Successful Use of Social Media by Small Businesses – Case Studies
April 12, 2010 by admin
Filed under Social Media
One question that many businesses that are starting to venture into Social Media ask is are there others that are using Social Media effectively and are they seeing a return on the investment?
The short answer is yes
Here are some examples of companies that have been successful in implementing various forms of Social Media into their marketing mix with success.
Effective Twitter Use
Curtis Kimball is an owner of a crème brulee cart in San Francisco that has had great success growing his customer base with Twitter. He currently has over 5,400 followers and every day he uses Twitter to post where he will be that day. This allows him to be mobile and for all of his customers to find him.
Umi, a San Francisco sushi restaurant sometimes will get 5 new customers a night after learning about the restaurant on twitter.
Effective Complete Social Media Usage
One local Steak House, Caminito Argentinian Steakhouse, has done a very good job of incorporating several Social Media components into their marketing strategy to grow their business.
They have incorporated the following with great success:
- A Blog, Prime Cuts , which focuses on providing cooking and kitchen tips and tricks along with some recipes
- YouTube with Prime Cuts TV which expands the Prime Cuts Blog
- A Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/caminitosteakhouse
Before implementing Social Media strategies the restaurant was averaging a 5 – 10% decrease in sales each month. Now they are seeing on average a 20% increase in sales each month over the previous year.
ProBest Pest Management is another example of a small business that is embracing Social Media and using it in their marketing mix.
ProBest Pest Management maintains a blog that helps educate the public on bugs. This blog can be seen here: http://probestblog.wordpress.com/
They have also just embraced Facebook and have a Fan page set up so that you can connect with them and learn more. ProBest Pest Management Fan Page
ProBest Pest Management can also be found on Twitter @ProBestPest
The above businesses are just a few examples of businesses that are harnessing Social Media in their marketing and increasing profits and decreasing costs by doing so.
We will profile several other businesses over the next couple of months.
