The rules of engagement have changed, particularly when it comes to engaging customers and prospects. The old ways of marketing and promotions are not necessarily being supplanted by new ones as much as they are being complemented by new methods such as social media. Two office technology dealerships that have embraced social media early on are RJ Young in Nashville, TN and Advance—The Document Specialists in Cockeysville, MD. Those dealership’s experiences with social media offer a blueprint for other dealers trying to figure out how to take advantage of this ever-evolving form of communications.
RJ Young dipped their feet into the social media pool back in 2008 when they started posting videos and television commercials on YouTube. One of their more popular videos on YouTube focuses on how to load toner.
Today, their social media efforts also encompass Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, and LinkedIn as well as a blog. Each has its own purpose.
“Our number one focus is total customer experience and provides an opportunity for customers to engage with our brand and our company and for us to do that with them,” says Lindy Rickert, director of marketing for RJ Young. “
Facebook is used primarily for posting company events, awards, philanthropic endeavors and anything related to RJ Young’s culture. “They like to see pictures of what we’re doing in the community, events we attend and co-sponsor and that people are at,” notes Rickert. “People get excited because they can share that with their friends.”
Facebook paints a unique picture of the dealership, showing people that RJ Young employees are real working people, trying to do their best and take care of customers every day. “It gives you an authenticity,” maintains Rickert. “It’s not about shoving traditional advertising at them; it’s about engaging with them and letting them know who we are and what we’re about.”
Twitter is used as a news outlet, allowing RJ Young to post updates, announcements, and industry tips. “This is a great opportunity for customers to do the same for us,” reports Rickert.
For example, when a customer tweeted about an equipment issue on Twitter, RJ Young was able to step in and help that customer even though it was on the weekend just because they’d seen the customer’s Tweet.
Twitter is also used to show customers that RJ Young cares about them. During Hurricane Isaac, RJ Young, which has 18 locations across the Southeast and on the coast, used Twitter to let customers know they were thinking about them, encouraging any customers who experienced water damage to call them immediately so RJ Young could help them get their businesses back up and running again.
Rickert has spent an enormous amount of time researching social media and compares notes with her peers at other dealerships and outside the industry. She also monitors what the competition is doing in the social media realm. However, there’s nothing like learning by doing.
“There’s a lot of trial and error, seeing what works and what doesn’t,” she says. “We’ve learned a lot over the years and if I can offer a suggestion for those just getting into it, track what you’re doing. Just like anything in marketing, you can’t measure it if you don’t know the numbers.”
She uses HootSuite www.hootsuite.com for tracking that information.
“Regardless if you post once a week, once a day or once a month, be consistent and be relevant,” she adds. “Pick an area you’re going to focus on and be consistent as far as timing and topic.”
She also recommends asking a lot of questions since social media fosters two-way communications more fully engaging the customer. It’s also important to keep employees in the loop.
“Get employees engaged, and be sure to promote social media in traditional media,” emphasizes Rickert.
While RJ Young still uses traditional media for reaching their customers, she’s equally cognizant of how social media fits into their traditional media plans. “When I’m planning for the future it’s not just about traditional media, it’s how is this going to work on social media and how are people going to respond to this?” says Rickert.
Rickert dismisses the myth that e-mail is dying and e-mail and e-newsletters are equally important to RJ Young’s social media efforts. “Our customers are still very much engaged in e-mail and e-newsletters. With the target customer, they’re still reading e-mails and engaging in e-newsletters and it’s a good way to cross promote your social media [actitivies]. And you can track that.”
She cites as evidence a recent RJ Young e-newsletter that had 78 shares on social media. “They’re sharing articles and information from our newsletters,” beams Rickert.
What’s next for RJ Young in the social media realm?
“We’re going to build on the success we’ve had,” responds Rickert. “I’m excited about having more customized plans for social media in specific media outlets like YouTube and long-format videos, and videos for YouTube that we wouldn’t necessarily put on broadcast. That’s exciting because it’s shifting the way we look at media and how we communicate with the public.”
For Advance – The Document Specialists, social media has been a fun and exciting journey.
“Social media is still in its infancy and we do a lot of testing and use it for different things,” notes Lindsay Kelley, marketing manager. “Social media is not right for everybody and we wanted to see if it would put us in a good place in the market, positioning us the way we want to be positioned.”
Like RJ Young, Advance uses Facebook as a way to highlight and showcase their culture. (Incidentally, Kelley and Rickert of RJ Young frequently compare notes about social media.)
“We have a unique and fun culture and want to make sure our customers who check out our Facebook page get a taste of some of the things we do and who we are,” says Kelley.
Twitter is used to promote our Advance’s blogs as well as industry articles that might be of interest to their customers. “We want them to use us as a resource and view us as the industry experts that we are,” states Kelly. “It’s also great for conversation and promoting some of the associations we’re affiliated with like AIIM, which is perfect for us since we’re experts in document management.”
You never know what the result of a Tweet will be. Sometimes it’s a surprise like the time someone with a local TV show saw an Advance Tweet and then asked President Jeff Elkin to come on the show and talk about document management.
What’s been the most effective form of social media to date for Advance?
“LinkedIn is a fantastic business platform and a great way to drive traffic to your Website and educate your target audience about what your knowledge base is,” responds Kelly.
Advance is encouraging their sales reps to be more comfortable with finding and posting articles that are relevant to their industry. “They’ll send that out on LinkedIn and share with their network,” reports Kelley.
Another benefit of social media is hooking up with various groups. “The groups are a great way to answer questions, position yourself as an industry expert, and become part of that community,” emphasizes Kelly. “It’s all about building community.”
Advance has been successful using social media to enhance their position in the healthcare space and have a business development person in house who shares information with healthcare-related groups and organizations. This is a great way for Advance to promote their electronic healthcare record-related solutions.
Advance hasn’t done anything special to encourage customers to participate even though they include social media icons in their e-mail signatures as well as links in their newsletter and on various social media sites. “LinkedIn is our number one referrer to the Website right now,” says Kelley.
While Kelley has top-down support for her social media efforts, the sales team was a little slow to convince. They couldn’t see how it was going to bring them dollars.
“Now that they’ve been doing it for a year they’re really seeing it,” says Kelley. “They’re targeting niche areas like construction, architectural groups and they’re seeing the benefits of that. It’s also a great way to find out who you know and where you know them. They’ll go in and do a search on that particular person at a company even though they might not have a [direct] connection to that person. They can see what the relation and connection is and hopefully find somebody willing to make that introduction and then it’s much warmer when they make that phone call.”
Asked what she knows now about social media that she wishes she knew when Advance first started with it, Kelley says, “I wish I would have done a better of structuring my day so I can consistently be on at a good time of day.”
The best time she’s found is between 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Next up for Advance is making sure all of their employees understand the ramifications of being on social media, especially when it comes to their personal social media activities.
“If they’re on Facebook and have Advance as their place of employment, although they might not be speaking for Advance, they’re a member of our family and we want to make sure they understand if you have a bad day, to take a step back and think before you Tweet or post about it,” says Kelly. “They’re ambassadors for the company and the power they have because of their network and the network that connects everyone here to customers and prospects, you never know where this could take you and who may see a Tweet or post that converts them into a customer.”
