Small companies need to build on the basics. First, provide relevant content that makes people feel like a conversation with your brand will always be interesting. Second, let them know you’re interested in what they really think

Gone are the days of writing a letter of complaint to a local business. Now feedback is as likely to appear on a customer’s Twitter feed as they leave a store where they’ve been poorly served or on their Facebook page after they’ve eaten a lousy meal. Social media is how people communicate these days, and conventional wisdom dictates that in order to be competitive, businesses of all types and sizes should be embracing it.

There’s no doubt that social media can be a great way to engage customers, build your brand, and grow your business, but it must be used correctly. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is rushing ahead without a strategy. “Social media is an amplification of your brand,” says Derek Riedle, the CEO of Revolution Strategy, an integrated marketing and communications agency with offices in Saint John and Fredericton. “It offers another significant and intimate way to reach out to your customers and develop fans.”

There are certainly lots of reasons to do so. In early July, more than 15 million Canadians were using Facebook, 1,147,860 of them in Atlantic Canada. That scope puts a lot of pressure on businesses to get involved with social media, but Riedle advises against jumping in too quickly. “A strategy is key,” he says. “Social media is an excellent way to engage and communicate with customers, but it’s a very public two-way form of communication. You have to provide regular content and be prepared to engage in dialogue on a regular and timely basis.”

Being prepared means devising a strategy and putting the resources in place to handle the platform before you get started, whether you do it yourself or hire someone to create content and manage the channels. “You must have content in the hopper or at least an idea of where you’re going to get it,” says Riedle. “And you must have guidelines on how you plan to engage in conversations, both positive and negative. You have to understand that your brand is being managed, and you have to empower someone to do that for you if you’re not going to do it yourself.”

Take Relish Gourmet Burgers, a new burger franchise with locations in Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Miramichi, and Oromocto. It’s an example of a business navigating social media well. Relish CEO (chief “experience” officer) Rivers Corbett uses social media to engage with customers before they come in, while they’re there, and after they leave. It takes two people about one and a half hours a day to manage that content. “We use Facebook, Twitter, email, and our website, and we’re in the process of getting on YouTube and Foursquare,” he says. “We use all of those tools to continuously engage with our customers.”

Corbett says that Relish uses Twitter to engage in real time by quickly responding to questions and issues about the company. The Relish Facebook fan page broadcasts the bigger message of what’s going on, including promos and feature burgers. The email campaign includes a mail-out with the bi-weekly winner of a $25 gift card for those who leave their business cards when they visit Relish, as well as the company’s story and information about its burgers and features. The plan with YouTube is to get testimonials from clients visiting the restaurants to put on the company website, then email them to people and encourage them to share them with their friends. “It’s all about getting the message out about what the brand looks like,” says Corbett.

The website is used primarily as the company’s brochure, although it does include information about buying and an online application for a franchise along with links to Relish’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. So strongly does Corbett believe in the power of social media that he has made it mandatory for new franchisees to make social media part of their marketing strategy. “Businesses often say they don’t have time to manage social media,” he says, “but it really does give you a competitive edge.” 

Opera Bistro is another success story. The Uptown Saint John restaurant started its social media campaign the day it opened in July of 2005 by launching a website to promote the business. “We’ve had the same website since we first opened, and we still get lots of compliments about it,” says general manager Margret Begner. “People like the photography, design, and that the content is updated regularly.”

In 2009 Opera Bistro embraced Twitter and became one of the first restaurants in New Brunswick to start Tweeting its daily special. “Every day at 10:45 a.m. we let folks know what we’re serving for lunch,” says Begner. “We’ve found it to be a simple but effective tool, and our regular lunch crowd enjoys knowing what they’re going to order before they arrive.” Opera Bistro also ties heavily into the local social media community in the city centre, especially the Uptown Saint John #livelifeuptown Twitter hashtag. 

Most recently, the restaurant has taken its social media strategy a step further with a YouTube and Facebook campaign called the Opera Bistro Kitchen Challenge. The restaurant encourages fans to offer ingredient suggestions, then they film a short video of one of their chefs at work preparing their own recipe with the chosen ingredient. “We strive to share our passion for food with our customers,” says Begner. “We like to arm our followers with information they find useful, and we pride ourselves on staying connected with our customers.”

On average, the restaurant spends less than an hour each day on social media. “We’ve got potatoes to peel, customers to serve, and dishes to wash,” says Begner, laughing. To her, it’s just as important a step in the business-growth process as staying ahead of food trends: “Social media is the best way to reach your customers, period.”