Branching out in social media

Facebook and Twitter are so last year. OK, not really, but they have
recently been overshadowed by some new new social networks and tools
that may be useful to business owners.

Facebook and Twitter are so last year. OK, not really, but they have recently been overshadowed by some new new social networks and tools that may be useful to business owners. Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram have been the latest buzzmakers in the social-media world, but with new options popping up all the time, how can you tell which ones to use, and which to ignore? Bakers Journal spoke with Kat Tancock, a Toronto-based social-media and digital consultant, and Chris Gostling, the CEO and creative director of Momentum Visual Inc., to bring you up to speed on the latest crazes.

A visual focus
Pinterest is a pinboard style of organizing and sharing a portfolio of images that link to external websites. Users can group image collections on different pinboards, categorizing them into groups and re-pinning photos and links from other users and the Internet to their own boards. The image should link to an outside source. Your website or Tumblr account are great options, says Tancock. Gostling advises organizing your pinboards into different categories to share varying elements of your shop. The ingredients that make up your menu items are a great place to start. Your ingredients pinboard could include a photo of the Italian sausage you make in house with a link to your website describing the story behind it. The site launched in March 2010 to a select group of people, and continues to run as an invitation only website, which can be a disadvantage. Users have to request e-mail invitations from the powers that be, or friends who are on Pinterest. This hasn’t stopped its growth, though: comScore, an Internet marketing research company, reported that as of January 2012, Pinterest had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break the 10-million unique visitor mark.

Tumblr is a microblogging platform where users can post photos, videos, links and other forms of media to their blog, as well as follow other blogs and re-blog content from other users. Small businesses can use Tumblr to supplement their website, with more space to post photos of menu items and what’s happening in your store. “Tumblr is a little more similar to Facebook and Twitter,” explains Tancock. If one of your followers sees something they like on your Tumblr, they can reblog it to all of their followers, who will be able to trace the item back to your Tumblr. The young demographic (half of its users are under 25) means things can go viral very quickly, Tancock says. While it may not seem as popular as other social networks, Tumblr had 75,000 users within two weeks of its April 2007 launch, and as of April 2012 hosted more than 52 million blogs.

Gostling compares visual platforms such as Tumblr and Pinterst to a well-curated collection of art. “You should have just the right pieces that are going to engage people. Don’t jam it full of stuff, and give posts some room to breathe,” he says. “If used correctly, both Pinterest and Tumblr can really tell the passion of the story behind the brand.”

Instagram, on the other hand, is a great way to capture the goings-on of your restaurant and quickly share them, as Instagram can easily be linked to other platforms. Users can take photos with a smartphone (currently only iPhone and Android apps are available), apply a digital filter, and push it to other social-media networks. “The photo filters on it are a ton of fun; you can capture the moment,” Gostling says. Instagram launched on Apple’s App Store in October 2010, and has steadily grown: more than one million registered users had signed up by December 2010, and as of April 13 (with thanks to its early April Android app launch), more than 40 million people were using Instagram. The app has made headlines recently: Facebook purchased Instagram on April 12 with plans to keep it independently operated.

Although Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram are very visually oriented, Gostling views Pinterest and Tumblr as ways to tell a larger story while Instagram is more of a visual diary to capture the moment. Each of these tools can be linked to Twitter and Facebook accounts, allowing users to easily incorporate them into a daily social-media routine and efficiently post the same message across different platforms.

Branching out into Something new
Incorporating social-media tools into already busy days can be challenging, and adding another platform to an already successful social-media strategy often comes with uncertainty.
Lesley Mattina, pastry chef and owner of OMG Baked Goodness in Toronto, hasn’t ruled out using Pinterest or Tumblr altogether, but she’s concerned about being able to work them into her day.

“I felt maxed out, pre-Twitter, by Facebook. I realized I was able to slide Twitter in somewhat seamlessly and use them both,” Mattina says of her current social-media strategy. “I can see me getting in there and figuring it out, but it takes time and it’s not something I can do spontaneously.”

She is open to new things, though. “I’ve had really great rewards by having great conversations on Facebook and Twitter. Some new things I think I will see value in, and some things I definitely won’t.”

Mattina attempted to incorporate FourSquare, a platform where users check in and post their current location, earning badges, points and titles with the establishment they are checking in at, into her strategy. At the time, she didn’t find any value in it, and there was no demand from her clientele. About a year and a half ago, Mattina polled her customers on Facebook and Twitter, asking if she should be on Foursquare. “The broad concensus was no,” she says.

But with the right tools for your audience, Mattina knows the benefits of social media can be great: she says she has never paid for advertising, and social media makes up about 90 per cent of her marketing strategy. “I don’t measure [success] in terms of dollars and sense or actual numbers, but in terms of clients coming in,” she says, noting that not a day goes by without a customer commenting they’ve visited her shop because of something they saw on Facebook or Twitter. “I guess if I wasn’t getting those comments then I would know it wasn’t working, but because I’m consistently getting those comments I know that it’s working.”

Reaping the benefits
Tancock and Gostling agree that the ultimate goal is to be where your customers are. Mattina is on the right track: the best way to find out if you should be exploring new social networks is to research your clientele and find out which platforms they are using. When someone comes into your store, ask them if they’re using Pinterest or Tumblr. “If half of your consumers are on Pinterest, maybe there’s some value there,” Gostling says. “Try a bunch of things and see what engages them in speaking to them.”

Gostling emphasizes that the quality of the conversation is important. If you’re sharing the right info, your followers will likely pass the message along to their followers, creating potential new customers for you. Find out what kind of updates your followers like to read and analyze their response. Try a handful of things, Gostling says: text-only updates about what slices you’re serving from day to day may not elicit as many comments as a photo showing the huge order of specialty pies you’re preparing.

Once you’ve determined what works for your business, don’t stop. Reaching a certain number of followers is great, but Tancock and Gostling stress that interaction is the key. “As a restaurant owner you can’t always talk to everyone who comes into your store every single time, but with social media, you can connect with them a little more easily,” Tancock says.
Gostling agrees. “Success in social-media marketing is an ongoing conversation,” he says. “As soon as the conversation stops, you’re not successful.”

Caitlin Rush’s Glee tribute cake garnered attention from some of the show’s cast and crewmembers via social media.   It’s a small world after all Social media became the perfect way for Caitlin Rush, an 18-year-old from Burlington, Ont., to showcase her self-taught talent and passion for cake decorating. A fan of the show Glee, Rush created a cake featuring the characters of the show for the season three premiere last September, and with the help of social networking, member of the Glee cast and crew saw her cake, which also caught the eye of the U.K.’s Sky television network. “The response has completely overwhelmed me,” Rush says. “It amazes me how far we can reach with social networks.” With the incredible feedback she received from her first tribute cake, Rush decided to take on another project, this time creating a cake in tribute to The Vampire Diaries. “When it was complete I uploaded it just in time for the midseason premiere, in January 2012,” she says. The show’s official Facebook fan page posted a photo of Rush’s cake after seeing it circulate the Internet, generating more than 150,000 views on Twitter and feedback from the show’s castmembers. “It’s so neat having the cast and crew comment on the cakes I’ve made because I admire what they do so much,” she says. “The fact that they took the time to write back to me just makes it all worthwhile.”