Even My Local Farmers Market Is Kicking Butt Using Social Media
Posted by Brian Geyser on Wed, Dec 02, 2009 @ 05:26 PM
So I'm wandering around the farmers market at Bishop's Orchards in Guilford, Connecticut, where I occasionally shop for produce, and posted throughout the store are these signs asking me to become a fan of Bishop's on Facebook, and that if I did, they would donate $1 to a local charity. Being a social media guy and a true fan of Bishop's, I decided I better check it out.
When I got home, I unpacked the produced, jumped on my laptop in the kitchen, and headed over to Facebook to look up Bishop's Fan Page. When I got there, I was frankly astonished at what I saw. Little old Bishop's Orchards Market, the relatively small grocery store where I like to get fresh produce after riding my mountain bike in the woods, had 5,036 fans. Holy crap! Not only that, their Facebook page was very active, pretty sophisticated, and had a very engaged fan base.
Bishops uses their Facebook page to keep customers and fans informed about events, sales and other items of interest. They regularly post photos of customers and organize charity events and fund raisers for local sports teams and community organizations. They keep fans engaged by holding contests and promoting their Facebook page on their website and in their store.
Bishop's clearly has someone at their company who manages their Facebook Page because the content is always fresh (kind of like their produce) and the fans are clearly engaged. While Facebook itself is free, the person who is managing their Facebook Page is not. That person has to take time to develop and evolve Bishop's Facebook strategy, regularly post relevant content to the site, respond to fan comments, promote the site to new fans, and create engaging campaigns to keep existing fans coming back. That is the investment Bishop's is making in building, growing, and maintaining their online community. Are they getting a positive return on this investment? All you have to do is take one look at their Facebook Page to figure out the answer:
Through their Facebook Page, Bishop's has direct access to over five thousand customers that voluntarily signed up to follow the company's activities on a social media site. I think ROI has been established.
This is a great example of one business building community using a popular social media tool. Now if Bishops can do it, every senior living and senior services company in the country can too. Whether or not you use Facebook, or another social media tool depends on your strategy, which I will cover in more detail in future posts. Great work Bishop's!
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Brian Geyser, APRN-BC, MSN is a clinician, consultant, educator,
blogger, online community manager and the founder of Carenetworks, LLC. He blogs
regularly here at Carenetworks.com and would love to connect with you
on Twitter, Linkedin, and/or Facebook.