Small Business Marketing – Social Media Success Story

Sometimes people question the validity of using social media to promote a business, so I’d like to share with you a quick case study of just how social media was used by a consumer and then how an unsuspecting business owner put more cash into his pocket because of social media.

Now some people think that as far social media goes you’re supposed to put up a fan page or you should send out some tweets. They feel it’s all about promoting their business and the customers will come running. But you have to remember why they call it social media. It’s called social media because people get on there and they talk about the experiences they have had with a business or a service provider.

In this case study I’m going to tell you exactly how our family used social media to get a problem taken care of. But first, one of the problems of doing business with people locally is that you don’t always know who to trust. For example a lot of times people don’t like buying a vehicle because they don’t trust car salesman. People also don’t care to get their automobiles repaired or their appliances repaired, again because they don’t know if or when they’re going to be ripped off.

It’s a common concern with consumers.

So what usually happens is when you see your friends you’ll ask them who they have used in the past. The problem is you’re not necessarily sure when you will get to see somebody to ask them and some repairs can’t be put off until you see your friends. That’s exactly what was happening with us. Something happened to our washing machine and we needed to get it fixed.

Here’s what happened. It started making this God awful noise and I am not very mechanically inclined, nor do I really want to Work From Home on a washing machine.

So my wife first got on Facebook and put a post on her wall about looking for a reputable appliance repair person in our area. I actually did not even know that she had done this and I put a post on twitter and Facebook also.

We both received replies to our request for reputable appliance repair people in the area and within a couple of hours we had somebody to contact and get our washing machine fixed. My wife called the repair man, who was referred to us through using social media, and we set an appointment for the next day for him to come on out and take a look at the washing machine.

He showed up as scheduled, took a look at our washing machine and fixed it within about 30 minutes. He did a great job and we were happy with what he did.

You can see this as a simple example of how we used social media to find somebody to solve a problem we were experiencing. But you also need to keep in mind that social media can be used to voice complaints about a business if you don’t like the job they did.

So if you’re a business owner you need to know and understand that your customers are talking about you. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. But now it’s happening more and more often on the social media platforms.

Here is a big tip for you if you’re an appliance repair person in the Daytona Beach area. I did a search on twitter and Facebook to try to find some local appliance repair people and either there are none or they made it really hard for potential consumers to find them. If you are an appliance repair person in the Daytona Beach area or in any area you may want to start looking at using social media.

And for everyone out there that’s looking to hire a local business person to solve a problem, be sure to check out the social media platforms. As I stated earlier it’s a good place to get the suggestions of people others have used and it’s also a good place to see if there are any reviews that other people have posted.