix, cough)? Why would you even bother having a Facebook page if you are going to block people from commenting on your wall? There’s a reason it’s called social media.
So I put Port City Brewery through my social media type “test” by simply tweeting them.
The next day they responded.
Port City Brewery officially passed my test by proving they were the outgoing type 3 user. Needless to say I was beyond pumped.
All I wanted was a response, to be acknowledged, to feel like someone cared about me as a customer. After all, I made it easy, I tweeted at their account and I gave them a compliment.
Now I’m not saying that Port City Brewery is using social media flawlessly or that they are a particularly digitally savvy business; honestly, from a consumer perspective, I don’t really care if they have a communication plan or if they have a public relations professional on staff.
What I am saying, is that as a consumer I personally think Port City Brewery will be successful first and foremost because they have a good quality product (their beer is quite simply delicious), and second, they created an enjoyable experience by having friendly and knowledgeable staff.
But to me, they sealed the deal by caring enough to continue the conversation with me even after I stepped out of their building.
Shonali said it perfectly, “You have to go back to what makes us all tick. And that’s people meeting people, talking to people, working with people. People. That’s what social media is all about.”
Port City Brewery made me feel like they cared about me, about the person who was drinking their beer. They made it clear to me that they were focused on the long-term relationship and not just making a sale.
As a business, if you aren’t going to engage with your customers online please do not waste your time creating a Twitter account or Facebook page just because everyone else is doing it.
Do not use social media to broadcast to your customers; or as Jay Baer said, “Answer the social telephone first, and then worry about making cold calls.”
I’m interested to hear what you all think; have you had similar experiences? What social media tips or advice would you offer small businesses? And cheers to Port City Brewery for the great buzz; now who else wants to enjoy a fresh cold Port City beer with me?
Image: voteprime on Flickr, CC 2.0
Rachael Seda grew up barefoot in Hawaii and is now a communication and design professional living in the Washington, DC area. She shares her career experiences and journey at rachaelseda.com. Her ultimate weakness is cheese.
[…] Lesson: A good reminder to KISS (keep it simple stupid). And respond. Personally, there’s nothing more annoying to me then asking a question or reaching out to a business on one of their social media sites only to never receive a response (I refer to this as Business Type 2). […]
[…] good service + finding a creative hook for the customer experience = smart public relations. And I bet the salon didn’t even think it was engaging in […]
[…] Lesson: A good reminder to KISS (keep it simple stupid). And respond. Personally, there’s nothing more annoying to me then asking a question or reaching out to a business on one of their social media sites only to never receive a response (I refer to this as Business Type 2). […]
[…] The second from Rachael Seda discusses her experience with Port City Brewery and the way in which they responded directly and in a timely manner to her praise for the brand on Twitter. […]
I was just thinking about this the other day @rachaelseda in the context of a cycling brand I love. They’re an online business based in the UK that make a great premium product, and drive great video content especially to their community to get them buzzed about their product. I’ve given them a few little tests by tweeting at and even writing a brief posterous article. Every tweet and comment has been nothing but glowing and complimentary (I’m a fan!), but so dar no response to any of it. What strikes me as really strange is that others get responses but not me. Not sure if I’m being over-sensitive here, or if the brand only responds to the cool kids? Either way, it’s amazing how much just responding to and acknowledging a hat-tip from your community can gain you in social media cred – or how much it can count against you when you choose not to respond.
What was super interesting for me is that in one case, it wasn’t that brand that responded to my post and hat tip – but my local bike shop that stocks this brand and was also mentioned in the post. Within five minutes they’d seen my post, acknowledged, tweeted back at me asking my email, and forwarded me an invite to their next product launch and film screening. For a bike geek like me – that’s pretty cool. More than that, it was a real-time reaction and piece of communication that I’m sure even David Meerman Scott would be proud of. The end result? While I’m still a fan of the brand and product, I don’t tweet at them any more because they clearly don’t want to know what I’ve got to say (even though it’s all good stuff). At the end of the day, the guys at my local store sell the product and are always happy to make me a coffee and sit down for a nice conversation. I’d rather drive ten minutes to see them for a chat than hear more silence across the social media sphere from the larger brand.
Thanks for your post – as you can see I really enjoyed it!
Best, Jamie
@JGarant Yes I completely agree with you. Sometimes, I almost think small businesses have an advantage because their systems and processes and departments are a lot less complex. If you have one person responsible for just responding to customers at your small business you’d be surprised how you might be able to leverage your being small to gain customers from a big brand, just like in your case. AND then being able to pick up the conversation in real life at the store (and bonus sharing a cup of coffee!!) with your customer helps to carry on the conversation. I think the in real life part is so very important and SM helps to enforce this positive experience!
Thanks for the comment Jamie!!
@rachaelseda I agree that small businesses have an advantage in that they often don’t have to jump through hoops for approval on this content. They can simply and read and respond in real-time. However, with large brands like Ford doing great things in the space, there’s no reason that corporates can’t begin to move towards this kind of service in the SM space with the right resources and systems in place. IRL is a great way to cement a relationship and reinforce that experience.
@JGarant That is a great example of active listening. And the company that did that “gets” social. @rachaelseda
@Shonali@JGarant Yes now if you could say your comment in your cute accent that would’ve been better but I can hear your voice in my head so that works for me! ;)
@rachaelseda @Shonali haha okay I’ll be sure to attach audio comments in future ;)
@JGarant@Shonali Yes Shonali lets do it audio comments need to be added asap!
This is a more then fab test; way to go. Like. Cheers!
@Soulati | PR Thanks Jayme! Cheers to you!
Rae this is a great perspective. After just jumping on board with a company who has just begun getting their feet wet in the social media realm and helping grow the business in that manner, I find even myself being all three of those categories you described. Before this current job, my personal and small business social media outlets were booming, it was all I could do to stay off of them, but now, with my concentrations on a full time gig, I have dropped off tremendously. Fortunately, loyal customers of my own company are still commenting, and for that I am thankful. This article has really given me a boost in wanting to continue to connect with my job and reconnect with my personal side-business.
If I could give one piece of advice to small businesses – It would be to post what’s relevant. Don’t be “me-me-me”, learn to be a follower. This is just as important as being the followed on FB. People want to know you aren’t just an automated system posting once daily on your page, they are anxious to see what feedback you can also provide others!!
Thanks Rae for the kick in the behind to get back at it on all ends!
@TamraCornwell Yay, thanks for commenting Tam! It’s definitely a learning process but I think if you look at it from a customer perspective yourself it’s quite simple. I want to know that you care about ME. Like @HowieSPM mentioned, if you only use Twitter for customer service purposes and replying to your customers it’s worth it. Most small businesses don’t have the time or resources to concentrate on it full time, but just responding to what your customers say, makes a difference. And essentially, doing this is free…you don’t have to pay for a phone line or a flyer to do it!
The simple things in life – good beer, good service, good social skills :)
@hackmanj Now isn’t that the truth Joe!! I love how simply you put it!
@rachaelseda@hackmanj You forgot bacon!
@Shonali@rachaelseda I did indeed! Oh my :)
This is an AWESOME way to explain the “types” of social media users! I do the same thing, and unfortunately, my “buzz” is killed just about every time! It’s so disappointing. But I’m glad you mentioned them because I’ll be near Alexandria in a few weeks with my family- I’m going to put Port City Brewery on our list of things to do! :)
@ELD_Lauren Thank you! Yes, you definitely should go! You won’t regret it. Thanks for the comment Lauren! You must be megmroberts friend that she mentioned is coming to visit soon ;)
We call the business person #1 you describe, Type OO. Output Only.
@ginidietrich Oh I like that too! I think I remember you saying that before!
Damn you are a hard customer to satisfy Rachel! lol
I am ok with businesses not being on Social. Like you said don’t just do it because you were told to and then not use it right. Most small businesses still aren’t using it and with so few people in the US using Twitter (15-20mil active users per day) most of your customers are not on Twitter.
That said I feel it is a waste if businesses don’t at least use it for customer service like they did in your case. Cheaper than an 800 line. More likely to be used vs email for feedback. And I like Twitter better than Facebook for this simply because if you have a Brand page you kind of have to post. I see so many that don’t. You go and see they post once a week and it looks bad. On twitter you don’t have a page. So open an account. Set up your smart phone and really you just have to answer mentions like these folks did so well.
So where is my Growler? lol
@HowieSPM Yes exactly. I got a Groupon from a restaurant I won’t mention and I wanted to go use it. A friend of mine said he thought they were closed for renovation. I looked on their site and it said nothing so I clicked on their Twitter, nothing. Hmm…so I tweeted and asked…and nothing. To me it was very frustrating. After much work on my part (actually calling with no answer and then having to walk by the place to see the sign that said when they were reopening) I found out when I could use my Groupon. I can assure you though, that while I’ll use it, I won’t go back after that!
Thanks for your comment Howie!
@HowieSPM Oh and about that Growler…I would get you one but the problem is by the time it got to you…it might just be the pretty Growler you get ;)