5 Small Businesses Excelling on Social
When it comes to social media, it often seems that large businesses get all the buzz, with high-profile marketing campaigns and monumental budgets. However, SMBs are making waves of their own. Here’s a look at five SMBS we found to be excelling on social media.
1. Epicurean Connection
The Epicurean Connection, a VerticalResponse customer and small wine and cheese shop in Sonoma, California, is owned by Sheana Davis. The store sells specialty and gourmet products, including local wines, craft beers, and artisan and farmstead cheeses. Epicurean Connection events often include cheese-making classes, live music, and more.
“She [Davis] hosts these gatherings at her shop during the week and brings all these people in,” says Derek Overbey, our senior social media manager. “She’s really active on social to not only gain new clients and get people to come into her shop, but she also stays in touch with those who come in on a more regular basis.”
Davis uses her own personal Twitter account to draw people to her Facebook page. She has amassed 2,436 Facebook likes and more than 1,600 Twitter followers. Also, the shop is reviewed on Yelp and TripAdvisor and listed on Foursquare.
2. Tacolicious
California-based Tacolicious started out as a little taco stand at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer’s market on Thursdays. Eventually, they got so busy with the stand, they opened up a physical location as well, which has since expanded to four Bay Area restaurants. They also continue to run the original taco stand. Tacolicious has amassed close to 5,000 Twitter followers, tweeting different tacos of the week, and a robust Facebook presence with just under 6,000 likes. The popular eatery is also reviewed on Yelp and TripAdvisor, as well as Foursquare.
3. Blonde Chicken
Tara Swiger is multi-talented. She dyes and spins her own yarn, which she sells to stores and individuals, and also teaches marketing skills for creative business owners. Swiger’s social media presence is vast. In addition to using Twitter, where she’s just shy of 4,500 followers, Swiger uses her YouTube channel to share tutorials on knitting, spinning and dyeing yarn along with inspirational videos on creative businesses.
Yarn is incredibly visual, and Swiger takes advantage of that by posting photographs on Pinterest (where she has 883 connections) and Flickr. Her friends and fans can share photos in her Flickr page as well. Swiger also has a presence on Ravelry, a free site for knitters. She has 364 highly targeted friends on the site and a total of 92 in a group called Blonde Chicken-ettes.
4. Death’s Door Spirits
Located in Middleton, Wisconsin, Death’s Door Spirits works with local farmers to create gin, vodka and white whiskey. Its award-winning gin, distilled in small batches in copper pot stills, is flavored with just three ingredients: wild juniper berries, coriander and fennel. Death’s Door Spirits actually distills its own base as well, from local organic malted barley and organic wheat from Washington Island. Its website features seasonal recipes created by mixologist John Kinder, a list of upcoming events, and a web cam of Washington Island. (Death’s Door Spirits is named after the navigational passage of water between Washington Island and the Door County peninsula in Lake Michigan.)
To supplement its site, Death’s Door Spirits has an active Twitter presence with more than 5,000 followers, close to 6,000 likes on Facebook, and just over 400 followers on Instagram. Death’s Door Spirits keeps its social media presence light, with images, lists of ingredients, links to reviews, and more. Death’s Door Spirits is also reviewed on TripAdvisor and Yelp, and listed on Foursquare.
5. Northern Spark
Northern Spark may be a celebration that only takes place one night each summer, but you wouldn’t know it from its social media presence. Presented by nonprofit arts organization Northern Light, Northern Spark gathers tens of thousands of people in Minneapolis for an all-night art festival. A few smaller projects take place throughout the year. Northern Spark has an extensive social media footprint year-round, just shy of 7,000 Facebook likes and close to 4,000 Twitter followers. Its targeted audience comes in handy when there are crowdfunding goals to be met: Northern Spark recently raised more than $20,000 on Kickstarter from some 413 backers.
Know of any other small businesses who are excelling on social? Share their pages or handles in the comments below.
Craving more marketing tips and advice? Get the VR Buzz delivered daily to your inbox.
© 2014 – 2018, Contributing Author. All rights reserved.
Features
Pricing
Partner
Blog
Support
More
Terms of Services
Privacy Policy