10 Mar Use Facebook Fanpage to Engage in Your Yarn Company Brand.
Facebook.com is an incredible marketing tool that allows yarn companies and yarn shops to see inside the hearts and minds of their customer. Having a fanpage about your yarn company or yarn shop puts your finger directly on the pulse of how knitters and crocheters experience your brand and allows you to gain insight into their behaviors their perceptions, and even potential problems.
Once you understand exactly what it is your consumers love about your yarn and how they use it, you can begin to either solidify (if you got it right the first time) or redirect your brand message around your customer experience.
Furthermore, the viral effect of the fanpage is the modern version of word-of-mouth advertising– and it’s free! We love free marketing around here!
For the purpose of illustration, let’s just assume you’re a yarn company. Suppose you had a Facebook fanpage where you began posting about how fabulous your yarn was partly because it came in larger skeins. But, after about a month of promoting this aspect of your product, you discover from your fan’s wall postings that the yarn base was VERY popular….. among sock knitters….. and the large skein that you thought was so fantastic, was actually falling short of meeting the needs of sock knitters who were posting they really wished it came in smaller balls?
(sidenote, thank you to Maggie Pace for the image from her company Pick Up Sticks, She actually does sell “small balls”!)
In addition to providing this kind of quality feedback which helps you improve and refine your brand message, you might discover confusion about your brand, inconsistency with your advertising messages or even hidden opportunities, like introducing the smaller skein of your bestselling yarn base!
Yarn Shops, can get feedback on your class offerings, feedback on yarn lines you’re considering and the best time to offer that Spring sale so it doesn’t conflict with something else in town that weekend?
Let’s examine one company using Facebook and getting it right. With over 100,000 fans, the Lion Brand fanpage serves as an excellent feedback mechanism from consumers, as well as a direct (and cost-free) line of communication back to them. A few things I noticed they do well:
- They’ve got their “Join our Facebook fanpage” prominently displayed on their website.
- They are using photos, videos, discussions and other tabs that help index content on Facebook. Don’t just rely on your wall postings.
- They blend a variety of “giving content” with “push content” — which means they offer content that is valuable to the reader like tips, tricks, free patterns and even knitting humor. They’re not screaming “BUY OUR YARN” in every posting.
- They comment back and respond to their fans photos to further increase engagement.
- They connect to their other social media. Every so often, they remind the fanbase about the e-newsletter, and Twitter account and also encourage fans to suggest the page to other fans, thereby increasing the viral effect of Facebook. I also like how they’ve listed the location of ALL these other vehicles in their INFO tab– that’s just where I’d look!
It’s never too late to get started on your Facebook page. Here is where you get started on Facebook.
I’d love to hear other examples of how a Facebook fanpage has helped your Yarn Company or shop? As always, if you need help or have questions, feel free to send me an email at Leanne (AT) thewoolwideweb.com
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