Small Business Success Stories

                Social media marketing is a battleground. In this grand arena, the playing field is fairly leveled. A small business is able to create a Twitter account and a Facebook page just as easily as a monolithic corporation. Even the paid advertising services of both media outlets are a fraction of the cost of a televised or print ad. There are many success stories of small business using social media to explode their business, but what is it makes them successful?

               Emerson Salon out of Seattle was created in 2008 by some savvy entrepreneurs that decided to use the internet as part of their business model By 2010, 75% of their business could be attributed to Facebook, Twitter, and a public blog. According to co-owner Matt Buchan, “it's rare for even a walk-in customer to come in and not have read our blog or seen our tweets.” Their website promotes their Facebook and Twitter pages, and upon successfully booking an appointment(emersonsalon.com), a user can share the details of said appointment on their own Facebook page. According to Mashable.com, “Since introducing social media into the mix, traffic to their (Emerson Salon) website has more than tripled.” Their Facebook page is a bit defunct now, but looking at their previous posts, they were involved in the community and posted good content.

                The organic dessert company Coconut Bliss is another example of using Twitter to engage fans.  This Eugene, Oregon business has about 14k followers (up from 7,200 in 2012 when the article I was reading was written), and they provide a ton of content on Twitter. They also hold a lot of contests, and partner up with other companies. According to the socialmediaexaminer.com, the 3 key steps that Coconut Bliss did that made them successful were:

           “1. Invest in a decent camera and learn how to take captivating pictures.

            2. Integrate photos across all of your social platforms.

            3. Make strategic use of contests and partnerships to grow your fan base.”

They also provide unique content for each social media platform. I checked out the Facebook (19k likes) and Twitter pages and I'm not surprised customers flock to them. They use great photos, and interact with the public very well.
There are many companies with fascinating success stories. It's inspiring, it makes me want to create a business just to see how I could market it using social media.



Josh Eldridge 6/23/2014
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-small-business-social-media-success-stories/

http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/small-business-social-media-success-stories/