Deep Dish Creative

Why I love working with biz’s that GET social media

Most of my design clientele, like restaurants, hotels, event marketer-types, have been very slow to get on the Social Media bandwagon. Not for lack of interest (mostly) but for lack of time and inclination. After all, its just one more thing they’ve got to manage in their busy schedules.

As far as they are concerned, the same old marketing actions have been used since the dawn of time, and heck, if they aren’t broke, let’s not fix them. Let’s pretend that something more efficient, economical, and modern doesn’t exist, even though everyone else is using it to maintain their brand’s image and messaging online.

Every once in a while a new client, sometimes even a staple, will contact me all excited that the social media light bulb just went off. They now get it. Congratulations! I can’t help but swell with pride as if I was watching a kid graduate from high school. They’re off to a bright future with the world as their oyster. All the coaxing and convincing I peddled over the past year or so has finally paid off, and I’m not so crazy. These tools really do make a difference in today’s customer service and brand loyalty initiatives.

Here’s why I can appreciate a small business that gets on board:

• They understand that social media participation is not a sales tool, but rather a communication hub. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and even Yelp! can bring you closer to your customers and community, and vice versa. They recognize the added value a public persona is to their establishment.
• I get to take their online marketing efforts much further. Instead of having to stagnate at the usual brochure website, I can enable them to control their own content and improve their reach across other web channels by adding a blog feature, branded Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channels to their arsenal of marketing outreach.
• Our relationship deepens with trust. They put their trust in my skills as both designer, marketer, and hospitality industry veteran. And I in turn put more faith and trust in them that they can embrace new media and run with it. A socially savvy business will more likely take me a little more seriously when I bring up ideas or directions they might take with their marketing efforts. Also, the simple fact the a business, especially a restaurant, is willing to put themselves out there and weather the review storm, is an act of trust itself. By engaging with their customers in a public forum is building trust with their current and potential customer base, and community as a whole. Everyone wins.
• I get to brag about them. When a brand spreads its wings on social networking sites, it all needs to look good and be appealing to their intended audience. When it all comes together, I get to tell others about being a part of this online success story, and they always do the same. I get referrals, they get new business from folks they otherwise might have never reached.

Those are some of the reasons why I like working with businesses that participate in social media. My own freelance design business was basically built on word-of-mouth, and with social media, any business can reap those same benefits. After all, social media, and particularly Twitter and Facebook, is word-of-mouth at lightening speed. It makes sense for me to seek out those that ‘get it’ and continue to encourage others to get on board.