Just another WordPress site
Kim Wood has a strong social media presence before opening her metta scents store in Prahan, Melbourne. She saw a need, fulfilled it and then leveraged her community to raise awareness.
In this interview, we chat about how her personal and professional usage of social media differs. We also talk about how you don’t have to follow all the rules.
I’m a huge fan of the Australian blogosphere. We have so many talented bloggers but it can be hard to filter what’s going on and discover information relevant to our community. There are lots of niche blogging sites but not many that cater to the wider blogging community.
That’s why I’m a huge fan of what Trevor Young is doing with BlogHUB. I think it has a lot of potential. In this interview, we talk about how BlogHUB differs from other Australian blogging sites and how he plans to develop the brand.
Yes, kicking off with a line like that was a tad presumptuous of me! While it’s kind of an aspirational tagline, it does state my intention for the site and gives me something to strive for.’
My plan is simply to continue to add value to the blogging community in the form of news, events and profiles – they’re the key areas I want to explore in greater depth – although I’d like to start adding some more how-to material every now and then, but only if there is a demand for it. The site is about celebrating and promoting blogging in Australia, so if I stick to that mission and became a source for information that is relevant to the blogging community, then hopefully BlogHUB will become a regular fixture in the minds of passionate and active local bloggers plus related industries such as media, marketing and PR.
Firstly, by promoting (and reporting) on events such as Nuffnang Blogopolis, Digital Parents Unplugged and Darren Rowse’s Problogger Training Day, I’m trying to extend the conversation beyond the actual events themselves, as well as provide some colour and context from the get-togethers for those bloggers who were unable to attend.
I’m also trying to appeal to people who aren’t bloggers but may read blogs or be interested in topics covered by bloggers, as well as PR and marketing people who are interested in reaching out to active bloggers for whatever reason.
And finally, if we can help in a small way to promote the blogging cause in Australia which results in some PR and media opportunities for individual bloggers, then that’s a bonus.
First and foremost, BlogHUB is about promoting the blogging cause in Australia. The Australian Blog Directory is housed within the site and is meant to be a value added resource; it’s designed just as much for non-bloggers as it is for the bloggers themselves.
In a way, the directory is my way of chronicling the blogging scene in Australia. That said, it’s still got a long way to go and it’s something I chip away at a bit at a time, otherwise it could be all-consuming (I try and set aside time once or twice a week to update it as people submit their blogs to me). Once it gets too big, I’ll probably spin it off as its own entity.
But as it stands, it differs from a couple of the other directories (which I’m happy to promote, by the way, because the more out there in terms of Aussie blog listings, the better for the blogging community) mainly because it’s a supplementary part of a website that promotes bloggers, covers news and events, and hopefully helps the public to gain a better understanding of the people who pour their heart and soul into their blogging properties.
There’s certainly a lot of discussion on both sides of the fence at the moment – i.e. bloggers keen to put PRs and brands straight as to how best deal with them in a respectful manner, while conversely the PR industry is keen to know more about the blogging fraternity and what’s the best way to approach them. Anecdotally, there are many bloggers out there who are interested in doing more with brands and are attempting to better understand the best way to go about that.
I think working in PR plus being heavy into blogging puts me in a pretty unique position because I can have empathy for both parties. Hopefully BlogHUB is helping – and continues to help – shed light on the PR/blogger debate.
We’ve only been live for three months so it’s still early days, I’m just trying to get a handle on the type of content people want. That said, early indications have been positive in terms of traffic and comments. I didn’t have much of an end-goal when I started BlogHUB other than to try and add some value to the local blogging community, but looking ahead I can see scope with such things as events, seminars, workshops and coaching plus potentially sales of products relevant to both new and established bloggers.Oh, and I’d love a BlogHUB-branded coffee mug!
[box type="note" size="large"]
I come across a lot of fun businesses using social media but I rarely come across a case study like this. It is a great story about how a regular business, that isn’t part of the social media scene, is building community and increase sales via social media.
I’m talking about All Star Comics. They are new store but are already enjoying a lot of success. I know, because it’s crowded every time I visit.
I chose to feature these guys because I’m a fan of the store. Their Facebook presence has caused me, and my partner, to spend over $1000 with them in the past 6 months – despite the temptation of cheaper prices via overseas stores. I recommend that you read this interview and watch how they engage with their customers.
Unlike other interviews, I’ll be adding commentary about how I’ve engaged with the brand because it highlights how effective it is.
[/box]
The holy trinity of social media have been very good to us. Facebook has been the clear favourite form to use to communicate with our client base, both for us and our costumers. Blogspot is only really used for our annoucements and the weekly shipping list. Twitter is more used for updates for the weekly shipment and maybe drawning attention to links on our FB page with the occasional random tweet from us to ad a little personality to the store.
The FB page has made it very easy to help build a strong online community for us, which more than anything else, our costumers seem to enjoy, which in turn makes them happy, which makes us happy!
As for taking orders over FB and twitter, it does cause more hassle but hassle that results in sales. If we had to do all the extra work that fb and twitter creates for us without the pay off we might have to reconsider how we used it. As it is, 95% of the time orders placed on FB or Twitter are from repeat customers and they always always pick these items up.
Jade: Most of the comics I purchase have already been requested via Facebook. This means I can just visit the store and my order is ready. It means that I won’t forget titles that have interested me and I can wait a couple of weeks between visiting. It makes shopping a whole lot easier – hence why I’d rather spend money with them despite some competitors having lower prices.
Our belief is that you strong FB following has resulted into more visits into the store. Some people just “like” the page in passing but most of our “fans” seem to be regulars customers in one form or another. FB was extremely helpful we believe making this year’s Free Comic Book Day a massive success for us. We create a event page for the day and made it open, so customers we knew could invite whoever they wanted. It was a insanely busy day for us and we think FB had a lot to do with this.
Jade: I first discovered the store via Facebook, so it has definitely led to us visiting the store more. I plan ahead for the special events, such as book launches, and it often leads to purchases in genres that I hadn’t considered.
This week, they posted that the comic shipment would be delayed for 24 hours. We were able to delay our trip until next week and didn’t waste a trip. We go up to Melbourne hunting for Comics a lot more since All Star came on the scene.
How we go about deciding what work/links we share on our page is pretty simple really. For the most part it helps if it is related to some one we know from the store. One of the points that Troy and I decided on very early on in the piece was that we should attempt to support those who support us when given the chance. In this industry we are surrounded by some very, very talented people and these people sometimes create some very interesting things. It doesn’t matter to us if it isn’t exactly comic related, just that we think it is impressive. As it turns out, other costumers also dig interesting/impressive things too. So if we can direct some attention towards these talented folk we know, it gives us the chance to feel like we are giving back a little to the people that support us. Retail is generally about take, take, take but by posting a few simple links here and there, people feel like the shop is a bit more like a community experience rather than just your standard retail experience.
Jade: I have found so many cool things that they’ve recommended from their community. Podcasts, live gigs, comic launches and events. It means I associate a lot of positive things with the store and I feel kinda special. I work in the social media industry – especially with community management – so it’s hard to find a fan page that genuinely engages me. In a roundabout way, it leads to increased sales for them. If I hear about a comic on a podcast they recommended, then I’ll go to the store and buy it.
It’s kinda hard to determine how many hours we put into the social media stuff each week. We are pretty much always at the computer during the day, to hopefully answer or reply to any queries then and there. Then we also are on there after hours so I guess you could put it at least 40 to 50 hours a week. Clearly not constantly but we are always refreshing our pages to make sure we haven’t missed any comments.
Jade: I’ve noticed that they answer our questions pretty quickly, even outside of retail hours. It has allowed my partner to go to work, happy that a hard-to-get comic has been put aside. I know from experience that the actual engagement doesn’t have to be time consuming. It’s mostly monitoring the conversation to know when you need to dive in.
Other businesses wanting to use social media would really depend on the type of business it is in the first place. Our industry has a built in community already there that was just waiting for a place to put itself, we were very lucky in that sense that we didn’t have to try very hard to build our online presense up. We always thought before opening that using social media was going to be one of our store’s point of difference, it was something we could see that the marketplace for us lacked and we filled it. Other businesses might have to approach it differently because their client base might not be looking for the same experience. At the very least we would recommend looking at the marketplace of your business’ chosen field and see what your competiton isn’t doing. Fill that gap and people will come. Simple really. 
