This concept began a few years ago with one of my favorite books on the digital world and social media – Groundswell. The concept of social computing behavior is understanding who your target market is and then how they like to communicate. For example -there are the early adapters or influencers who are the leaders – using the newest technology – then there are those – that are spectators – who might like to read blogs  -but don’t comment yet they too are engaged. Creating platforms that focus on the variety of people and they way they like to connect – is how you are going to – connect.create.cultivate – a relationship with your customers.

This mindset from my perspective – is sure to provide you with a way to connect not only your target market – but also connect all of the social networks that you participate. You can  ensure that you include all of the different types of communicators in a way that is authentic and true to them. I came across an article today that talks about a bakery business, that has done just that. They have connected several of the social networks they participate – so that they include everyone – where they  most like to reside. Clever. The article comes from a blog Marketingsherpa and is written by Adam T Sutton. The company Panna Dolce is located in Chicago, Ill. For all you dessert lovers out there, they specialize in macaroons!

The results are pretty impressive. They say that “The team estimates 35% of ecommerce sales come from referral traffic from social networks. That number jumped to about 50% during Valentine’s Day. Also, the team’s work is earning them valuable business contacts.”

If you think about it – it really comes back to the basics. Some people love to text or email. Others like to communicate via social networks and then there are those like me – that still like to pick up the phone. I know myself I tend to try and communicate with people in the way they like to engage – for ease of connection and relationship building too. Many businesses have yet to grasp this multi pronged approach. How many ways are you engaging with your customers?

Best Nicole

When working in social media, many marketers stick to a few areas, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging. Justin Greis, Owner, Panna Dolce, chose a broader approach.

The Chicago-based French maracron, cookie and brownie bakery relaunched in December 2009 after perfecting their macron recipe for five years. Now, they have a blog and also work in Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, YouTube and other networks.

“We don’t discriminate,” says Greis. “We found there are different types of people who connect through different types of networks, and the more we’re connected and linked up through a central hub, which ends up being our blog and our ecommerce site, the better.”

Amazingly, Panna Dolce’s three-member team is able to keep content fresh in all these networks while maintaining their business. They do so, in part, by connecting as many accounts as possible, so a blog post becomes a tweet, a video becomes a Facebook update, and so on.

“We haven’t seen a lot of interaction on our blogs. But when you link your blog to Facebook, when you like it to Twitter, when you link it to YouTube and Vimeo, you connect with people the way they want to be connected to — and that is absolutely essential.”

The team also generates content by partnering with and writing about relevant sites, as well as covering their own:
o Charity work
o New flavor launches
o Events attended
o Press mentions

The team’s website, powered by Volusion, enables shoppers to share links to their product pages, further increasing their content on the  networks.

All this work is paying off. The team estimates 35% of ecommerce sales come from referral traffic from social networks. That number jumped to about 50% during Valentine’s Day. Also, the team’s work is earning them valuable business contacts.

“We’ve had several offers from big retail department stores that are tasting our products right now to see if they want to pick them up. We’ve had a lot of interest from bigger boutique grocery stores…All of those contacts were made through [online social networks].”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Online Marketing. Tagged: ADAM T SUTTON, BLOG, EMAIL, ENAGE CUSTOMERS, Facebook, FLCIKR, MARKETINGSHERPA, NICOLE MCKINNEY, PANNA DOLCE, SHARE, SOCIAL NETWORKS, TEXT, TRAFFIC, TWITTER, VIMEO, VOLUSION, WWW.BCADGROUP.COM, Youtube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.