As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. For a Virginia-based cheesemonger, though the equivalent might be when the FDA takes away your cheese, create a Facebook contest.
Back in March, the Food and Drug Administration began a total cheese lockdown with regard to mimolette, a French gouda rival. The FDA reasoned that mimolette might trigger allergies in some whose systems can abide the tiny cheese mites needed to aerate mimolette.
Jill Erber, the owner of Cheesetique, a business Mashable profiled earlier this month decided to capitalize on the controversy by offering a 1/4 lb. of her company's dwindling stock of mimolette to fans who posted a pic of themselves "frowning pathetically" on Cheesetique's Facebook Page. The result was overwhelming. Some 80 people posted photos and the stunt caught the attention of national media including Fox News and The Washington Post, which Erber says plans to run an article this week on the topic.
That was the highlight of a productive three weeks or so for Erber, whom we had paired up with a member of Mashable's Small Business Panel, consultant David Wittlinger, the web designer and social media strategist behind Colomark Media. As previously mentioned, Wittlinger proved himself to be a consultant extraordinaire by preparing an exhaustive plan of action for Erber. Erber mostly followed it and was very happy with the results.
The gist: Cheesetique added 359 fans to its main Page over the period, and 64 to its smallerCheesetiqueShirlingtonPage. Wittlinger prepared charts showing the growth for both Facebook Pages:
It's impossible to make a case that the activity improved business, but Erber says sales in Shirlington were up 20% for the month. "I can’t tie directly to Facebook," she says. "But I can say anedotally that a ton of people came in asking about [mimolette]." Sales in the main location, however, were flat. "We may have reached a saturation point there," Erber says.
You may conclude that Erber was just lucky to have stumbled on a rare international cause célèbre this time around, but she chooses to believe that it was the Facebook activity that triggered the media coverage. In other words, when you sow your Facebook Page, you may reap unexpected benefits.
In either case, Erber is satisfied that the half hour to two-and-a-half-hours she spent daily cultivating the Page was time well spent. "I just literally sit all day long and do Facebook stuff," she says. "As a result it completely changed my way of thinking about how to use social media."
At Wittlinger's suggestion, Erber didn't create more status updates, she just did them better. Part of that was a change of mission. Instead of using social media for promos and offers, Erber began positioning herself as a cheese expert. Another strategy was to use the company's blogThe Cheeselog as her primary mode of communication. Instead of trying to come up with pithy status updates, Erber spent a longer time writing blog entries and then condensing her thoughts for Facebook.
"The blog is more expository," she said. "Setting aside that time to write more lengthy blog posts resulted in better posts overall."
Erber also dabbled in Facebook advertising, spending $87 over the period to get the word out on Facebook. She tried about five different types of ads over that time, and the performances varied greatly. A video post explaining what stinky cheese is (see below) got hundreds of views, but resulted in few likes because there was no explicit call to action. An offer for 25% off cheese platters through July 4 that was posted a day before this writing has so far gotten zero clicks. Nevertheless, Erber is sold on Facebook advertising. "If I were to do this again I would devote more time and energy to the ads," she said.
By all appearances, Erber will do it again. For her, even three weeks provided ample time to illustrate the benefits of a smart social media strategy. However, Erber says that she couldn't have done it by herself, which is why she recommends that small businesses like hers hire a consultant. "The thing was having someone help me do it," she said. "It really was having someone sit with me and teach me a bit. For someone not familiar with [social media], it can all be too overwhelming."
Image via Getty, Emmanuel Dunand
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