Social Media Case Study – Engaging Mom Bloggers
I recently participated in a social media campaign as a blogger and learned a lot from it. It took place in Utah but it has principles that could apply to your business. My friend Jyl did a great job working with the bloggers on this campaign and consulting with the client on what goes into a successful event.
Who: Goldsmith Jewelers in Provo, Utah
Goal: increase foot traffic to store (1 location)
How:
- Invite local bloggers to a special event commpelling enough to draw them in. You must provide a lot of value because they aren’t paid, they’re busy and they have lots of offers from brands. Make it worth their time (read: you’re going to need to spend some cash – but do it right and it will be more than worth it).
- Communicate with us regularly before and after the event.
Online Presence (Before): they don’t have a great web site, no blog, and before now had never done social media and had no presence on social networks.
Results (After): Facebook profile, many blog posts on popular blogs (example, example), Flickr feed, lots of foot traffic to the store. Google “Goldsmith Jewelers, Utah” and one of the blog posts is already #2 and this just happened last week. Since I’m a little competitive I’m hoping this post will show up on the first page 
As I love to suggest for events like this, use PitchEngine for a social media press release (could be updated with video and photos though).
Most helpful: Giving bloggers images, sample Twitter posts with a link and Facebook Wall suggestions. Being open about expectations after the evening.
Jyl worked with a PR firm and identified key women who blog or are active on social media (mom blogs). It’s vital that you work with someone who “gets” the culture and can interface with bloggers and build credibility. You must be compelling enough that they will come and participate. You must frame it well. There’s also a LOT of planning/managing involved.
Bloggers were invited to a red carpet event. We literally walked on red carpet, had our pictures taken and ate great food. We each got gift bags including product information (images, etc), product catalog, and a strand of pearls. They cleaned our wedding rings (mine has not been this sparlkly since I got it). The best part though was to be among other bloggers and get to know some of the local big shots.
The jewelry store was debuting a new line they are carrying called Pandora. We each got a bracelet and a charm and could buy more at a discount. I got one called “happy little bird” in honor of Twitter.
In addition, there were prize drawings and everyone got coupons for a free strand of pearls to give away on their blogs. Others got gift certificates to use as a giveaway.
This was much different than my experience with tech bloggers. We couldn’t wait to see what each other writes and comment on each other’s blogs. We’re very interactive online. We talk a lot in real life but it’s a different tone. It’s more like what we’re doing professionally and new technology we’re using. Then catching up on local goings on with others in the group.
With the mom blog crowd it was more like talking to a group of girlfriends. We talk about everything. We are vocal about what works and what doesn’t. However, the posts are written for the readers and not for each other.
My advice
Goldsmith should have their best rep who really knows the new line preview it in detail for us. Create profiles for everyone (in writing). Take our wrist size and preferences. Show us everything. Helps us assemble a bracelet that we’d like, writing down all of the beads we would need. Then give us a copy and keep one on file (for gifts in the future – we could send our husbands in to pick up if we wanted to). THEN take us to pick out our bracelet and bead.
Don’t market to us overtly but let us know about the discount and make it quick to purchase anything we choose while we were there. This is a balance but I felt they could’ve been more open to some marketing.
I also would’ve put a stipulation on the strand of pearls – either put a minimum purchase on it ($25) or ask people to preview the line and give feedback – a quick 5 mins.)
I’m not a mom blogger and generally speaking I don’t have local reach on my blog. I do have a more local following on Facebook and I write a neighborhood blog (which I keep thinking of expanding to Utah in general).
Next: I hope Goldsmith will invest in a new web site or blog with a gift bag and links to individual products. Great example of PR 2.0!
4 Responses to “Social Media Case Study – Engaging Mom Bloggers”
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May 5th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Great post Janet. For Tech bloggers, the way to bring them to this type of product is through Twitter. I may not write about this stuff on my blog, but my Twitter and FriendFeed and Facebook streams are much more personal. While I may turn down a free offer from someone offering me free tech due to the bias it would give me (although I would be happy to try out the product and give it back, depending on the product), a non-tech offer I may happily Tweet about or share with my Facebook friends if I think it’s cool. This really goes for anyone with a high Twitter or Facebook or FriendFeed audience (so long as their number is not just a number and they often get retweets and engage their audience).
The great thing about this campaign is that Jyl shared a coupon from the experience, and I Tweeted that out to all 15,000 of my followers. In addition, with you blogging about it, my comment here will be imported into FriendFeed (using a service called BackType) and go out to my few thousand followers there as well. Blogging is now only a small part of the equation – there are so many new ways to spread information! There are a lot more people to be pitching to now than there used to be thanks to social media.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
that is some seriously great execution. i need to meet jyl and ask her to come speak at a PRSA event on this.
sidenote: i love goldsmith – that’s where i got my ring, and Will (the owner) remembers me by name no matter how long it’s been since the last time i was in their store. some of his children work there too…nicest family ever.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for your candid feedback, Janet. I’m glad you could be part of our red carpet event! We had a great mix of facebookers, bloggers and tweeters there and the campaign has been wildly successful so far. Thanks for being a part of it!
Also, Goldsmith Co. is currently redoing their website with plans for a blog. We’ll be sure to let you know when it is live.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
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