Facebook is a party. And you can’t show up at that party with your trench coat full of jewelry.
Roy Williams confirmed my feeling about Facebook in a recent memo. “FaceBook, for business, is a mirage. Can it successfully gather a crowd to hear a band perform at a bar? Absolutely. Social media, social event. Can it successfully be used by a physically-existing retail or service business as a substitute for mass media? No. It cannot”
I feel it crucial to bring this up because there are jewelers out there with a hundred-ish “friends” or “likes” and they feel confident that this is the new marketing plan for business growth. The reality is that it’s more important to have a local marketing presence and brand recognition. This actually supports Facebook awareness and not the other way around. You need to give people a REASON to include you in their social realm. Otherwise you’re just that annoying jeweler out there posting pictures of your latest jewelry with the caption, “What do you think of this?”
Tell your story. Post videos about unique things in YOUR business. Show people that you are real and have a personality. Show them all the neat things about your store just like if you were giving a tour to a friend. This will create interest and be more likely to be reposted or go viral.
Here’s a neat example of something of a video my buddy Doug Meadows did at David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta GA featuring his designer Abby. Anyone can do this.