Social media is a great marketing tool.  Not only is it basically free, but it is easy to get started and widely accessible.  The trouble is that because of this low investment many companies have leaped onto the bandwagon without thinking through a proper strategy in the way that they might with any other form of marketing campaign.  (I know I have been promising to do a series of Social Media How To articles for jewelers for ages, and I apologize for the delay in getting these published for you.  Rest assured these are in the works and should start appearing soon.)

I don't like to finger point, but in this instance I felt compelled to name-and-shame after seeing a perfect example of social media misuse recently.  Amanda Wakely is a well known wedding dress designer, as well as an established brand.  At first I was impressed with their Facebook strategy.  I was pleased to see a variety of updates across her Facebook page, covering new designs, fashion show news and competitions.  All updates designed to appeal to their target audience, strengthen brand awareness and boost interaction with their customer base.  And it was working.  The page was getting several posts and comments from brides-to-be each week.  The trouble was that there was no interaction from the page administrators in return.  Questions went unanswered and requests for stockist information or pricing were ignored to the point of customers posting complaints about bad customer service.  This is a common problem with businesses trying to establish a presence on social media.  They essentially forget to be sociable!

When a print, TV or web ad is launched there is usually a structure in place to deal with the following customer enquiries.  Customer reps stand by phone lines and landing pages are designed to take enquiries online.  However, with a real time social media campaign the means of dealing with customer enquiries, by nature has to also be real time.  You need to have someone ready to interact with customers when they start to comment, retweet or update you on your account. 

This particular example is partly a Facebook problem, as they do not send notifications to a page administrator when a fan posts anything on the wall, however part of a successful social media campaign means having a regular maintenance schedule for social media. 

Obviously, most jewellers can't afford to have a dedicated staff member to deal with social media, or even all marketing, but there are plenty of ways around this.  Make checking your social media campaigns part of your daily routine and put aside fifteen minutes at the end or the start of each day to update your social media accounts or check for new interactions.  You can also hire a freelance social media expert or virtual assistant through places such as Elance, to manage your accounts.

I'm happy to say that Amanda Wakely have now addressed the problem of ignoring the customers they worked so hard to attract, and over the past few days have been more active in answering comments and questions, but it is a lesson that many companies still have to learn.

Incidentally, I have to shine the spotlight on jewelry designer Clare Pearse, who is a great example of how jewellers can use Facebook to their advantage.

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